using Offline Mode in Windows PE using USMT 4 via a task sequence in SCCM 2007 SP2

[anyweb]

hi all,

 

Note: This post has been reproduced in a webcast, so if you'd like to see a video of Offline Mode in WinPE then click here

 

 

 

well this feature in USMT 4 is handy, as it allows you to do a scanstate while in Windows PE in other words, not in the OS so no problems with services running or applications running meaning that you get to backup everything you want without any locked files stopping from doing so.

 

Offline mode does however have some restrictions, read this page on Technet for details of that. To get around these restrictions and to migrate wallpaper see here, to migrate your network printers see here.

 

 

Great, but how do I do Offline Mode in Windows PE using SCCM ?

 

according to Microsoft, we can use the /offlinewindir switch in USMT 4 with scanstate.

 

/offlinewindir: "path to a windows directory"

 

 

This option specifies the offline Windows directory that the ScanState command gathers user state from. The offline directory can be Windows.old when you run the ScanState command in Windows or a Windows directory when you run the ScanState command in Windows PE. This option is incompatible with the /offline option.

 

However, implementing it isn't so straigtforward as you've probably already discovered and documentation about getting it to work within SCCM is as far as I can see pretty much non-existant,

so here courtesy of windows-noob.com is one way of doing it, feel free to show us other ways.

 

The theory behind this:-

 

As the Capture User State Step in a standard task sequence can only run in Windows, we cannot use that step to do our scanstate while in Windows PE, therefore we will use some tricks to run scanstate from WinPE.

 

To do this we create two special packages, the first package contains a batch file which calls the scanstate.exe file and the second package is the entire USMT X86 scanstate files and folders, (note: in this example we are using scanstate from the X86 folder).

 

This means that we create a separate package to the normal USMT4 package and this is only because this example is a workaround or proof of concept to prove that Offline Mode in Windows PE can be done via a Task Sequence in SCCM.

 

Update: If you would like sample code to check for and use the correct USMT architecture in offline mode then see Peters post here

 

 

Get your lab ready

 

We need a Windows XP client machine to test scanstate on and you should enable the F8 command prompt option in your boot.wim (you'll need it).

 

 

The Task Sequence

 

You can use this Task Sequence in SCCM by importing it. Please note this task sequence only has the 4 groups in it, if you want the 4 groups plus OSD then use the other Task Sequence further down.

 

Offline Mode in Windows PE using USMT 4.xml

 

The task sequence depends on three packages, the X86 bits from your USMT 4 (ie: copy everything in the X86 folder from C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\USMT folder. There are two versions, one for 32bit (X86) and one for 64bit (amd64), we are only using the X86 bits in this guide), the Batchfile

 

 

 

I break up my task sequence into four distinct groups, Set, Create, xcopy and Run

 

SET

 

 

In the Set group I set SystemDrive to c: (otherwise it will try and do this on the windows PE x: drive)

 

 

Next we set the OSDStateStorePath Task Sequence Variable to %systemdrive%\USMToffline which translates to c:\USMToffline, this directory will store our migration data during scanstate operations and when the new os is being applied.

 

 

Finally we set the hardlink load parameters

 

 

 

CREATE

 

In the Create group we just create two folders, c:\USMToffline,

 

 

and c:\USMTbits\X86

 

 

 

the c:\USMTbits\X86 will store all our scanstate native files.

 

 

XCOPY

 

In the xcopy group we do the clever stuff, we copy the X86 USMT stuff to the newly created folder, and then we copy our batch file for later user.

 

 

The batch file itself has the following contents

 

 

@set USMT_WORKING_DIR=%~2%\USMTbits\x86

"%~2\USMTbits\x86\scanstate.exe" "%~1" /c /o /hardlink /efs:hardlink /nocompress /offlinewindir:c:\windows /v:5 /l:%~2\windows\TEMP\SMSTSLog\scanstate.log /progress:%~2\windows\TEMP\SMSTSLog\scanstateprogress.log /i:%~2\USMTbits\x86\miguser.xml /i:%~2\USMTbits\x86\migapp.xml

 

 

You can download the batchfile below however you must rename it back to .bat

 

runscanstate-offlinewindir.bat.txt

 

 

RUN

 

The Run group does the actual running of the batch file and passes two variables to the file.

 

 

 

 

Testing Offline Mode.

 

Create an optional advertisement to a Migrate XP to W7 X86 collection for the Task Sequence and PXE boot your XP client (press F12 first....), select the Task Sequence when the wizard appears,

 

 

at this point press F8 to bring up the command prompt, you are doing this to verify that your data is getting migrated in OFFLINE mode. So here we can see the command prompt is open.

 

 

Ok switch back to the TS and start the task sequence. You will see it starts creating the folders, copying the USMT stuff and our batch file(s) and then actually running the scanstate command.

