CTGlobal – Side 37

Coretech Application Creator for SCCM without Active Directory integration

Download: [download#3#size#nohits] System Requirements: Windows XP/Vista. Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 Development team: Kent Agerlund: Contributor Michael Pedersen: Contributor Jakob Gottlieb Svendsen: Main Developer In the first version of our Coretech Application Creator the Collection membership was based on Active Directory Groups. Based on the first feedback we developed a version without the Active Directory integration. In this version the application will automatically create collections, import the package, create 2 programs and optionally two advertisements. The application is pretty esasy to use, but I will advice you to read the help before you start. For detailed information about installation and configuration [...]

By Kent Agerlund|2008-10-11T13:28:32+01:00oktober 11th, 2008|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Tools|1 Kommentar

Configuration Manager 2007 Hardware configurations

Below you'll find some real life Configuration Manager hardware numbers. Primary site server with local SQL Hardware Specifications for medium sites (below 6.000 clients) CPU 2 Intel Pentium 4 Xeon > 3 GHz (or better) RAM 4 GB Disk See below RAID No. of physical disk Purpose Raid 1 2, 150 GB each. C =50GB (Operating System, SQL Application) X= 50 GB (Config mgr. Backup Files, Pagefile) X= 10 GB (TempDB) Raid 1 2, 150 GB each. X = 146 GB (SQL Logs) Raid 10 4, 150 GB each. X = 60 GB (SQL DB) X = 40 GB [...]

By Kent Agerlund|2008-10-10T08:43:47+01:00oktober 10th, 2008|Hardware & Drivers|Kommentarer lukket

Capture from VPC keeps rebooting when deployed.

I normally like to capture my reference images from a virtual machine as it eliminates a lot of the driver issues you have if you capture an Actual machine. I did sometimes run into problems capturing XP images though. The build and capture posses would work fine, but once I deployed the image (with Storage driver and HAL replacement scripts and everything ) it would just enter an endless loop ether before the minisetup, or just after. The problem turned out to be the old UberBug problem where WinPE 2.1 formats the HD in a way that XP doesn't [...]

By Michael Petersen|2008-10-08T16:24:03+01:00oktober 8th, 2008|Configuration Manager (SCCM)|Kommentarer lukket

Automated Windows Installer Properties from .INI (Embedded VBScript)

Download: [download#2#size#nohits] Have you ever needed the functionality to read the property values from an .ini file, every time a installation or repair is run? This small script created for Windows installer, will do the job. Purpose: Automatically reads a ini file located in the MSI SOURCEDIR property. Each parameter in the ini file is read into the property that have the same name. ex. "DaysSerial"="0100000" line is read in to property named DaysSerial and setting the value to 0100000 System works both with "DaysSerial"="0100000" ini format, or DaysSerial=0100000 ini format. If you later change the ini file at the [...]

By Jakob Gottlieb Svendsen|2008-10-08T10:52:05+01:00oktober 8th, 2008|Packaging & Installation, Scripting & Development|11 Comments

Coretech Application Creator For SCCM

This version is obsolete! please download new Coretech SCCM Manager at https://blog.ctglobalservices.com/confmgr07/coretech-sccm-manager-1-0-3-1-freeware-download/ System Requirements: Windows XP/Vista. Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 Development team: Kent Agerlund: Contributor Michael Pedersen: Contributor Jakob Gottlieb Svendsen: Main Developer 1. Introduction This utility is developed based on many years of experience with Microsoft System Management Server now System Center Configuration Manager. Our mission is to streamline every aspect of the package creation process thus making the daily administration of the system smarter. In the latest version you’ll also find functionality to prestage computers and configure variables used in the image deployment process. This utility is Freeware, [...]

