HELP! - Suggested VM & Task Sequence Configuration for Consistent Build & Captures

[BzowK]

Good Afternoon All -

 

This may be one of the most important questions that I've ever asked. I'm wasting a tremendous amount of time!

 

Since starting with SCCM's OSD a few months ago, I've never been able to have consistent build & capture results. Currently, I'm trying to perform a B&C for 25 new workstations which must be imaged by tomorrow. I guarantee that I've run over 10 different versions / variations of task sequences on multiple different workstations & VMs.

 

I've had so many OSD failures, that I actually wrote an AutoHotKey script just to automatically hit F8, map a drive, and copy Logs over - seriously!

 

During research, I found that many people were using Hyper-V VMs for B&C. Today, I've already tried about a dozen, but all have failed.

 

My Question: Given the above, What is the best and/or most consistent platform to run Build & Captures on? With that platform, what are the suggested Task Sequence settings?

 

Below are some of the TS's & platforms that I have tried today to give you an idea of what I've been doing...

 

Platforms Attempted So Far

 

- Hyper-V (Hosted on Win08R2) VM - Kept all defaults except for adjusting HDD size to 40g & 1g RAM. Booted to ISO created by SCCM

 

- Lenovo m91p, Lenovo m60p, HP dc5700

 

Initial B&C Task Sequence

 

- Partition & Quick Format (NTFS)

 

- Applied Win7 x86 ENT

 

- No Product Key / Entered Local Admin Password

 

- WORKGROUP "Joined"

 

- Device Drivers Step (Disabled)

 

- Chose ConfigMGR Package with below String

 

MSCACHESIZE=8000

 

SMSSLP=TNSCCM01.pens.com

 

SMSMP=TNSCCM01.pens.com

 

FSP=TNSCCM01.pens.com

 

PATCH="%_SMSTSMDataPath%\OSD\PEN00009\i386\hotfix\KB2509007\sccm2007ac-sp2-kb2509007-x86-enu.msp"

 

- Installed 8 software packages (All proven to deploy in past)

 

- Capture to known good share

 

 

Variables I've Changed in above TS to try to get to work

 

- Enabled Device Drivers step (All Drivers)

 

- Exported all non-original windows drivers from Win7 Hyper-v VM and made the Device Driver stpe use only them

 

- Changed ConfigMGR string to point to different server with same roles

 

- Advertised both as "Fetch as needed" and "Download all first"

 

- Ran all variations on different platforms listed above.

 

Like the title of this post, I really just need to find a good method or stable, consistent platform to run all of my B&C from for today's project and all future ones.

 

Attached are some Log files from different B&C failures from today

smsts.log

smsts2.log

smsts3.log

smsts-nodrivers.log

 

Any suggestions would be well appreciated - Thanks!!! - Ben

[anyweb]

in our production environment at work we have quite complex build and capture task sequences that have evolved over time. start with one change at a time and thoroughly test it until everything is stable, do this in your lab, once it is stable make the changes in production, and continue with your testing (back in the lab)

 

please take a look at this post for some guidance around build and capture of windows 7 any issues you are having we can help with, but as before, keep the changes simple, one at a time and test thoroughly,

 

all too often people add 4 different new steps to a task sequence and one or more of those steps breaks the smooth working process,

 

it's all about testing testing testing

 

cheers

niall