Software Center and Application Catalog in SCCM 2012 1

Hi,

Well oke, the RAP (Run Advertised Program) is gone in ConfigMgr 2012, and we got the Software Center in return. Nice but now what?

For Advertised Programs we now have the: Application Catalog!

The Application Catalog is a web-site where a user can find his/her software. For an administrator it is also possible to authorize software, the user asks if the software can be deployed to his/her workstation. This might come in handy when licensing is an issue, or when a manager wants to be able to monitor application installations.

Oke nice, but how do we set this up.

Because ConfigMgr 2012 relies on .NET and uses WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) we need to install the HTTP Activation feature from the WCF Activation:

HTTP Activation feature

If this is not done it will result in following error:

There is a problem connecting with the server.
The Web site cannot communicate with the server. This may be a temporary problem. Click retry action to submit your request again. If this problem continues, try again later.

Error with Software Catalog

Then we have to install the Application Catalog Web Service Point and Application Catalog Web Site Point role on a SCCM site server.

Application Catalog site roles

We will use HTTP for Client connections and port 80 for site traffic.

Application Catalog setup

Application Catalog WebSite Setup

That’s done:

Role Wizard

Servers and Site System Roles

Now we got the Application Catalog Website up and running!

Application Catalog Website

Still empty, but we will fill this up next time!