using SCCM 2012 RC in a LAB - Part 8. Deploying 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. In Part 7 we used the Build and Capture process to create our Base Windows 7 X64 wim image. In this part we'll use the captured image in our Deploy Windows 7 X64 task sequence and we'll set some User Device Affinity collection variables and use a USMT 4 package to migrate the users data using hardlinking.

 

 

Step 1. Create the USMT 4 package

 

Perform the following on your SCCM 2012 server as SMSadmin.

 

If you want to migrate data in a Deploy Task Sequence you'll need to have the USMT 4 package ready, so let's create it now so that we can access the necessary migration files in our Deploy Windows 7 X64 task sequence.

 

On your SCCM server in Windows Explorer, browse to C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\

 

Right click on the USMT folder and choose Copy,

 

 

select your sources folder (mine is on D:\) and paste the USMT folder in sources\os so that it's path is sources\os\usmt

 

 

In the ConfigMgr Console, select Software Library, Application Management, Packages, right click and choose Create Package.

 

 

fill in the details about the package, call it USMT version 4 and point to the UNC path of our newly copied files, \\sccm\sources\os\usmt

 

 

for Program Type select Do not create a program

 

 

Complete the Wizard

 

 

 

 

Step 2. Distribute the USMT package to our Distribution Points

 

Select the USMT package and click on Distribute Content in the Ribbon

 

 

for Content Destination, click on Add, select Distribution point, select our DP,

 

 

click through the rest of the wizard

 

 

 

 

Step 3. Import the captured Windows 7 X64 wim file

 

Perform the following on your SCCM 2012 server as SMSadmin.

 

In the Software Library, Operating Systems section of the Configmgr console, click on Operating System Images, you'll note that it is empty because we havn't imported any images yet. Right click and choose Add Operating System Image

 

 

browse to the UNC of where we captured the image in Part 7 and select the captured wim file

 

eg: \\sccm\sources\os\captures\windows7x64.wim

 

 

fill in some details about the image

 

 

click through the summary, progress to completion

 

 

 

Step 4. Distribute the image to the Distribution points

 

Perform the following on your SCCM 2012 server as SMSadmin.

 

We now need to distribute our imported image to our distribution points. Select Our Windows 7 Enterprise X64 image and in the ribbon above click on Home and then Distribute Content

 

 

when the Distribute Content Wizard appears, click next

 

 

to specify the destination, click on add and select distribution point

 

 

select our Distribution Point from the list

 

 

the DP appears selected

 

 

click next through summary/progress to completion

 

 

 

 

Step 5. Create the Deploy Task Sequence

 

Perform the following on your SCCM 2012 server as SMSadmin.

 

Now that we have added our captured operating system image to Configmgr, and distributed it to our dp's we want to create a Deploy Task sequence to Deploy the image. In Task Sequences, right click and choose Create Task Sequence.

 

 

choose to Install an existing image package

 

 

fill in some details about the image and click browse and select the X86 boot image, click next to proceed

 

 

now select the Windows 7 image by clicking on browse and set an administrator password, uncheck Partition and format the target computer before installing the operating system if you want to use hardlinking for User state migration, otherwise files cannot be stored locally

 

 

for the Configure the Network step, we want to join the domain so click on browse beside join a domain

 

 

and now we need to specify the user that has permissions to join the domain, i use the DomJoin user just or this task (create the user and delegate them enough permissions to add computers to the domain)

 

 

I'm not specifying an OU in this step, you can, but don't select the Computers Container if you do...

 

 

for the Install the Configuration Manager client step click on browse and select the client package from defintion we created in the last part

 

 

click next and for State Migration, select our USMT 4 package

 

 

change the setting to Save user settings Locally (this will mean we can use Hard Links)

 

 

for Include Updates select All Software Updates

 

 

and click next through to completion (we are not installing any applications at this point).

 

 

 

 

Step 6. Create a Deploy Windows 7 X64 collection

 

Perform the following on your SCCM 2012 server as SMSadmin.

 

In the ConfigMgr console, click on Assets and Compliance, select Device Collections, click on Create Device Collection in the Ribbon

 

 

fill in the collection details, call it Deploy Windows 7 X64, limit it to All Systems

 

 

click next through the wizard, we will not add any computers to it yet, and we will not create any queries.

