Install and Use SCCM Support Center Tool for Troubleshooting

This article details the steps to install and use the SCCM Support Center Tool. Support Center has powerful capabilities, including troubleshooting and real-time log viewing. The Support Center aims to reduce the challenges and frustration when troubleshooting Configuration Manager client computers.

Previously, when working with support to address an issue with Configuration Manager clients, you would need to manually collect log files and other information to help troubleshoot the issue. Instead of manually collecting the log files from a remote computer, the SCCM support center tool automatically collects all necessary files for troubleshooting.

The SCCM Support Center tool gathers a bundle of log files, which will help product support specialists to examine log files and other client data for in-depth analysis of issues with Configuration Manager clients. More information about the Support Center for Configuration Manager can be found on Microsoft Documentation.

In this article, I will show you how to install and use the SCCM support center tool to troubleshoot the ConfigMgr issues. If you are looking for mass deployment of Support Center to enterprise computers, refer to the guide on deploying Support Center using SCCM.

Prerequisites

Install the following components on the server or client computer on which you install Support Center:

• Any Windows OS version supported by Configuration Manager. For more information, see Supported OS versions for clients. The Support Center doesn’t support mobile devices or macOS.
• Starting in version 2107, the all site and client components require .NET version 4.6.2, and version 4.8 is recommended. In version 2103 and earlier, this tool requires .NET 4.5.2 or later.

Location of Support Center Installer

You will find the Support Center installer on the site server at the following path: cd.latest\SMSSETUP\Tools\SupportCenter\SupportCenterInstaller.msi.

Support Center Tool Functionalities

The Support Center Tool in SCCM has got the following functionalities:

• Create a troubleshooting bundle (.zip file) that contains the Configuration Manager client log files. You then have a single file to send to support personnel.
• View Configuration Manager client log files, certificates, registry settings, debug dumps, client policies.
• Real-time diagnostic of inventory (replaces ContentSpy), policy (replaces PolicySpy), and client cache.

Ways to Install Support Center

There are two ways to install Support Center on your computer:

• Manually install the support center using the supportcenterinstaller.msi installer.
• Automate the deployment of Support Center using Configuration Manager.

You should prefer the manual installation method when you have few computers in your setup. If you have more than 20 computers, use SCCM to mass deployment of support center.

How to Install SCCM Support Center

We will now look at the steps to manually install Support Center. The support center tool installer is located in cd.latest\SMSSETUP\Tools\SupportCenter\SupportCenterInstaller.msi.

Run the SupportCenterInstaller.msi file on your computer. On the Configuration Manager support center support screen, click I accept the license terms and select Install.

Wait while the installation completes. Click Finish to complete the installation.

After you install the support center on your computer, find the following items on the Start menu in the Microsoft Endpoint Manager group:

• Support Center Client Data Collector (starting in version 2103)
• Support Center Client Tools (starting in version 2103)
• Support Center (version 2010 and earlier)
• Support Center Log File Viewer
• Support Center OneTrace
• Support Center Viewer

Launch the Support Center

After you install Support Center, you can launch the Support Center tool from Start > Microsoft Endpoint Manager group. Launching the Configuration Manager Support Center, the first thing that you see is that of Data Collection.

Using the Support Center Tools

As mentioned earlier, support center is a combination of many troubleshooting tools. We will now go through some examples of using the support center tools.

Collect Selected Data

The data collection window allows you to select the various kinds of tasks that are very useful for troubleshooting client related issues. You can click on Collect Selected Data and choose to collect only the data for enabled tasks, or collect data for all the items.

When you run the Data Collection step for the selected items, all the relevant data is collected and stored in a .zip file.

Get Client Details

In the next tab we see Client Details feature. Click on Load or refresh to get the information about the configuration manager client properties such as Client ID, Hardware ID, client version, Site Code etc.  You can also connect to a remote machine and check the client properties.

Get Client Policy

The next feature that we see is the Client Policy. There are lot of things to know here, when you click on Load Actual Policy you see the set of policies that are applicable to the configuration manager client. You also have got an option to request policy and evaluate policy.

Manage Content on Client Computers

In the Content tab, when you click Content you get to know what applications, packages and updates have been deployed or assigned to the client.

You get to know about the application name, whether it’s installed or not and many other properties.

If you click on Invoke Trigger it allows you to run the actions such as Application deployment evaluation, Software updates deployment evaluation, Software update source scan, Windows installer source list update.

You can also monitor the progress of application deployment and software update deployment by clicking on Monitoring. The Cache option gives you the information on client cache configuration and details about cache contents.

Client Inventory

When you click on Inventory tab, you can Load the inventory data for that client. The Invoke Trigger invokes inventory related client actions such as File collection cycle, Discovery data collection cycle, Hardware inventory cycle, IDMIF collection cycle, Software inventory cycle and Software metering report cycle.

SCCM Support Center Tool – Client Troubleshooting

On the Troubleshooting tab, you can click on Start troubleshooting. This executes troubleshooting tasks listed in the left column of the below screenshot and displays the state of each task.

The last one is Logs. We normally use CMTrace tool to view the configuration manager log files. With this feature you can open the log file right in the same window and use filters to include or exclude the entries from the log file.

One of the cool feature of this tool is you can connect to remote machine using an option called Remote Connection.

Provide the remote machine name (IP address also works here). Specify the credentials to connect to a remote machine and click Apply. You can also use Integrated Authentication to connect to a remote machine.

Command Line Options for Support Center

Starting in version 2111, the following new command-line options have been added to the Support Center Data Collector and Client Tools:

• -l: Specifies to launch as current user without elevation
• -m <machinename>: Specify machine name
• -p: Disables intergrated authentication
• –help: Displays help for Support Center