What this book covers

Chapter 1, Designing Complex Hierarchies, explores how to design complex hierarchies. As the book is aimed at more advanced users, it is likely they will be exposed to larger hierarchies. You will learn how to get the best from your design and create a high-quality environment. We will discuss why we make design decisions and discuss the alternatives.

Chapter 2, Implementing Security with Certificates, explains the concepts behind adding security to your environment using certificates to secure communication in your site.

Chapter 3, Working with Inventory, Asset Intelligence, and Software Metering, helps you gain an understanding of how to use both software and hardware inventory to gain valuable information about your environment. You will then discover how to use this knowledge to be able to remove unused software automatically.

Chapter 4, Security with Endpoint Protection, explores how to deploy System Center Endpoint Protection to help protect your clients and manage the policies around the product. You'll also learn how to update endpoint protection with the latest definition updates.

Chapter 5, Advanced Content Management, explains how Configuration Manager manages content and how to use distribution points in certain deployment scenarios. You will also gain an understanding of how to use cloud-based distribution points as well as understand the flow of content within Configuration Manager.

Chapter 6, Application Deployment, explores the concepts involved with setting up and deploying applications in Configuration Manager. This includes setting up dependencies and requirements and exploring the deployment options available.

Chapter 7, Deploying Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2, explores the concepts to deploy Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2. We will walk through two real-world examples with sample scripts, where required, to create a usable Windows deployment for both the client and server.

Chapter 8, Deploying Security Updates, explains how to secure your environment by deploying Microsoft security updates to your clients.

Chapter 9, Advanced Reporting, explains how to create custom reports as well as how to use Report Builder with SQL Server Reporting Services. You will learn how to deploy reports and create functional charts that show live data from their site.

Chapter 10, Preventing Configuration Drift, explains the importance of monitoring your environment for configuration drift and how we can resolve this problem.

Chapter 11, Managing Bring Your Own Device and Mobility, explains how to use your Configuration Manager environment to address management issues that have arisen due to the rise in personal device usage in the office.

Chapter 12, Advanced Troubleshooting, focuses on troubleshooting all the concepts described in each chapter. You will understand where to look for errors, which logfiles are important for different functions, and how to use toolkit items to troubleshoot problems.