Drivers install is slow during OSD task sequence

[thadkew]

Attached you'll find my task sequence for deploying Windows XP

The main problem I'm having is that the sequence will redo the drivers install at least three times before it will continue the task.

The way the drivers is called is by model name (it's a variable at the beginning).

 

Is there any way to speed up the driver install or at least stop it from installing them three times (or more)?

Windows XP deploy.xml

[Peter van der Woude]

Where are creating the variables?

[thadkew]

Where are creating the variables?

 

They are variables that were placed on the collection (Modify Collection Settings/ Collection Variables tab)

[Peter van der Woude]

And then you have to manually put the clients in the correct collection? If so, why not making it easier by using a WMI Query like: Select * From Win32_ComputerSystem WHERE Model LIKE "%Model%"?

[thadkew]

And then you have to manually put the clients in the correct collection? If so, why not making it easier by using a WMI Query like: Select * From Win32_ComputerSystem WHERE Model LIKE "%Model%"?

 

No, the collection is All Unknown. Because they are unknown systems, they don't have the model in the WMI so that's why i have the collection variable and the task sequence with ComputerType.

I don't think that this has much to do with the drivers taking a long time, though.

[Peter van der Woude]

I don't think that this has much to do with the drivers taking a long time, though.

Correct, but it does gives more insight in what has to happen.

 

No, the collection is All Unknown. Because they are unknown systems, they don't have the model in the WMI so that's why i have the collection variable and the task sequence with ComputerType.

You lost me here...

a. What does Unknown Systems has to do with the model not being in WMI?

b. How do you use the Collection Variables on Unknown Systems? How do you then connect the variable to the machine?

[thadkew]

Correct, but it does gives more insight in what has to happen.

True enough. Essentially, the drivers are called based on the collection variable ComputerType, which the technician has to input during the PXE task sequence. However, the drivers are downloaded and applied and downloaded again and applied again and downloaded again and applied again. These are dell drivers that have been imported to the driver store. I'm not sure if it's because the task is just applying the drivers one by one and has to redownload them over and over...

 

You lost me here...

a. What does Unknown Systems has to do with the model not being in WMI?

These are machines just out of the box. Never been added to domain, never been collected by SCCM. I'm not smart enough to figure out how to make add the machine into SCCM with the proper model without actually installing the client first. And I don't want to manually do that for the hundreds of machines we are soon getting.

 

b. How do you use the Collection Variables on Unknown Systems? How do you then connect the variable to the machine?

During the PXE, the collection variable is called on (OSDComputerName and ComputerType) and the technician puts the info in the box.

[Peter van der Woude]

WMI is something that exist in the Operating System, even WinPE contains a subset of WMI. This subset is easily enough to query WMI for the model of the computer.

 

Based on the information about the Variables that you are using and the repeating of the driver installation, I would say that the driver selection proces isn't going good. To be sure of that it might be handy to take a look at the smsts.log, to see what it says about picking the drivers/ driverpackage.

[thadkew]

WMI is something that exist in the Operating System, even WinPE contains a subset of WMI. This subset is easily enough to query WMI for the model of the computer.

Is it possible to see what it shows while in the WinPE environment?

Based on the information about the Variables that you are using and the repeating of the driver installation, I would say that the driver selection proces isn't going good. To be sure of that it might be handy to take a look at the smsts.log, to see what it says about picking the drivers/ driverpackage.

What would I be looking for in the smsts.log file?

[Peter van der Woude]

Is it possible to see what it shows while in the WinPE environment?

Possible, when F8 is enabled, it is possible to start Wbemtest from the commandline. Within Wbemtest you can test your WMI (queries).

 

What would I be looking for in the smsts.log file?

The parts where the driver packages get applied.

[thadkew]

Possible, when F8 is enabled, it is possible to start Wbemtest from the commandline. Within Wbemtest you can test your WMI (queries).

Select * from Win32_ComputerSystem shows <no key>