Options, Options and More Options... Please Help

[Squirre1]

So I am digging into SCCM 2012 and I have my MDT 2012 Update 1 integrated into it, but what that does is give you a plethora of options and a significant amount of those options overlapping. Mainly with application installs.

 

For ex.

You have the 3 main areas I will be talking about in this post, Customsettings.ini, the Task Sequence itself or the MDT Database.

 

Lets first examine the customsettings.ini

 

[settings]
Priority=DefaultGateway,Make,Model,Default
Properties=MyCustomProperty

;######################################
;# Default Gateway Assignments
;######################################
[DefaultGateway]
10.9.1.1=Location1
10.200.255.254=Location2

[Location1]

Applications001=<Loc Specific App to install>

[Location2]

Applications001=<Loc Specific App to install>


;######################################
;# Make Assignments
;######################################
[Hewlett-Packard]

[LENOVO]

Applications001=<Make Specific App to install>

[VMware, Inc.]
Applications001=<Make Specific App to install>


;######################################
;# Desktop Model Assignments
;######################################

[OptiPlex 740 Enhanced]


Applications001=<Model Specific App to install>

[OptiPlex 760]

Applications001=<Model Specific App to install>

[OptiPlex 780]
Applications001=<Model Specific App to install>


;######################################
;# Laptop Model Assignments
;######################################


;Lenovo X230
[42902ZU]
Applications001=<Model Specific App to install>

;Lenovo T430
[2347H9U]
Applications001=<Model Specific App to install>


;######################################
;# Virtual Model Assignments
;######################################

[VMWare Virtual Platform]
Applications001=<Platform Specific App to install>


;######################################
;# Default Assignments
;######################################
[Default]
OSInstall=Y
SkipCapture=YES
SkipAdminPassword=NO
SkipProductKey=YES

Applications001=<General App to install>

 

Next lets look at the task sequence:

 

You can see you have similar type Model specific selections there where I am doing driver installation based on Model, but that passes down the the possabilities with the applications installations as well... I do not have a location specific group in there, but it is not too difficult to make one. With the groups created, you can create an obscene amount of logic in these to control how the detection takes place as to what needs to be executed.

 

Finally there is SCCM integrated with a MDT database, which I do not leverage at all but have to include it as an option.

 

You can see there is a section for roles, locations, makes and models.

 

All of the 3 sections I have shown have the ability to do some form of logic based on information that can be parsed into the task sequence based on variables you can prompt the use for via a UDI, custom HTA or custom VBS.

 

That being said, is there any one way that has benefits over another or offers more flexibility.? What is the method you use for your OSD task sequence...?

 

Thanks,

 

Squirre1