Anoop's

Disclaimer – Editing/Updating DataBase or Site Control (sitectrl) file is NOT supported.

We all know that ConfigMgr 2012 doesn’t store the Site Control ( sitectrl ) file in the file system. However, it’s stored in the SQL database (as XML file).

Following are the 4 topics that I would like to cover in this post……

****Only applicable to SCCM / ConfigMgr 2012

1. How to view the site control ( sitectrl ) file?

2. How to Edit or Update the Site Control ( sitectrl ) file?

3. How to change the site description ( SiteName )?

4. Verification – ConfigMgr 2012 console and WMI class “SMS_SCI_SiteDefinition”.

How to view the site control ( sitectrl ) file?

You can run the following query to VIEW the Site Control ( sitectrl ) file from the Data Base.

Note – Replace “SITECODE” with YOUR 3 digit site code.

SELECT SiteControl FROM vSMS_SC_SiteControlXML WHERE SiteCode = ‘SITECODE’

Click on the link which appears in the result pane of the query windows. That will open up the Site Control ( sitectrl ) XML file.

How to Edit or Update the Site Control ( sitectrl ) file?

Most of us know, we can’t directly edit this XML file from the Data Base (just like, we used to do with notepad in SCCM 2007).

I had failed to update the XML file even with the following SQL command. Later, I came to know that this method would ONLY work if the object was a table or updateable view. In my case (I *think*), this is neither a table nor a updateable view.

Incorrect Method

DECLARE @newValue varchar(50)

SELECT @newValue = ‘SCCM 2012′

UPDATE vSMS_SC_SiteControlXML SET SiteControl.modify
(‘replace value of (/SITE_CONTROL_FILE Version=”5.00.7678.0000″/SITE_DEFINITION/SiteName/text())[1] with sql:variable(“@newValue”)’)

Error

Msg 4406, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Update or insert of view or function ‘vSMS_SC_SiteControlXML’ failed because it contains a derived or constant field.

So, in order to edit the sitectrl file, I need to find out the views and tables which are related to the View vSMS_SC_SiteControlXML.

After doing some research, I’ve noticed that the following are the tables and views related to ‘vSMS_SC_SiteControlXML’  view.

Following are the tables related to site control ( sitectrl ) xml file.

dbo.SC_SiteDefinition, dbo.SC_SiteDefinition_Property and dbo.SC_SiteDefinition_PropertyList

How to change the site description ( SiteName )?

In this scenario, I wanted to change the site description (“SiteName” value from the XML file). Current site description is “Configuration Manager 2012 Primary Site” and this should be updated to “SCCM 2012”.

At last, I found that I need to update the “SiteName” value from the table called “SC_SiteDefinition” to update the site description.

Once you’ve updated the value (using the following SQL query), the Site description will automatically get updated in the site control (sitectrl) XML file.

You can verify the same by opening the sitectrl file using the query mentioned in the start of this post.

Run the following query (in “SQL studio –> New Query”) to update the Site description to “SCCM 2012”.

Note :: Change the SiteName (site description)

Update SC_SiteDefinition set SiteName = ‘SCCM 2012′ where SiteCode = ‘MCM’

Verification – ConfigMgr 2012 console and WMI class “SMS_SCI_SiteDefinition”

The change is also reflected in the ConfigMgr 2012 console as well as in WMI (more details – SMS_SCI_SiteDefinition ). See,

WMI Query – select * from SMS_SCI_SiteDefinition

I’m not pretty sure about any other EASY way/method to update site control (sitectrl) file. Please share if you found any other method.