By Jakob Gottlieb Svendsen|2008-10-08T09:17:45+01:00oktober 8th, 2008|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Tools|1 Kommentar

Using WDS for legacy RIS images, SCCM boot Images, and PSP (SCCM PXE Service Point)

Setting up WDS 1. If WDS is already installed go to step 4 2. Make sure you are running Windows Server 2003 SP2 or later 3. Go to "add or remove programs" and open "add/Remove windows components". Scroll to the bottom of the wizard and check of "windows deployment services" and hit NEXT (Make sure you have the srv2003 source files as you will be prompted for files) 4. to check the status of your WDS open a command prompt and type wdsutil /get-server /show:config 5. If WDS operational mode is Mixed or legacy, you are done. 6. In [...]

By Michael Petersen|2008-10-07T16:22:07+01:00oktober 7th, 2008|OS Deployment|3 Comments

Links and other usefull information from this week MOC 6451

Websites: Config Mgr sites http://www.microsoft.com/smserver/default.mspx - SMS 2003 homepage http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/default.aspx - System Center homepage http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/configurationmanager/ - Configuration Manager News groups http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetmms.aspx?tab=webcasts&id=42364 - Configuration Manager webcasts http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/configurationmanager/en/us/default.aspx - Config Mgr. homepage http://www.myitforum.com/ - Great community http://technet.microsoft.com/da-dk/configmgr/default(en-us).aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/da-dk/library/bb735860(en-us).aspx http://www.smsexpert.com/ - Information about MOF editing http://www.1e.com/ - Config Mgr. addons Deployment Sites: https://blog.ctglobalservices.com/osdeploy/ - Deployment Blog, author Michael Petersen http://blogs.technet.com/msdeployment/default.aspx - MDT Blog Tools: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/tools/scripto2.mspx - Scriptomatic http://sourceforge.net/projects/smsclictr - Config Mgr Client Center http://www.myitforum.com/myITWiki/SCCMTools.ashx - SCCM Right click tools and more Troubleshooting Management Point: http://siteservername/SMS_MP/.sms_aut?MPCERT http://siteservername/SMS_MP/.sms_aut?MPList Other sites: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555638 - List of Active Directory attributes names to be used in system and user [...]

By Kent Agerlund|2008-09-26T08:55:44+01:00september 26th, 2008|Configuration Manager (SCCM)|Kommentarer lukket

Creating Configuration Manager 2007 Reports – Part II Creating the first report

In this part I will walk you through the creation of a report in SQL Server Managmenet Studio. The report will show all clients with SMS 2003 Toolkit installed. Open SQL Server Management Studio and log on to the server. Navigate to the Configuration Manager database. The name is most likely SMS_<Sitecode>. Right click Views and select New View Select the Views tab. Add V_R_System and V_GS_Add_Remove_Programs Note: V_R_System contains the basic discovery data. Now when we have the views we must create an Inner Join.From V_R_System drag the column RessourceID onto the RessourceID column onto the V_GS_Add_Remove_Programs view Select [...]

By Kent Agerlund|2008-09-08T19:30:19+01:00september 8th, 2008|Configuration Manager (SCCM)|7 Comments

Creating Configuration Manager 2007 Reports – Part I the basics

I often hear customers and students complaining about the complexity of creating reports. Statements like; “the database is a mystery” and “I am not a SQL expert. I agree, the database can be a mystery. But using the proper tools and some very basic SQL skills you will be able to create powerful reports. I will post 4 parts explaining the basics and how to build a few reports. Views: Reports are based on SQL views. A view is basically just a query joining one or more tables. Knowing a few basics of the naming standard I very helpful: V_GS_Name [...]

By Kent Agerlund|2008-09-07T16:15:31+01:00september 7th, 2008|Configuration Manager (SCCM)|Kommentarer lukket

Working with different languages in Windows XP

Deploying XP with different languages can sometimes be a real challenge. Not that it's that difficult to make the different settings in sysprep.inf or unattend.txt but you still need to make sure the correct files are present during installation, and depending on how you do this, a number of things can go wrong. First let me point out that, this guide assumes that we are working with BDD/MDT or SCCM and therefore do not have the ability to manipulate the behavior of winnt32.exe (the executable used to start the Windows XP installation) by adding different command switches. Normally we [...]

