Microsoft released the 1902 version of Configuration Manager the week after the official MVP Summit and it’s a bumper packed edition. I’m going to cover some of the highlighted features in their own posts which are linked below, this post will summarise what’s in and what’s out.

The official link for the what’s new article can be found here – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sccm/core/plan-design/changes/whats-new-in-version-1902

Worth remembering that this doesn’t necessarily include every little change, just the major features.

First things first, we have a few deprecations. These things rarely come as a surprise as Microsoft tend to announce them around 12 months in advance so we can’t say we weren’t warned.

What’s out?

Deprecation of Unix/Linux agent for Configuration Manager

Microsoft removed support for the existing agent for Unix and Linux, simple as that really. This doesn’t mean your existing clients will stop working, just that there’s no more client updates from 1902. I understand the reasoning behind this as the actual uptake on this client is very low, however I for one will be sad to see that being removed having implemented some clients over the years. Whilst the client functionality is limited, it does provide a basic service for things like inventory and application deployments. The suggestion from Microsoft is to use alternatives such as Azure based management which primarily provides native patching services. I have also worked with this, spoken publicly on it and indeed was on the TAP for this technology and it does provide a good solution – if you’re in Azure. The overwhelming majority of the Unix/Linux machines I’ve worked with were not cloud attached or even exposed to the internet so this won’t be an option. We’re told openly that Microsoft love Linux however. In my mind the reason the uptake on the *nix client was so low is because it was so basic. Add a little functionality to it and I’m sure the uptake would increase.

Deprecation of a standalone Cloud Distribution point

To be clear, this is the standalone cloud DP that has been around since CM 2012 SP1. The ‘newer’ functionality simply rolls this into a cloud management gateway (CMG) which does make a lot of sense. However, if you only want a cloud DP and not a CMG then you’re out of luck. Again, not a bad thing but it will cost you more than a DP on its own. One scenario to watch out for here though, if you have an existing cloud DP and you have an issue with it (which is not unheard of) which causes you to redeploy, then presumably you’re out of luck. I’ll try and get some clarification on that one and report back.