using SCCM 2012 in a LAB - Part 7. Build and Capture Windows 7 X64

[anyweb]

In Part 1 of this series we got our AD and SCCM servers ready, and then we installed System Center 2012 Configuration Manager as a standalone Primary site. In Part 2 we configured the SCCM server further by adding some Windows Server roles necessary for the following Configuration Manager 2012 functionality, Software Update Point (SUP) and Operating System Deployment. In Part 3 we configured the server further by Enabling Discovery methods and creating Boundary's and Boundary Groups. In Part 4 we configured Client Settings, Added roles and Distributed the Configmgr Client to our Computers within the LAB, then in Part 5 we enabled the Endpoint Protection Role and configured Endpoint Protection settings and targeted a collection called All Windows 7 Computers with these settings and policies. In Part 6 we configured our SUP further to Deploy software updates to our All Windows 7 Computers and Build Windows 7 X64 collections.

Now we will use the Build and Capture process to create our Base Windows 7 X64 wim image, we'll use this image in the next part to Deploy Windows 7.

Whats new in Configuration Manager 2012 for Operating System Deployment ?

• You can apply Windows Updates by using Component-Based Servicing (CBS) to update the Windows Imaging (.wim) file format images that are stored in the image node of the Software Library.
• The Task Sequence Media Wizard includes steps to add prestart command files (formerly pre-execution hooks) to prestaged media, bootable media, and stand-alone media.
• You can configure the Task Sequence Media Wizard to suppress the Configuration Manager Boot Media wizard during operating system installation. This configuration enables you to deploy operating systems without end user intervention.
• You can define a deployment in a prestart command that overrides existing deployments to the target computer. Use the SMSTSPreferredAdvertID task sequence variable to configure the task sequence to use the specific Offer ID that defines the conditions for the deployment.
• You can use the same task sequence media to deploy operating systems to computers anywhere in the hierarchy.
• The Capture User State task sequence action and the Restore User State task sequence action supports new features from the User State Migration Tool (USMT) version 4.
• You can use the Install Application task sequence action to deploy applications from the Software Library when you deploy an operating system.
• You can define user device affinity for a client computer during operating system deployment.
• The functionality of the PXE service point and its configuration is moved to the distribution point to increase scalability.

Step 1. Enable PXE support for Clients
Perform the following on the SCCM server as SMSadmin

In the ConfigMgr console, click on Administration, Site Configuration, Servers and Site System Roles, and double click on the Distribution Point role listed, select the PXE tab and place a checkmark in Enable PXE support for Clients, answer Yes when prompted about firewall ports (UDP ports 67, 68, 69 and 4011 ).



enable all options and click on the Drop down UDA option and set it to Allow User Device Affinity with Automatic Approval





Step 2. Add the Windows 7 X64 operating system image
Perform the following on the SCCM server as SMSadmin

In the ConfigMgr console, select Software Library and expand Operating Systems, click on Operating System Installers and choose add operating system installer from the ribbon (alternatively right click to get the same option)



browse to the UNC path where you have previously copied the extracted contents of your Windows 7 X64 Enterprise ISO

(I extracted mine and then copied it to \\sccm\sources\os\Windows 7x64 prior to starting this step.



fill in some general info about the image



and complete that wizard.



Step 3. Distribute the Operating System to our Distribution Points
Perform the following on the SCCM server as SMSadmin

Now that we've added the image, let's distribute it to our DP. Click on the image we just added and in the ribbon click on Distribute Content



the Distribute Content wizard appears



click next, select Add, select Distribution Point, select our SCCM server then ok



click next through the wizard until completion





Step 4. Customise our boot images and then Distribute the Boot images to DP's
Perform the following on the SCCM server as SMSadmin

Note: Even though Build and Capture of Windows 7 X64 only needs the X64 boot image, we will update both boot images as we'll need them to both have Command support enabled.

Select boot images in the left navigational pane, select the X86 boot image, right click choose properties click on the Customization tab, enable Command support



click on the Data Source tab, place a checkmark in Deploy this boot image from the PXE service Point



click apply, and answer No when prompted to udpate the Distribution Points now as we have to add our DP first before updating the boot image to the DP's..



click Ok to close.

