Image Capture "Nightmares"

[Zeus_at_Work]

Ok I am new to SCCM but understand the basic concepts. I have recently taken over a position that utilizes SCCM to deploy OS's and software packages, and it works fairly well in that regard. It is running on Server 2008 and I am assured it is SP2 (however help/about makes no mention of SP2)?.

 

Being more accustomed to the way Ghost works, I am used to doing things slightly differently. So the scenario here is that I have 50 brand new HP 6000 Pro systems. I've unpacked one, physically set it up with everything each user would get (Office, Anti-Virus, and some custom Windows settings ie: splash screen). Ideally I would LOVE to be able to take (or capture) a "snapshot" of that single machine, create an image file (wim?) and push that out to the reamining 49. Currently SCCM works fine for doing bare metal installs through what might be described as a more "normal" method. Pushing out works fine for doing that. However after 3 days in these forums and others, trying everything I can find to simply CAPTURE the image has failed. I have no issues PXE booting (after finding out that SCCM might make multiple references to the same system and prevent PXE from booting properly). Getting past that hurdle... I get 2 slightly different errors, when trying two completely different processes for just CAPTURING the reference PC (which is completely comfigured).

 

1. Method 1 was just a typical Build and Capture TS looking like the following:

-Build the reference Machine

-Restart in PE

-all other entries of this section have been disabled.

 

-Capture Reference Machine

-Prepare ConfigMgrClient

-Prepare OS

-Capture the reference machine.

 

This boots from PXE and get to the spot where it has a GUI saying "Initializing Windows PE" and I get the following error code "Capture failed with the error code 0x00000032"

 

2. After reading this forum and trying whatever might be suggested, method 2 was a more custom solution to the same problem and looked more like this:

-Use Toolkit Package

-Set Backup Share

-Set Backup Filename

-Create Image

 

For this method, it fails at a similar time, during the screen that says "Iniitalizing Windows PE" and the error code in this case is 0x0000001

 

In either case I cannot seem to JUST CAPTURE AN ALREADY CONFIGURED MACHINE...... being that the other 49 are identical hardware I thoguht this would be the easiest solution, however now I am having nightmares over my inability to get something, that takes 5 minutes with Ghost, to work at all in 3 days of searching forums and trying everything...

 

Is there not a simple solution to capturing a reference PC (forget the build that is done)? Or can anyone shed some light on what those errors might be or how I might proceed? I'm at a dead end here... and if I cannot figure out a way to take a snapshot this week, I will have to resort to bare-metal installs and manually changing a few things on each PC.

 

HELP! Any help appreciated! Thanks! Please keep in mind I am a newb to this software so if you require me to do anything to provide more information, i am happy to do so but you should also tell me how to do that. Thanks again.

[Zeus_at_Work]

we'll still be here when you come back to SCCM,

by the way, did you ever manage to see what the SMSTS.log file said ?

 

cheers

niall.

 

well... don't hold your breath.... not a single suggestion or solution from here got me any closer to being able to do what I want to do... in fact half the suggestions (ie: install the console) only caused more un-answered questions..... already moved on... Ghost does what I need and doesnt try to cook me dinner as well, or tell me what time to go to bed.....

 

take care Anyweb

[jamitupya]

Its a shame you've decided to move on, but to be honest, i understand your pain, it isn't easy to figure out this product but i can say, give it some time, spend an hour running through it every week.

 

You say you want this thread removed, i'll say now i feel this is a valuable thread in terms of internet knowledge. it didn't help you admittedly but did and does show a sampling of the "un-initiated"s experiences, and they are unfortunately all to common.

 

Whilst i get your frustration in not being answered, let me put my 2 cents in:

follow this to find out how to access the SMSTS.log

 

Understand the product your asking for assistance on is an Enterprise System. its designed to support enterprise businesses in minimizing support costs. it handles this extremely well and i have deployed this to multiple global private and govt organizations with 30,000-350,000+ client seats and have done so with a relatively small team. This does NOT excuse its complexity, just is to show you the product is very suited to the task of large scale and small scale distribution alike.

 

Whilst i get how you want to achieve your task, please understand that we as a community understand the product well, anyweb maybe an MVP but he is a global leader in operating systems deployment and is recognized for this. Peter is a well published administrator. I have little public profile but we are all here to help the community out, have you EVER had a serious issue with a technology you've had hands-on experience with for less than a month, and a community who can fix it instantly? Granted i think as a community we missed a great opportunity here to help out a new member and we missed the mark, im sorry about that. All i can ask is if we can help you through this in a serious, structured method to help you understand the technology a bit better and the industry best practices.

Best Practices are important and are required to evolve.... 10 years ago, ghost was a BP. but now it is most definitely not, and this is from MULTIPLE standpoints. ghost is no longer a good option because of its limitations and also licensing and technologies have evolved. for example, i used ghost to deploy 1000NT4 workstations and windows 98 desktops. perfect, no HAL changes or serious configuration changes.

Now we have formalized SOE's and a tiered deployment style for easier management of the business processes. You have corporate security groups that need to test against a master image, you can no longer have a collection of master or "gold" disk, its tedious, inefficient and to be honest, a bad way of thinking as applications that are updated mean you need to start your process all over again. Time wasting is something i think all engineers are averse to....

 

 

 

I think the way you want to do it is do-able, but the wrong way to go about it. if you can show us your logs from the above we would all be more than happy to help out if you still would like to learn for the future.

 

 

On another note, check out these posts by myself and questions by others... these will give you a better idea of how big organizations deploy the services and why. it maybe that you were so frustrated and in the wrong mindset that it just wasn't gunna happen! we've all been there and done that, stress less, we are happy to help. You can grab me on IM if you want to work through it personally or keep it here.

 

Tiered deployments - give you an understanding of what to put where in the process. we can explain more if needed

Scripted installations - vnext based and aimed at VDI, but easily adaptable back to sccm, ignore the VDI components

 

I think this is easier personally than ghost as most of the process is automated. but each to their own.

 

 

more directly related to your post, OEM windows 7 professional keys and installations are generally not compatible with VL keys or media. that is just for your reference.

 

 

 

Anyway, im no longer involved in infrastructure teams as of this years but i will check on this again to help you out if you still need/want assistance.