Introduction
Any admin who has had more than a passing interest in Microsoft's Endpoint Configuration Manager product, or any of the previous version names such as SCCM 2007 or SMS 2.0, etc - will have used the humble Resource Explorer.
Traditionally the Resource Explorer is accessed by navigating to Assets and Compliance\Devices and then right clicking on a device and selecting Start\Resource Explorer. You are then presented with an MMC type interface with four nodes: Hardware, Hardware History, Software and Diagnostic files. Within each node are usually many more sub sections and this will give the IT administrator a great deal of information for troubleshooting any device that has run hardware inventory.
Here is how the Resource Explorer looked in SMS 2.0
And here is how it looks in MEM CM Technical Preview 2008
Within the last week of the time of writing Microsoft has made the Resource Explorer available in the cloud in the Microsoft Endpoint Manager Admin Center. The feature is in preview status and can be used when Tenant Attach has been configured on the on-premise Configuration Manager site server. This is a great development from Microsoft and a clear statement of intent if such a statement was ever needed - systems management is moving quickly in the direction of the cloud, and there will be no turning back, to be sure.
This article with contain the following sections:
1) How to use the Resource Explorer in the Microsoft Endpoint Manager Admin Center.
2) How to configure Tenant Attach to enable the Resource Explorer.
3) How to configure the permissions on your MEM CM admin account so that various common errors are avoided.
The article is not a step by step quick start guide, and so will not contain such step by step instructions - but will contain screenshots to help the administrator configure his or her tenant attachment accordingly.
How to use the Resource Explorer in the Microsoft Endpoint Manager Admin Center
Providing you have your on-premise Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager server configured correctly with Tenant Attach, there are no additional tasks required. All you need to do is log into the MEM Admin center portal with an account synchronised with the Azure tenant, and with the correct permissions (detailed below). You will then navigate to Home\Devices\All Devices and select the device with which you would like to run the online Resource Explorer. In the left side under the Monitor heading you will see preview features, one of which is the Resource Explorer
When you click on Resource Explorer (preview) you are then presented with all the hardware subsections you are familiar with, on the left hand side - and the inventory details on the right hand side. In the following we see a capture from the Windows app class.
How to configure Tenant Attach to enable the Resource Explorer
There is a good chance that the Resource Explorer is not working in the cloud portal, when you try the test detailed above. This feature is in preview and thus writing down specific instructions is not the best approach - they could change very quickly. Instead I will make a few points about pre-requisites and then display screenshots of my Tenant Attach configuration.
Prerequisites
1) A tenant created.
2) A domain suffix configured in Active Directory Domains and Trusts that matches the domain name of your tenant. My Tenant domain name is endpointmgrbtinternet.onmicrosoft.com and thus I have this configured as an Alternate UPN suffix.
3) An SCCM admin account created with suffix of the name of your cloud tenant. It needs to have the Intune Administrator cloud role. My account also has the Global Administrator cloud role assigned.
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