Now we need to Distribute our Boot image to our Distribution Point, so select the image and choose Distribute Content from the ribbon



add our Distribution Point and click through the wizard to completion



Tip: you can open the SMSProv.log file in CMTrace to review the progress of the boot image changes being made, infact you can even see that the CMtrace tool itself is now being copied into our boot images by default ! excellent !!



Note: you must repeat the above process for the X64 Boot image


Step 5. Create and then Distribute the Configmgr Client Package to DP's
Perform the following on the SCCM server as SMSadmin

Currently there are two packages for Configuration Manager Client however neither are working in their current form, rather than use them let's create our own.

In Software Library, right click on Packages and choose Create Package from Definition,



choose Configuration Manager Client Upgrade, click next



choose Always obtain source files from a source folder



for source folder point to \\server\sms_xxx\client where xxx is your site code eg; P01



click next through the wizard until it completes



select our newly created package and add it to our Distribution Points (right click it, choose Distribute Content, go through the wizard).

Note: our Client package is the only one with version 5.0 so it's easy to see.





Step 6. Create the Build and Capture Task Sequence
Perform the following on the SCCM server as SMSadmin

In the Configmgr Console click on Task Sequences under Software Library, Operating System Deployment. In the Ribbon click on Create Task Sequence



select the Build and Capture a reference operating system image option



fill in some details about the Task Sequence and select the X64 boot image which you distributed to the dp's above



in the next screen we get to select our Operating System Installation source Image that we added above in addition to this i'd recommend you DON'T enter the Product Key and that you DO enter an Administrator Password



next we should join a workgroup to keep the build and capture image clean of any changes that can be made via domain join



next we get to include the Configmgr client package, use the one we created earlier, select the Microsoft Configuration Manager Client Upgrade 5.0 All Package



Note: If you want windows updates to installed include SMSMP=sccm.server2008r2.lab.local in your Setup windows and configmgr step Installation Properties, the old switch SMSSLP is retired as is the Server Locator Point role.





choose to install All Software Updates



click next through the wizard through the application, sysprep and image info screens,

for the Capture image settings screen fill in the capture account details and use a user that has rights to that UNC path (don't forget to create the \\server\sources\os\captures directory first..) make sure you type the capture account details correctly otherwise you'll have a long wait until the next Build and Capture is done and you get to see if your capture actually succeeds or not due to a typo)



close the wizard





Step 7. Import Computer Information
Perform the following on the SCCM server as SMSadmin

We need our Virtual Machine to be imported into ConfigMgr's database before we can add it to our Build and Capture Windows 7 X64 collection so lets do that. In the ConfigMgr console, click on Assets and Compliance, Devices, and in the Ribbon click on Import Computer Information. If you havn't already created a Virtual Machine do so now, we need one with 1 gig of Virtual Ram and we need to know it's MAC address.



Note: If you want to import multiple computers via a file then see my separate post here

We will import one computer into ConfigMgr's database so choose import single computer



filll in the computername and mac address



click next through data preview and for target collection choose our Build and Capture Windows 7 X64 collection we created in the previous part



click next through the wizard to completion.



and it appears in our collection after a few minutes



Note: Do not continue with this part until the computer appears in the collection.


Step 8. Deploy the Build and Capture Task Sequence
Perform the following on the SCCM server as SMSadmin

In Software Library, select Task Sequences, select our Build and Capture Task sequence and right click, choose Deploy, if Deploy is greyed out are you sure you created a new package from Definition for the Configuration Manager Client ?



point it to our build and capture collection



change the purpose from Required to Available, and set make available to boot media and PXE



click next through the options until you get to distribution point, make a note of the Network Access Account note !



finish the wizard





Step 9. Enable the Network Access Account
Perform the following on the SCCM server as SMSadmin

In the ConfigMgr console, select Site Configuration, Sites and right click on our P01 site, choose Configure Site Components, Software Distribution (alternatively in the ribbon click on Settings, Configure Site Components, Software Distribution)



Click on the Network Access Account tab and specify your Network Access Account user, choose new user, input the details and test the connection (Note: this is New since Beta 2)



click Apply and Ok.


Step 10. PXE boot our new Virtual Machine
Perform the following on the SCCM server as SMSadmin

Note: Before PXE booting the Virtual Machine, verify that the Windows Deployment Service is started, if not, start it, monitor the SMSPXE.log during the process and during the PXE boot.