 

 

 

 

Step 7. Create Collection variables

 

Perform the following on your SCCM 2012 server as SMSadmin.

 

We want to set UDA variables on our collection, so that a UDA user gets assigned as the primary user of computers deployed in this collection. We are doing this to show you that you can set a primary user to a device based on Collection Variables.

 

We could do this in other ways, for example using task sequence steps to set the variables or prestart commands or a frontend HTA, I will come back to this subject later, but for now, let's just see it in action by specifying the two variables below.

 

Right click on the Deploy Windows 7 X64 Collection and choose Properties

 

 

click on the Collection Variables tab, click on the yellow startburst and add a new variable called SMSTSAssignUsersMode, set the value to Auto and remove the checkmark from Do not display this value in the Configuration Manager console

 

 

do the same again for another variable called SMSTSUdaUsers, specify the user as domain\user

 

 

 

Step 8. Deploy our Task Sequence

 

Perform the following on your SCCM 2012 server as SMSadmin.

 

To make the task sequence available to computers we need to Deploy it. In Software Library, select our Deploy Windows 7 X64 task sequence and choose Deploy

 

 

select our Deploy Windows 7 X64 collection and click ok to the warning

 

 

change purpose to Available (this keeps it optional, Required is Mandatory ! and dangerous as a result), place a checkmark in Make available to boot media and PXE

 

 

click next through the task sequence, until distribution points, by Default it will be set to Download content locally when needed by running task sequence, you can get this to change to Access content directly by editing each package referenced in the task sequence and setting the Data Access tab for each package, place a checkmark in Copy the content in this package to a package share on Distribution points

 

 

click next through the wizard to completion.

 

 

In our next part we will create an Application, and create a deployment type for that application to only install if the Primary User is True for that device (User Device Affinity), we will then add a computer to the new collection, PXE boot it and watch the process from start to finish.

[n00blar]

Couple of questions in regards to this lab (mainly due to my lack of knowledge about this topic)

 

1. What are these UDA variables used for?

2. USMT, what settings are you collecting by using this? (I will read about this later on, as I'm not familiar with this either)

 

Thanks!

[Lucero]

anyweb, do I deploy Office / Adobe through SCCM, or is it just better to capture a reference machine with Office / Adobe already on?

[anyweb]

Couple of questions in regards to this lab (mainly due to my lack of knowledge about this topic)

 

1. What are these UDA variables used for?

2. USMT, what settings are you collecting by using this? (I will read about this later on, as I'm not familiar with this either)

 

Thanks!

 

the UDA variables are used to set who the Primary User(s) are for this device, useful for targetting software to computers later...

 

USMT is for migrating users data, we'll come back to that later

[anyweb]

anyweb, do I deploy Office / Adobe through SCCM, or is it just better to capture a reference machine with Office / Adobe already on?

 

up to you, normally i'd recommend you keep FAT applications in your build and capture, and deploy everything else in the Deploy Task sequence, but this is just a lab so do whatver you want !

[leowenlu]

Spent more than 2 days, but still couldnot figure out why PXE boot didn't work.

here is smspxe log.

SMSPXE.log

[anyweb]

what error do you get when you pxe boot a computer ?

[leowenlu]

what error do you get when you pxe boot a computer ?

 

PXE - E55,

 

WDS is up and running. This is my DHCP setting on a Cisco Router.

 

option 60 ascii PXEClient

option 66 ip 192.168.117.22

option 67 ascii \SMSBoot\x86\wdsnbp.com

 

Any idea where I can start to troubleshoot?

[MatthieuV]

Hi,

When I try to deploy Win Seven x64 on my workstation I obtain this error

Failed tu run task sequence

GR2000004 cannot be located on a distribution point

 

GR2000004 is my Image Boot x64

And when i look in my DP for it, it is present

 

Can you help me to solv this problem

Thanks

[mca91601]

I've followed this step by step, and I keep running into abortpxe.com when trying to PXE boot a Dell 755 for Windows 7 x64 capture task. SCCM2012 is running on it's own server, DHCP is running on a root-level domain controller w/ options 66 and 67 enabled, pointing to the SCCM server's IP address.