By Michael Petersen|2008-08-19T16:17:43+01:00august 19th, 2008|OS Deployment|5 Comments

SAS storage drivers in WinPE 1.5 (2005)

So, I don't know if there are any one out there who still playing around with BDD/MDT and SMS? if not your are the lucky ones... Myself I still have customers who are running that setup... Basically it runs fine, but there is always the issue with updating WinPE with NIC and Storage drivers... Recently (well yesterday actually) I had to update WinPE to work on a "DELL Precision T5400" with a non built in SAS 6 Storage Controller. Normally its not that difficult to add storage controllers to WinPE 1.5, I just import them in trough SMS, and [...]

By Michael Petersen|2008-08-15T16:15:01+01:00august 15th, 2008|OS Deployment|Kommentarer lukket

SCCM versions

As you properly know there are some significant differences in the way SCCM/OSD works before SP1 and after SP1. One being the OS target drive during the WinPE phase (D or E instead of C), and also weather or not you have to "press OK to accept that OS deployment is about to start, and your DeployCD should be removed" (I use CD in the form of .wim loaded into WDS for my "Mixed mode" customers). Also the difference between PE 2.0 from WAIK 1.0, that lack some NIC and Storage drivers that the 2.1/1.1 version have. Now where [...]

By Michael Petersen|2008-08-13T16:12:21+01:00august 13th, 2008|Configuration Manager (SCCM)|Kommentarer lukket

Wrong PC name after deployment

A while ago, I noticed that the PC name specified during the "Import Computer Name" part of SCCM didn't stick trough out the entire deployment process.. The strange thing was that this wasn't the case for all my task sequences. What I then noticed was that the name (when it changed) always took the WINPE random name like "MININT-XXXXXX", which led me to think that it properly had something to do with the MDT integrated TaskSequences, and what do you know, it did! It then got me thinking, that the MDT scripts properly updated sysprep.inf with the variable "OSDcomputername" [...]

By Michael Petersen|2008-08-11T16:06:56+01:00august 11th, 2008|Configuration Manager (SCCM)|5 Comments

easy way to change PC name during Deployment

I know there are many ways to handle PC naming during deployment, like prestaging, variables, userexit scripts, etc. But a very simple way is to just have the PC prompt you for a Name during The TaskSequece. I wrote a small script that in conjunction wit the fabulous ZTIUtillity.vbs script from MDT does just that. It is very small and simple script (as I pretty much suck at scripting) so it shouldn't be hard to get it to work. The script will prompt you for a PCname, and write it to sysprep.inf (if needed on VISTA it must be [...]

By Michael Petersen|2008-08-05T15:55:38+01:00august 5th, 2008|Configuration Manager (SCCM)|Kommentarer lukket

Make changes to WDS/SCCM boot file to run script before Task Sequence:

I recently had a customer who couldn't re image machines because of some hidden partition stuff on manufacture preloaded machines. It actually turned out that a couple of files needed to be removed prior to running the TS. So we added a script to be run prior to the launch of the TS, to get rid of these files. Its not like its a big secret, how you do this, as it is in the WinPE.chm but I thought just make small description of the steps anyhow. 1. MountRW SCCM boot.wim with ImageX - ImageX /MountRW C:\boot.wim 1 C:\mount [...]

By Michael Petersen|2008-07-14T15:44:32+01:00juli 14th, 2008|OS Deployment|1 Kommentar

Using BDD/MDT DriverPaths1 in SCCM

I have always loved the DriverPaths1=\\server\path\%model% part of BDD\MDT because it enabled you to have all your model specific drivers in a corresponding folder rather than a repository. SCCM pretty much forces you to use repositories.... I know that you can create different driver packages and categorize your drivers, thereby enabling you to only use specific drivers. However, you then have to create a bunch of IF statements, to make this a reality. The BDD/MDT way is to add the "DriverPaths1=\server\path\%model%" to your CustomSettings.ini, and then create a folder structure looking something like this: Each folder would then [...]

