Systems Management

Ok started at a SCCM shop... first time using the tool...

I am VERY particular how I structure my deployment objects, I like it clean and standard (MY standard).

When creating a package by definition (msi file directly), it seems to auto-create package names by default: %MANUFACT% %NAME% %VERSION% %LANG%

Can't stand this auto-creation, vendors change their meta data all the time, different versions of same software is all over the place because they changed "Adobe Incorporated" to "Adobe Inc." etc I also hate the 5 different programs SCCM auto-generates when using msi definition.

Well we have thousands of packages, and as "the new guy" I can't find anything easily since everything is sorted by manufacturer first, which I hardly ever know unless its adobe or MS. (Don't ask me why I don't like search...lol)

Well I noticed this auto-created name for packages are based on the general properties field of the package. I asked if we could leverage this for organization, but was told MIF files and reporting is based off this so things could get messed up.

I did some testing... running known bad cmdlines with and without the msiexec.exe /m switch... SCCM seemed to report status and error codes just fine.

Am I missing something, everywhere I read MIF are required. Even read you should use MIF matching based on package properties due to issues rerunning a failed deployment (2 msi running error etc). Even found a few posts where people said to avoid MIF???

So I am looking into manually creating packages/programs, not worrying about MIF file matching? Also looking into using Installshields SMS file generation with a modified template...

What would I miss if I do NOT use the /M switch or if I leave fields blank (or customize) the general package property fields for easier organization?