 

 

 

Once it is completed your migrated data will now be stored in C:\USMToffline\USMT

 

browse it and verify

 

 

If you want to see a working SMSTS.log file from the above test see below

 

smsts.log

 

 

Ok now what ?

[Eswar Koneti]

Thanks for help, now it works with the boot image.

Now i have another problem. All works fine while the backup and so on.

At the end of the task sequence, when the restoring starts, i see shortly "Restoring files" but only for 2 or 3 seconds. So the profiles doesnt present in the users folder.

 

But on my C-drive i have the backupfolder from the old profiles in the path "C:\USMTOffline\USMT\File\C$\Dokumente und Einstellungen" i saw all the old profiles. Could be the problem that i create the wrong package which named "USMT both"?

I set the path directly to the USMT-Folder. So when i open this path i saw the x86 and the x64 folder.

Is that correct? Or must this path show into the x86-folder?

 

Best Regards

 

Rudi

 

There are 2 packages which are used in this process one is USMT x86 and other is USMT Which contains x86 and x64(amd64).For more info on how to use USMT packages look at this .Time takes on the restoration task depends on the user's data. Is the computer joined to Domain ? also can you look into smsts.log what it says ?

[Eswar Koneti]

The avilable task sequence works on 64Bit OS but it requires some changes to be done in package creation and Task seqeunce edit.

Below is the task seqeunce which you can download and edit from TS and here are steps while making modifications.

WinXP to Win7 x64 Migration in WinPE.xml

[Rudi]

There are 2 packages which are used in this process one is USMT x86 and other is USMT Which contains x86 and x64(amd64).For more info on how to use USMT packages look at this .Time takes on the restoration task depends on the user's data. Is the computer joined to Domain ? also can you look into smsts.log what it says ?

 

Hi,

 

i looked at my logfiles, the smsts.log give me the information that i have to look in the usmt log file in the path C:\_SMSTasksequence\...

But on my c-drive there is not such a path. I will attach a patrt of the smsts.log which shows the error.

The error says that there is not enough space, but when i have a look on my my Win7 client, there are 117 GB free. The Win7 client is on Hyper V, could that be the problem?

Another question, i have a german image but the keybord is still english. Where can i change it to a german keybord?

Sorry for the silly questions, but i have no exoeriences with sccm.

 

Best Regards

 

Rudi

SMSTS.log

[Eswar Koneti]

Did you check the space on Physical Drive ?

For Keyboard layout change ,checkout this : http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/index.php?/topic/1660-customising-windows-7-deployments-part-1/

Instead of it-IT(Italy) ,you may need to use de-DE for german Language settings.

 

 

 

[Rudi]

Did you check the space on Physical Drive ?

For Keyboard layout change ,checkout this : http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/index.php?/topic/1660-customising-windows-7-deployments-part-1/

Instead of it-IT(Italy) ,you may need to use de-DE for german Language settings.

 

 

Thanks for that link.

Yes, i checked the local space, there are 117 GB free on the c-drive.

[Rudi]

Thanks for that link.

Yes, i checked the local space, there are 117 GB free on the c-drive.

 

Hi there,

 

the problem is while the wiping process the folders USMTBITS and _SMSTASKSEQUENCE will be deleted. So the loadstate.exe which ist located in the _SMSTASKSEQUENCE folder´doesn´t exist at this moment.

Is it possible to tell the SCCM which folders can be deleted and which not while the whiping process?

 

Best Regards

 

Rudi

[Rudi]

Hi there,

 

the problem is while the wiping process the folders USMTBITS and _SMSTASKSEQUENCE will be deleted. So the loadstate.exe which ist located in the _SMSTASKSEQUENCE folder´doesn´t exist at this moment.

Is it possible to tell the SCCM which folders can be deleted and which not while the whiping process?

 

Best Regards

 

Rudi

 

 

Hi there,

 

no answer for this question? Where are all the experts?

 

 

Best Regards

 

 

Rudi

[Terry]

This Task Sequence is all well and good but what if I wanna use MDT 2010 Update 1 ? The TS are different than the ones in SCCM. We are eventually looking at moving to SCCM but at the moment our solution is to use MDT. I can get the ScanState to work when logged in as a domain user but it doesn't accept the arguments from the CustomSettings.ini. Have any suggestions? In the meantime, I will try to modify your TS for MDT and see if it works.

 

thanks,

Terry

[Terry]

Where are all the experts? I thought this would be a simple answer. I tried redoing the TS but I don't think I have to go that far. The Deployment Share gets mounted to the Z drive. I should be able to run a scanstate command based on that drive. I'll continue to test and if anyone has an answer or it works I'll post back.

 

Terry

[anyweb]

so do you want to emulate this only using mdt 2010 update 1 ? if so it shouldnt be that hard to do as the steps are mostly workarounds anyway, have you tried to duplicate it and what problems are you seeing, post log files if necessary