Quick Tip: Get Ready for Configuration Manager 2012!

I’ve been looking at Configuration Manager 2012 (beta 2),It’s a pretty impressive beta, with significant changes to how Configuration Manager looks and feels. Over the next few weeks I’ll be looking at some of the key things we need to know about the Configuration Manager 2012 product.

First thing you need to know about Configuration Manager 2012; there is NO upgrade from Configuration Manager 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012. You must install a new Configuration Manager hierarchy root. Configuration Manager 2012 includes a “Migration” node in the “Administration” section of the console. You use the built-in migration features in Configuration Manager 2012 to migrate objects from Configuration Manager 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012. Since most of us look at new versions as a perfect time for a hardware refresh, this is actually not necessarily a bad thing.

Configuration Manager 2012 will provide the following options for migrating objects from your 2007 infrastructure.

• “Collection Migration” allows you to migrate all objects related to a selected collection.  This migration will include all objects associated with members of the collection. When performing a collection migration, you will have the option of including all advertisements, associated programs and packages for resources in that collection.
• “Object Migration” allows you to migrate individual objects from your Configuration Manager 2007 infrastructure. Following is a list of the types of objects you can migrate from your existing 2007 infrastructure; 

• “Previously Migrated Object “Migration” will migrate those objects in your Configuration Manager 2007 source hierarchy that previously migrated but that have since been updated in that hierarchy. This allows you to keep your Configuration Manager 2012 hierarchy up-to-date with objects that were changed in 2007.

Next week, I will examine some of the steps you can take today in your Configuration Manager 2007 hierarchy to ensure you are prepared for a smooth migration to Configuration Manager 2012.