A WORLD OF BITS AND BYTES…
Microsoft has released a great free Ebook of how to Deploy Hyper-V with Software-Defined Storage & Networking (SDN). In this Ebook you’ll learn all the basics of Software Defined Datacenter and how to use it in real life!
You can download this Ebook here: Microsoft System Center Deploying Hyper-V with Software-Defined Storage & Networking
During a OS deployment you don’t want to deploy all your packages and software to every workstation. You can deploy the software after a full OS deployment, but you can also deploy packages during the OSD using collection variables. Now it is possible to deploy packages only if a specific machine is a member of a collection. This collection can be query based, for example OU membership or Active Directory security group, or it can be static (direct membership).
In this example I’ve created a realy simple deployment, Adobe Reader 11.0. I’ve two virtual machines, SCWIN81-01 and SCWIN81-02. Both machines are members of the collection “Deploy – Windows 8.1 Enterprise x64”, where the task sequence is deployed on. Machine SCWIN81-01 is also member of the collection “Install – Adobe Reader 11.0”. This collection has a limited collection of “Deploy – Windows 8.1 Enterprise x64”. Both machines are deployed on the same time, the only difference is that machine SCWIN81-01 has Adobe Reader 11.0 installed and machine SCWIN81-02 not. Why……based on the collection variable during the OSD 🙂
1.) First create the collections
2.) Make the specific machines members of the right collections (query based or direct membership)
3.) Open the properties of the collection “Install – Adobe Reader 11.0” and navigate to the “Collection Variables” tab
4.) Add one or more variables with some values. In this example the variable is “APP-AdobeReader” with the value “Yes”
5.) Open the task sequence and add a package installation step
6.) Add the package with the program and navigate to the “Options” tab
7.) Select “Add Condition” and select “Task Sequence Variable”
8.) Enter the collection variable you’ve created earlier with the same value. In my example:
Task Sequences Variable APP-AdobeReader equals “Yes”
9.) Select “Apply” and close the task sequence.
10.) Start the OSD on both machines and wait until the installation is done!
11.) Watch the differences between both machines, if everything is okay, one machine has Adobe Reader installed and the other not.
This is an extremely powerfull thing within ConfigMgr, and really helpfull is some scenario’s. For example VDI golden image deployments or hybrid environments with laptops/desktops or multiple organizations using one ConfigMgr environment. One main reason could be consolidation in task sequences. If you want, there should be only one task sequence for all you different deployments. This is why I’m loving collection varaibles! 🙂
During a OS deployment with ConfigMgr 2012 R2, you definitely want to apply the latest Windows updates and patches, for example with Windows Server Update Service (WSUS). You can also integrate WSUS within ConfigMgr 2012 R2, but in this example WSUS is not integrated!!
This example is also very usefull to create a fully patches golden image in ConfigMgr 2012 R2 (Build & Capture). After the task sequence you’ve a fully patches Windows 8.1 machine that you can use for example VDI environments.
1.) Fist open your task sequence
2.) Create a new computer group “Desktops” within the WSUS console (or choose another name, for exmaple: servers, laptops, etc.)
3.) Add a custom group within the task sequence
4.) Add the following steps in your task sequence
Run Command Line:
reg ADD “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate” /v WUServer /t REG_SZ /d http://wsus01.cloud.local:8530 /f
Run Command Line:
reg ADD “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate” /v WUStatusServer /t REG_SZ /d http://wsus01.cloud.local:8530 /f
Run Command Line:
reg ADD “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate” /v TargetGroup /t REG_SZ /d “Desktops” /f
Run Command Line:
reg ADD “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate” /v TargetGroupEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
Run Command Line:
reg ADD “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU” /v UseWUServer /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
Run Command Line:
wuauclt.exe /resetauthorization /detectnow
5.) Don’t forget to set the name of your WSUS server and computer group in the commands above!
6.) Create a new package in ConfigMgr 2012 R2 with the following two files in it, located in the MDT 2013 deployment share directory
ZTIUtility.vbs
ZTIWindowsUpdate.wsf
7.) Don’t create a program in this package, but you only have to distribute it to the distribution point(s)
8.) Add a new step “Run Command Line” to the task sequence with the following command:
cscript.exe ZTIWindowsUpdate.wsf
Select the package where the source files are located
9.) Deploy the task sequence to your client collection!
