Installation of SCCM 2012

   
    System Center Configuration Manager 2012 is currently at a "Beta 2" release, which can be downloaded here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=20961

   Before installing the product, ensure that hardware and software prerequisites have been met. That leads us to a first order of business which is adding the Microsoft Technet Library SCCM 2012 technical documentation section as a favorite in your web browser: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg682129.aspx us/library/gg682129.aspx

   Before installing SCCM 2012, install SQL Server 2008 Enterprise. Someone told me that "Beta 1" could only be installed on SQL Server 2008 SP1 with CU 10 or higher, but "Beta 2" is compatible with SP2 so go ahead and install SQL Server 2008 Enterprise, then service packs 1 and 2. For better performance I would install the SQL instance on the same server where your SCCM installation will reside. The database could be installed on a different partition for backup and recovery purposes of course, that's up to you.

    Now that we have downloaded the product, installed SQL Server, added the Microsoft Technet SCCM 2012 technical documentation page to our browser and verified the hardware and software requirements specified by Microsoft, we are ready to begin our installation of SCCM 2012. When you launch the setup, run the prerequisite checker on the installation page. Also let's go ahead and download the SCCM updates required for install. PLEASE NOTE: When you create a folder as a download location for these updates, make sure that if it has multiple words that they are connected with an underscore, meaning essentially that the destination folder cannot have any spaces in the names. If there are spaces, you will not be able to click "next" on the installation page where the update download location is specified.

 As far as I can tell, the configuration requirements for Server Roles and services such as IIS are the same as in SCCM 2007. SCCM 2012 no longer includes a "native mode" or "mixed mode". Management and Distribution Point communication can be configured for HTTP or HTTPS as you see fit. Internet-based clients require HTTPS. Speaking of HTTPS, the PKI configuration is slightly different in SCCM 2012 in that a "site-signing" or document-signing certificate is no longer required. Only the "Workstation Authentication" and "Web Server" templates are needed to create their respective certificates for use. Instructions for PKI configuration for Server 2008 and SCCM 2012 can be found here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg682023.aspx