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Create Collection

  • Article

Applies To: System Center 2012 - Orchestrator, System Center 2012 - Orchestrator Release Candidate, System Center 2012 R2 Orchestrator, System Center 2012 SP1 - Orchestrator

The Create Collection activity is used in a runbook to create a new Configuration Manager user or device collection. Collections are the primary means of defining targets for Configuration Manager actions such as application or software update deployments.

Once a collection is created, its membership must be defined by adding collection membership rules using the Add Collection Rule activity. Membership rules can be removed from the collection by using the Delete Collection Rule activity. To force re-evaluation of the collection’s membership after adding or removing collection rules, use the Update Collection Membership activity

For the procedure to configure this object, see: Configuring the Create Collection Activity.

Properties and Published Data

The following tables list the properties and published data for this activity. The activity publishes all the data from the required and optional properties into published data.

Create Collection Properties

Element Description

Collection Name

The desired display name of the collection to be created.

Collection Type

Specifies the type of collection to create. Options are:

  • Device (default): the collection will contain device resources

  • User: the collection will contain user resources

Limiting Collection

The display name or ID of an existing collection that will limit the membership of the new collection.

Note

When you use the browse feature to look up a collection name, or enter a collection name manually or from published data, you must set the Collection Value Type property to Name or the activity will fail.

Limiting Collection Value Type

Specifies whether the value in the Limiting Collection property is a name or a collection ID. Options are:

  • ID (default): the value is a collection ID

  • Name: the value is a collection name

Comment

Optional descriptive text about the collection

Use Incremental Updates

True or False (Default = True) Incremental updates periodically evaluate new resources and then add resources to this collection without full updates being required.

Create Collection Published Data

Element Description

Collection ID

Provides the Collection ID value for the collection targeted for this activity (in case the collection name was specified for the input property).

Connection

Specifies the name of the connection to the Configuration Manager server

Configuring the Create Collection Activity

To configure the Create Collection activity

  1. From the Activities pane, drag a Create Collection activity to the active runbook.

  2. Double-click the Create Collection activity icon. The Properties dialog box opens.

  3. Configuring the Details tab:

    1. In the Connection section, click the ellipsis button (...), and then select the Configuration Manager server connection that you want to use for this activity. Click OK.

    2. In the Fields section, enter a value for each of the required properties. If the property is Lookup-enabled, you can click the ellipsis (…) button next to the text box to browse for a value.

      You can also use published data to automatically populate the value of the property from the data output by a previous activity in the runbook.

  4. For information about the settings on the General and Run Behavior tabs, see Common Configuration Instructions for all Activities.

  5. Click Finish.

Schedule Tab Properties

Element Description

Update this collection on a schedule

True or False (Default = False). Set to True to update the collection at the specified intervals. Set to False to prevent the collection from being updated after it is created.

Start

Defines a date and timestamp and how the time values are interpreted. Options are:

  • Client Local Time (default): the times specified represent the local time on the client

  • UTC: The times specified are UTC times.

Recurrence Pattern

Determines how often the collection should be updated. Options are:

  • None (default): The collection is updated only once, at the date and time specified in Start.

  • Weekly: The collection is updated on the specified day of the week at the interval of the specified number of weeks.

  • Monthly: The collection is updated at the interval of the specified number of months on:

    • Day: the specified day of the month.

    • The Last Day of the Month

    • The specified occurrence of the specified day of the week within the month.

  • Custom Interval: The collection is updated at the interval of the specified number of minutes, hours, or days.

Other Activities

The Integration Pack for System Center Configuration Manager integration contains the following additional activities: