Create Collection

  • Article

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

The Create Collection activity is used in a runbook to create a grouping of computers within Configuration Manager that can be used to perform Configuration Management activities such as to deploy software updates or install applications.

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.

Create Collection Properties

Element Description Valid Values Look up

Collection Name

The name of the collection to be created

String

No

Comment

An optional comment of up to 255 characters associated with the collection

String

No

Parent Collection

The name of an existing collection to which the collection will be assigned as a sub-collection, or the Root Collection if this collection will be at the root level

String. Default: Root Collection.

Yes

Create Collection Published Data

Element Description Value Type

Collection ID

The site-specific identifier for the new collection as specified by Configuration Manager

String

Collection Name

The name of the collection that was created

String

Comment

An optional comment of up to 255 characters associated with the collection

String

Connection

Specifies the name of the connection to the Configuration Manager server

String

Parent Collection

The name of an existing collection to which the collection was assigned as a sub-collection, or the Root Collection if this collection will be at the root level

String

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.

      To use published data

      1. Right-click the property value box, click Subscribe, and then click Published Data.

      2. Click the Activity drop-down box and select the activity from which you want to obtain the data.

      3. To view additional data elements common across the runbook, select Show Common Published Data.

      4. Click the published data element you want to use, and then click OK.

        For a list of the data elements published by each activity, see the Published Data tables in the activity topic. For information about the Common Published Data items, see Published Data in the System Center Orchestrator 2012 Runbook Guide.

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

  5. Click Finish.

Other Activities

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