When a user login the very first time on a Windows 8 of 8.1 machine, they will see a “animation” with some helpful tips. During this stage the userprofile is being created and prepared. While the first sign-in animation may be helpful to new users to see, but it slows down the logintimes. So let’s turn this animation off using ConfigMgr 2012 R2.
1.) Open your task sequence
2.) Add a action “Run Command Line” after Setup Windows and ConfigMgr
3.) Copy and paste the following command line:
reg ADD “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System” /v EnableFirstLogonAnimation /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
4.) Give it the value 0 to disable and 1 to enable
5.) Deploy your task sequence to a collection of devices
In some cases you’ve to add computer to a Active Directory security group. For example Direct Access laptops. In this example I’ve created a VBS script for adding a computer to an Active Directory security group during OSD in ConfigMgr 2012 R2.
1.) Create a new package within ConfigMgr 2012 R2 without a program
2.) Distribute the new package to you distribution point(s)
3.) Copy the script “ADgroup.vbs” to the source location of your new package
4.) Add a step “Run Command Line” to your task sequence
5.) Add the command line: cscript.exe adgroup.vbs [name of your AD group]
6.) Select the package “Scripts”
7.) Select a account with enough privileges to add (new) computer object to the Active Directory
8.) Deploy your task sequence to a collection
You can download the script here. (Right-click and save…)
This week Microsoft has released Update Rollup 3 for System Center 2012 R2. This Update Rollup pack contains a lot of fixes for all the different products in the System Center 2012 R2 Suite! For alle the specific products, view the URL’s below.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2965090
Don’t forget to run the SQL script for System Center Virtual Machine Manager when you install Update Rollup 3.
When you’ve to install an operating system in you’re environment, it is easy and usefull to test your OS deployment first in a virtual environment. In my case, it is an Microsoft Hyper-V host server, where I can deploy some virtual machines using ConfigMgr 2012 R2.
One of the important things when deploying a virtual machine within Hyper-V, are the Integration Components (Integration Services). These components installs all the necesarry drivers for that VM. Maybe you want to perform this action during the OS deployment fase (OSD). What steps do you need to make?
1.) First install a new clean Windows 7 VM (in my case it is Windows 7 Service Pack 1)
2.) Insert the Integration Services Setup Disk
Action / Insert Integration Services Setup Disk
3.) Navigate to your Windows Explorer and open the mounted disk
4.) Navigate to the right folder of your architecture, x86 or x64. In my case it is x64.
D:\support\amd64
5.) Copy all the files in this to your Configuration Manager Site Server. In my case E:\Sources\Applications\Level 0\Hyper-V Integration Services x64
6.) The silent installation is not that hard. Just execute setup.exe /? to see all the options.
7.) Create a new package within ConfigMgr 2012 R2 with a normal program
8.) The source location is the location to your folder created in step 5
9.) The command line to perform is setup.exe /quiet /norestart
10.) After succesfully created to new package, don’t forget to distribute it to your distribution point(s)
11.) Now open you task sequence and at the end create a new folder called “Install Applications”
12.) Add a new package to install and select the wright package and program
13.) All you need to do now is deploy a virtual machine
14.) After your virtual machine has succesfully deployed, look at your device manager. All the components are installed.
Today I had to install a new System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2 environment. One of the features this customer is going to use is OS Deployment. In this environment we are using the Build & Capture task sequence voor deploying a Master Image of Windows 8.1. The Master Images will be deployed in Hyper-V. One of the important steps is to import the “Master VM” into the ConfigMgr database. Two things you’ve to know are….PC name and the MAC address. With this PowerShell command you can find all the MAC addresses very easy!
1.) Open Microsoft PowerShell on your Hyper-V server
2.) First list all the VM’s
Get-VM
3.) List the name of the VM, MAC address, Virtual Switch name and IP address
get-vm -Name SC2012R2-PC0002 | select -ExpandProperty networkadapters | select vmname, macaddress, switchname, ipaddresses
4.) Import the VM into ConfigMgr
