Download Script for VHD Evaluation for System Center Preview 1711 #SysCtr #SystemCenter

3 min read

Hello folks,

Microsoft is making it’s first Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) release of System Center Preview 1711 available, and the VHDs for testing the preview build re ready for download.

System Center Preview 1711

The VHD enables you to quickly evaluate System Center Preview 1711 and Windows Server 2016. For detailed information about each component, see the component documentation at included with these download files.

System Center Preview, version 1711 components that ship Evaluation VHDs can be found at the following locations:

This download consists of multiple files that you extract into a single pre-configured VHD file for this System Center component. The VHD enables you to create a virtual machine to evaluate the different System Center components.

The challenge of downloading multiple files is time consuming and it requires you to interact and save each file individually. This can be a long procedure. To facilitate this process, I updated my previous script to support downloading System Center Preview 1711.

Here you go:

# Download all System Center SAC Release Version 1711 VHD Evaluation
# Updated by Charbel Nemnom  https://charbelnemnom.com/
# Credit to Niklas Akerlund http://vniklas.djungeln.se/
# Name: Install-SC1711VHDEVAL.ps1

[CmdletBinding()]
param (
 [Parameter(Position=0, HelpMessage = 'Destination Volume')]
 [Alias('Vol')]
 [String]$Volume,

 [Parameter(Position=1, HelpMessage = 'Directory Name')]
 [Alias('Dir')]
 [String]$DirectoryName
 )

Try {
 $Vol =  ($Volume -replace (":|\\",''))
 $CheckVolume = Get-PSDrive -Name $Vol -ErrorAction Stop
 }
 Catch {
 Write-Warning -Message "No drive found for: `"$Vol`", Please specify a correct volume"
 Exit
 }

Write-Verbose "You selected: $($CheckVolume.Root)"
Write-Verbose "Creating new directory..."
$Destination = New-Item -Name $DirectoryName -Path $(($Vol)+":") -ItemType Directory -Force

# Variables
$SizeOfSCVHD = 50GB

# Get Space on volume
$SpaceRemaining = ((Get-Volume $CheckVolume.Root.Split(":")[0]).SizeRemaining)

if($SpaceRemaining -gt $SizeOfSCVHD){
# System Center Virtual Machine Manager
((Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=56198").links | ? href -match "exe$|docx$|bin$").href | %{Start-BitsTransfer -Source $_ -Destination $Destination}
# System Center Operations Manager
((Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=56200").links | ? href -match "exe$|docx$|bin$").href | %{Start-BitsTransfer -Source $_ -Destination $Destination}
# System Center Orchestrator
((Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=56197").links | ? href -match "exe$|docx$|bin$").href | %{Start-BitsTransfer -Source $_ -Destination $Destination}
# System Center Data Protection Manager
((Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=56201").links | ? href -match "exe$|docx$|bin$").href | %{Start-BitsTransfer -Source $_ -Destination $Destination}
# System Center Service Manager
((Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=56199").links | ? href -match "exe$|docx$|bin$").href | %{Start-BitsTransfer -Source $_ -Destination $Destination}

} else {
$SpaceRemaining = [math]::Round($SpaceRemaining/1GB)
Write-Output "The remaining size on $Destination is $SpaceRemaining GB, please free up at least $($SizeOfSCVHD/1GB) GB and try again!"
 }

Please make sure you have enough bandwidth and space before you kick off the script!