Deploying Software Updates in PXE Task Sequence

[DizzleSizzle]

Hello,

 

I am looking for some help....I am in the process of deploying Windows 7 to our environment, PXE is working great with deploying a custom Windows 7 WIM image. My question is how do i install Software updates within the task sequence? I have selected to install All Mandatory Updates which didn't work, I also selected the option to install All Updates with no success. I have setup the deployment of the patches that i want to be installed and advertised them to both distrubution points including the SMSPXE DP. For some reason when it hits the task sequence to install updates it seems to skip over the step like there is nothing to install and continues on installed software packages that i assigned to the Task Sequence. Any help with deploying Software Updates in PXE Task Sequence would be great...

[anyweb]

remember this much, software updates will only deploy when a computer is in a collection that the Deployment Management Task is pointing to during the Operating System Deployment,

so where is your computer during the deployment, what collection ?

[DizzleSizzle]

Well that is the tricky part, these are all unknown computers, i have the task sequence advertised for the "All Unknown Computers" collections but when a Unknown Computer gets the Advertisment for the task sequence it is then placed into Unprovisioned Computers under Operating System Deployment. It never becomes part of any collection until the client is installed an performs a software inventory. Getting back to your reply I advertised the Software Deployment task to all systems, i figured the unknown computer would show up in that collection even though it hasn't fully had a software inventory performed...Let me know what you think, or if there is another way to perform software updates on Unknown Computers. Thanks

[anyweb]

you can script it to add the computer to a collection, it's part of the SDK

 

look here

 

Operating System Deployment

 

The following samples are in the %Program Files%\Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SDK\Samples\OperatingSystemDeployment folder.

 

Sample Description

 

TSEditor

 

 

Demonstrates how to work with the task sequencing objects in Configuration Manager 2007.

 

UnknownSystem

 

 

Demonstrates how to create a boot media that can create a machine record for a system unknown to Configuration Manager, add it to a collection, and set machine and Task Sequence variables.

 

For more information, see Configuration Manager Operating System Deployment.

[DizzleSizzle]

OK i got it to work....simply by adding the deployment task for Software Updates to the All Unknown Computers collections. Worked like a charm. Now this is something that has been bugging me for awhile now..How do i keep a running advertisment for OSD task sequence to lets say "All Windows 7 systems" collection that i created, but for only PXE. I want to be able to keep a running advertisment for this collection just for clients to be able to hit F12 and boot from NIC, but don't want the clients to recieve the advertisment and cache to local disk. is there a way. I created a TS for OSD and advertised it as a non-mandatory. I can PXE any machine in the collectio without any issues, but i noticed that all the clients have recieved the advertisment but just didn't run. Any help would be great...will it work if i only set the DP's for the bootPE and system image to only the SMSPXE DP? Thanks.

[anyweb]

yes its possible, in the task sequence properties screen, check Environment and set the program to run on an OS that you DO NOT HAVE in your organisation, for example Windows Vista X64 or Windows 2000, now when you are in Windows, the client will not show the task sequence in Run Advertised Programs (it will remain hidden) but they can PXE boot at any time and access the Task Sequence

[DizzleSizzle]

yes its possible, in the task sequence properties screen, check Environment and set the program to run on an OS that you DO NOT HAVE in your organisation, for example Windows Vista X64 or Windows 2000, now when you are in Windows, the client will not show the task sequence in Run Advertised Programs (it will remain hidden) but they can PXE boot at any time and access the Task Sequence

 

 

That is the best solution...I never even thought about something like that! I just set it up for "Windows 2000" Machines (which we don't have any of) worked like a charm. How can u PXE a machine that has already been imaged with the TS. For example, i image a new machine with Windows 7, but later down the road that same machine needs to be reimaged again. When I try to re-image a machine that already had a TS advertised to before always aborts the PXE. I would like to be able to image a machine at any given point, even if it has already been imaged with the same TS already. I tried hitting the Clean Last PXE Advertisment for the collect that the TS is advertised to, but get mixed results for some reason. Would like to always have the option to hit F12 at any given point in PXE rather than getting aborted. Let me know.