By Michael Petersen|2008-07-12T15:41:43+01:00juli 12th, 2008|Hardware & Drivers|5 Comments

Keep Test Computers in Test collection.

When testing your different deployment scenarios eg. Task Sequences, you normally create a Test collection, and associate a test PC to that collection. Now ones the PC has successfully carried out the steps in the TS, you might want to change some thing, and then run the TS again. You now find that the test PC does not work any more, and you have to associate the PC all over again. Why does this happen! The PC receives a new GUID during deployment, and therefore, the original associated PC will become obsolete. The PC (obviously still with the same [...]

By Michael Petersen|2008-07-09T15:33:15+01:00juli 9th, 2008|Configuration Manager (SCCM), OS Deployment|Kommentarer lukket

Storage drivers in XP image

When capturing an image, it's always a good idea to add needed storage drivers to the [SysprepMassStorage] section of your Sysprep.inf before capturing. The two most common Mass Storage Drivers are the : Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver (IaStore.sys) and Dell SAS 5x and SAS 6x Controller Driver (symmpi.sys) In Sysprep.inf add the following lines... ================insert into sysprep.inf======================== [Sysprep] BuildMassStorageSection = No [SysprepMassStorage] ;Dell SAS 5x and SAS 6x Controller Driver PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0054&SUBSYS_1F041028=C:\drivers\SAS\symmpi.INF PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0054&SUBSYS_1F061028=C:\drivers\SAS\symmpi.INF PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0054&SUBSYS_1F071028=C:\drivers\SAS\symmpi.INF PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0054&SUBSYS_1F081028=C:\drivers\SAS\symmpi.INF PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0054&SUBSYS_1F091028=C:\drivers\SAS\symmpi.INF PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0058&SUBSYS_1F0E1028=C:\drivers\SAS\symmpi.INF PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0058&SUBSYS_1F0F1028=C:\drivers\SAS\symmpi.INF PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0058&SUBSYS_1F101028=C:\drivers\SAS\symmpi.INF PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0058&SUBSYS_021D1028=C:\drivers\SAS\symmpi.INF ;Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2681&CC_0106=C:\drivers\sata\IAAHCI.INF PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C1&CC_0106=C:\drivers\sata\IAAHCI.INF PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C5&CC_0106=C:\drivers\sata\IAAHCI.INF PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2821&CC_0106=C:\drivers\sata\IAAHCI.INF PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2829&CC_0106=C:\drivers\sata\IAAHCI.INF PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2922&CC_0106=C:\drivers\sata\IAAHCI.INF PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2929&CC_0106=C:\drivers\sata\IAAHCI.INF PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_3A22&CC_0106=C:\drivers\sata\IAAHCI.INF PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2682&CC_0104=C:\drivers\sata\iaStor.INF PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C3&CC_0104=C:\drivers\sata\iaStor.INF PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C6&CC_0104=C:\drivers\sata\iaStor.INF PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2822&CC_0104=C:\drivers\sata\iaStor.INF PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_282A&CC_0104=C:\drivers\sata\iaStor.INF ======================================================= [...]

By Michael Petersen|2008-07-08T15:08:28+01:00juli 8th, 2008|Hardware & Drivers|1 Kommentar

Unpack Intel drivers

I recently spent more time that I should have, trying to unpack both the Intel NIC drivers executable and the Mass Storage driver executable. For some reason it is not easy to find the correct switches to use for this action, and when you find them it can be somewhat difficult to figure out exactly how they work. INTEL Network drivers: Download the newest NIC drivers from HERE You now find yourself with and pro2kxp_xxxx.exe file who wants to install something on you pc (which you properly do not want). So in order to only extract the files you [...]

By Michael Petersen|2008-07-01T14:31:51+01:00juli 1st, 2008|Hardware & Drivers|2 Comments