Package Conversion Manager (PCM) CTP 1 High Level Overview

Getting Started

As I mentioned in my previous post, Package Conversion Manager (PCM) allows for converting packages and programs into applications and deployment types in System Center Configuration Manager 2012. Packages must first be migrated from a 2007 site to a 2012 site. There is a migration feature built into Configuration Manager 2012 that allows packages to be migrated from 2007 to 2012. I will see if I can’t dig up some good information about migration and post some links in a future post. However, once you have migrated your package objects and installed PCM then it is just a matter analyzing your packages in order to determine which readiness state each are in, and then converting those packages that are in the appropriate readiness state. I will go over the different readiness states and the rules that determine those readiness states in a future blog post as this post is just a high level introduction to get you started with Package Conversion Manager.

Readiness Columns and Ribbon Items

Once PCM is installed on a machine that has the Configuration Manager 2012 console installed your console will have a few new ribbon items available from the packages node as well as right click actions. Additionally a Readiness column will be populated with Readiness information for each package and a Package Conversion Manager Overview sub node will be available which is a mockup of the information that will be made available in the future. In this version of PCM the readiness column isn’t turned on by default so you will need to make it available by right clicking on the available columns and selecting the readiness column. Once you do this you should see that all of the packages are in the “Unknown” readiness state. This simply means that they haven’ t been analyzed yet.

Package Analysis

PCM can currently analyze a single item or in bulk by selecting all of the items that you would like to run the analysis on. Because we are integrated into the Configuration Manager console we adhere to the permissions available through RBA. So only the packages that you have permission to will you be able to analyze. Once you have selected the appropriate items to analyze you can either run the analysis by selecting the “Analyze Package” ribbon item or right clicking and selecting “Analyze Package”. Once the analysis completes your package should be in one of three states: Automatic, Manual, or Not Applicable. You can see these readiness states from the screenshot above. For CTP1 we can only help you with the Automatic packages. Don’t fear however as we are working on helping you convert over your packages that are marked as “Manual” in our CTP2 release.

Package Conversion

Once you have analyzed your packages you can now convert those packages that are marked as Automatic. By selecting one or more package that are marked as automatic you can initiate the conversion process from the Package Conversion ribbon item or by right clicking on the selected packages and selecting Package Conversion. A dialog will be displayed confirming if you would like to continue with the conversion process. From this dialog you can either remove the packages that you don’t want to convert or you can continue forward. Once you select OK you should see a progress bar of the conversion process and then finally a summary screen. The summary screen will display if the selected packages were successfully converted or if there were any errors. Select OK and then navigate to the Applications node to confirm if those packages have been converted properly.

Pretty simple right? I will delve into more detail of Package Conversion Manager including analysis states and rules, as well as more information about the conversion process in future posts. In the meantime I hope that this helps you get started with Package Conversion Manager.