Step-by-Step SCCM 2012 R2 CU3 Installation guide

Here’s a step-by-step SCCM 2012 R2 CU3 Installation guide.

Installing SCCM cumulative updates is very important to your infrastructure. It fix lots of issues, which some of them are important.

Improvements/Fixes

Follow this link to see a full list of issues that are fixed.

Windows Powershell changes are here.

The major new functionality is the Management Point Affinity for SCCM clients.

It allows to restrict a client on which management point can be used to communicate with. It can been used to enter a FQDN of the management point that can be used to communicate with. This feature is set by using registry key AllowedMPs under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\CCM. This registry key does not affect the communication with other site systems.

You can read more about this new feature on this blog.

Before you begin

Installing this update is very similar to CU2. I’ll guide you through the upgrade process step-by-step in a standalone primary scenario.

Download the update here

This update can be applied directly to the following Systems/Roles:

The Central Administration Site (CAS)
Primary Site
Secondary Site
SMS Provider
Configuration Manager Console

In this guide, I’ll be updating a Primary Site Server, console and clients.

Update the Primary Site

To start the installation, rdp to your Primary Site Server, and run CM12-R2CU3-KB2994331-X64-ENU

A log file will be created in C:\Windows\Temp\CM12-R2CU3-KB2994331-X64-ENU.log

On the Welcome Screen, click Next

Accept the license agreement, and click Next

Review that everything is green, and click Next

Check the box to update the Console and Click Next

Select Yes, update the site database, click Next

Check all 3 checkbox (Server, Console and client), click Next

Edit the package name and program to your need and click Next

Review the summary page, and click Install

Installation is in progress

When setup is complete, click Next, and Finish

Verification

After setup is completed, launch the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Console, and verify the build number of the console. If the upgrade was successful, the build number will be 5.00.7958.1401.

Open registry editor and check the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SMS\Setup\ key. If the installation has succeeded CULevel key value will be 3.

The client version will be updated to 5.00.7958.1401 (after updating, see section below)

Package distribution

Navigate to Software Library / Packages / Configuration Manager Updates

You’ll see that your update packages are there.

Go ahead and distribute content to your distribution points.

Updating the Clients

We now need to update the clients. This update contains 2 update packages for client installations. One for 32-bit clients and one for 64-bit clients.

Create two collections for the client upgrade. (If not already done in previous CU)

All-x64-based Clients

select SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceID,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceType,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Name,SMS_R_SYSTEM.SMSUniqueIdentifier,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Client from SMS_R_System inner join SMS_G_System_COMPUTER_SYSTEM on SMS_G_System_COMPUTER_SYSTEM.ResourceId = SMS_R_System.ResourceId where SMS_G_System_COMPUTER_SYSTEM.SystemType = "X64-based PC"

All-x86-based Clients

select SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceID,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceType,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Name,SMS_R_SYSTEM.SMSUniqueIdentifier,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Client from SMS_R_System inner join SMS_G_System_COMPUTER_SYSTEM on SMS_G_System_COMPUTER_SYSTEM.ResourceId = SMS_R_System.ResourceId where SMS_G_System_COMPUTER_SYSTEM.SystemType = "X86-based PC"

Adjust the package options to fit your environments and deploy the update to your clients.

Once deployed I like to create a collection that targets clients without the latest CU. I use it to monitor which client haven’t been updated yet.

Here’s the query to achieve this: (You can also refer to our Set of Operational Collection Powershell Script)

select SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceID,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceType,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Name,SMS_R_SYSTEM.SMSUniqueIdentifier,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Client from SMS_R_System where SMS_R_System.ClientVersion != '5.00.7958.1401'"

Happy updating !