Microsoft’s Configuration Manager Update 2403 Brings Diagnostic Dashboard, Other New Features

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Key Takeaways:

  • A new monitoring dashboard within Configuration Manager enhances administrators’ ability to detect and address software update issues efficiently.
  • Microsoft has announced the discontinuation of support for Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 operating system site system roles.
  • Microsoft also released improvements to BitLocker key escrow verification to prevent data loss.

Microsoft has announced the release of the update 2403 for Configuration Manager (Current Branch). Among its notable features are the rebranding of Azure Active Directory to Microsoft Entra ID, a new monitoring dashboard for detecting software update issues, streamlined search capabilities, and more.

Microsoft Configuration Manager is a software management suite that lets organizations manage large numbers of computers running macOS, Windows, Linux, and mobile operating systems. The service offers various tools to streamline software deployment, compliance monitoring, patch management, and remote administration.

Microsoft has rebranded Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) to Microsoft Entra ID within Configuration Manager. Additionally, a new dashboard in the monitoring workspace facilitates easier detection of software update issues. The Configuration Manager console now includes a search box to enhance search efficiency and consolidate access to important information. This feature saves time and effort previously spent navigating through various nodes or sections.

Microsoft's Configuration Manager Update 2403 Brings Diagnostic Dashboard, Other New Features
Software update health dashboard (Image Credits: Microsoft)

Folder support for scripts

The latest Configuration Manager update allows administrators to use folders to organize and manage scripts. This feature is available for both full administrators and operations administrators. Additionally, Microsoft has deprecated HTTP-only communication, advising customers to opt for HTTPS or Enhanced HTTP for client communication instead. The latest version of Configuration Manager no longer supports Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 operating system site system roles.

Software & OS updates

Microsoft has added a new SoftwareUpdateO365Language parameter to the PowerShell Save-CMSoftwareUpdate cmdlet. This feature streamlines the process by removing the requirement to manually check for specific languages in the Software Update Point (SUP) Properties. Furthermore, Windows 11 ARM 64 devices are getting support for Configuration Manager operating system deployment. This capability currently supports importing and customizing Arm 64 boot images, Media creation TS, Wipe and load TS, CMPivot, and WDS PXE for Arm 64.

Microsoft's Configuration Manager Update 2403 Brings Diagnostic Dashboard, Other New Features
Support for ARM 64 Operating System Deployment (Image Credits: Microsoft)

Cloud-attached management

Microsoft has also deprecated the option to upgrade to Configuration Manager 2403 for customers running cloud management gateway V1 (CMG) as a cloud service (classic). Administrators will need to manually convert CMG deployed with the classic cloud service to a virtual machine scale set deployment before starting the upgrade process.

Updates to BitLocker

Lastly, the latest release brings a couple of improvements to BitLocker. This feature ensures that key escrow is verified correctly and helps to prevent any message drops. It checks if the key is successfully stored in the database before adding the key protector. Moreover, Bitlocker now prevents a situation where data could be lost if there are any failures to escrow. It happens when BitLocker protects volumes using keys that are never backed up to the database.