Press F12 when prompted



enter our PXE password



click next and select our Build and Capture Windows 7 X64 task sequence



and pat yourself on the back for a job well done as it goes through the process of Build and Capture



if you get any errors about packages not being found then enable the following setting in Data Access for all packages in your task sequence including the boot image:- copy the contents in this package to a package share on distribution points



Note: once you have enabled the setting above your Deployment distribution settings gets a new drop down menu choice, access content directly from a distribution point when needed by the running task sequence



and then try again.. our client is being built



Setup windows and configmgr...



followed by a System Restart



followed by the usual windows setup routines..



and another restart later and it's setup windows and configmgr (in windows) followed by Install Updates



and after it's evaluated things, the updates will be downloaded and applied

Note: the updates will not be found unless you have SMSMP=sccm.server2008r2.lab.local in your Setup windows and configmgr step



after this there will be another restart followed by Sysprep, and then the moment you have been waiting for, Capture !



In the next part of this series, we will Deploy our captured WIM and continue learning about this fantastic product

[jmmj69]

Hi , I have one problem

 

- the Windows Deployment Service is started but i don't find the log SMSPXE.log on the server and i have the message when my Vm start the VM obtain an address in my DCHP i can see option 60 PXE but i have the message "PXE-E55:ProxyDHCP service dit not reply to request on port 4011"

 

Normally with WDS 2008 R2 or another when this message is that we not or incorrectly configure PXE clients response in the server but there is no configuration on the SCCM server to the WDS console only on the distribution point when we active "Enable PXE support for Clients, answer Yes when prompted about firewall ports (UDP ports 67, 68, 69 and 4011 ).

 

Can I configure the WDS console and the server or not ?

 

Thanks for your help !

[wee_ads]

Hey mate,

 

I have encountered similar problems with configuring PXE points over the years. In the instance you have mentioned above, I found the following worked:

 

1. After installing the WDS role, actually configure the WDS server through the WDS console. Don't configure any DHCP options, pretty much just follow the configuration wizard and select to respond to known and unknown computers.

 

2. I manually set my DHCP options, but these will be specific for your setup depending on whether it on the same server as WDS, or is even in the same subnet as the Config Manager infrastructure. That said though, I have always had success with options:

*** 066 - "<NETBIOS name of WDS server>"

*** 067 - "boot\x86\wdsnbp.com"

 

No matter what hardware type you are running (x86 or x64), the above references should redirect to the relevant boot image (so long as there is both an x86 and x64 boot image been uploaded to the distribution point).

 

3. Enable the distribution point to respond to PXE requests (as per the instructions above).

 

As mentioned above, the DHCP options are not a standard configuration item as they depend on your setup. You may need to alter these, but I have always had good success using them.

 

Good luck!

[jmmj69]

It's not working i have now this message

PXE-E11: ARP timeout

PXE-E38: TFTP cannot open connection

PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM.

 

When i add the DCHP option 60 i have the same problem 4011 ProxyDHCP. now the problem is the TFTP ! I undesrtand i missed the " " for the two option now i have PXE-32 TFTP open timeout.

[anyweb]

don't configure WDS, configmgr will do it for you

have you Deployed your task sequence to a collection and made sure that the computer you imported is in that collection ? did you find the smspxe.log file yet ?

[jmmj69]

I remove WDS service the i reboot and i don't configure WDS console, Then i will add PXE support on the Distribution Point and i wait. i to that now

[jmmj69]

don't configure WDS, configmgr will do it for you

have you Deployed your task sequence to a collection and made sure that the computer you imported is in that collection ? did you find the smspxe.log file yet ?

 

I just finish to configure PXE on the distribution point the service WDS is started the smspxe.log don't exit i can't find it on the server. and now when i launch my VM PXE boot it says No boot filename received but my bootx64.wim i check the option deploy now to the PXE service Point.

 

Can I make some configuration on the DCHP or not?

[jmmj69]

Hi,

 

the log file don't exist smspxe.log and in the site status all role are OK. I don't understand why ?

[Peter van der Woude]

PXE is now managed through the Distribution Point, so most of the (error) message can be found in the distrmgr.log

[n00blar]

I seem to be having almost the same issue. I also double checked the steps shown above.

The message I'm getting is:

 

PXE-E53: No boot filename received

 

PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM

Operating System not found

 

This message definitely seems to point something in CM, maybe I did miss something, but I just can't pin point it.