It spent almost 5 months in beta on the Microsoft Connect site, but the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Servicing Extension has now been released as a publicly available and fully capable product.
And, product is probably a stronger word than needed in this case, as the Servicing Extension is really just an add-on that sticks an additional node into the Configuration Manager Administrator Console. If you've used Configuration Manager for any length of time you're probably already used to installing add-ons like Right-click Tools. myITforum.com has a stack of valuable add-ons you can download. Here's a few:
- SCCM Right-click tools
- Ron's Web Essentials
- SMS Installer app and scripts
- Configuration Manager Queries, Reports, and MOFs
The Servicing Extension is valuable and provides several key pieces of information directly in the Administration Console. These could be obtained manually with a little work, but the Servicing Extension automates it.
Here's what it does and why you might want it:
- It notifies you of ConfigMgr updates as they become available and provides the ability to filter updates according to the major releases.
- It provides additional details on the sites in your environment for quick review in the console. These include: the last major ConfigMgr version installed and the most recently installed Cumulative Update.
- It enables a view for the installed ConfigMgr client versions which can be used to create queries to identify for Collections.
- It integrates an RSS reader into the ConfigMgr console that aggregates blog posts from the System Center Configuration Manager Team Blog and The Configuration Manager Support Team Blog.
The add-on is available from the Microsoft Download Center here: Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Servicing Extension
You can find the user guide here: Configuration Manager Servicing Extension user guide
