How to: Initialize, format and label disks during OSD Task Sequence in SCCM 2012 R2

During a task seuence in Microsoft SCCM 2012 R2, the operating system and applications are installed on the C: drive in most situations. But in some deployments, you definitely want to create more disks. For example, you want to create a D: and E: partition for storing some other data. Maybe for Microsoft SQL or Exchange installation, databases, logfiles or just some other data.

The following script will do all these steps for you during the task sequence. The script initialize, format, partition and label the disks for you….fully automated! 🙂

## Set CD-ROM from E: to X:
Set-WmiInstance -InputObject ( Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_volume -Filter "DriveLetter = 'E:'" ) -Arguments @{DriveLetter='X:'}

$disks = Get-Disk | measure
If($disks.Count -eq 2)
{
## Initialize all new disks
Initialize-Disk 1
## Format and rename disks
Get-Disk | where {$_.Number -eq "1"} | New-Partition -UseMaximumSize | Format-Volume -FileSystem NTFS -NewFileSystemLabel Data -Confirm:$false
## Set drive letters (D: - Data, E: - Backup)
Get-Disk | where {$_.Number -eq "1"} | Get-Partition | where {$_.PartitionNumber -eq 2} | Set-Partition -NewDriveLetter D
}
elseif($disks.Count -eq 3)
{
## Initialize all new disks
Initialize-Disk 1
Initialize-Disk 2
## Format and rename disks
Get-Disk | where {$_.Number -eq "1"} | New-Partition -UseMaximumSize | Format-Volume -FileSystem NTFS -NewFileSystemLabel Data -Confirm:$false
Get-Disk | where {$_.Number -eq "2"} | New-Partition -UseMaximumSize | Format-Volume -FileSystem NTFS -NewFileSystemLabel Backup -Confirm:$false
## Set drive letters (D: - Data, E: - Backup)
Get-Disk | where {$_.Number -eq "1"} | Get-Partition | where {$_.PartitionNumber -eq 2} | Set-Partition -NewDriveLetter D
Get-Disk | where {$_.Number -eq "2"} | Get-Partition | where {$_.PartitionNumber -eq 2} | Set-Partition -NewDriveLetter E
}
else
{
exit
}
exit

The script first checks how many disks are attached to the server.
If there is only one disk attached, you’ll have only a C: drive available after the deployment.
If there are 2 disks attached, you’ll have a C: and D: drive avalailable after the deployment.
If there are 3 disks attached, you’ll have a C:, D: and E: drive available after the deployment.

The CD-ROM drive will alse changed from E: to X:.

2015-12-18_12h30_44    2015-12-18_12h32_27    2015-12-18_12h32_52

2015-12-18_12h34_31    2015-12-18_12h37_51    2015-12-18_12h41_05

2015-12-18_12h41_43

How to: Enable RDP during Task Sequence with SCCM 2012 R2

I quiet often receive the question how to enable Remote Desktop (RDP) access on a server during a task sequence in SCCM 2012 or 2012 R2. Because by default RDP is not enabled, it could be realy handy to enable RDP access to control your server remotely. There’re a whole bunch of tools to manage your server(s) remotely, but still RDP could be ncessary.

1.) Create a new package with the source location to your script directory.
2.) Create a new package with a program and use the following command:
Powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -NoProfile -File Enable-RDP.ps1
3.) The PowerShell script ‘Enable-RDP.ps1’ contains the following code. See in this post below.
4.) Insert the script in your task sequence

##
## Enable RDP
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server' -name "fDenyTSConnections" -Value 0
##
## Enable Firewall Rule
Enable-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup "Remote Desktop"
##
## Enable RDP Authentication
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp' -name "UserAuthentication" -Value 0

2015-11-27_09h03_02    2015-11-27_09h03_21    2015-11-27_09h34_03

SCCM 2012 R2 Build and Capture…installing updates takes a long time!

This month I’ve to install and configure a Microsoft SCCM 2012 R2 environment. This customer is going to use SCCM basically deploying Windows Server 2012 R2 virtual machines. For the task sequences I’ve used the Windows Server 2012 Update 1 ISO, but there’re a few updates available in the past (around the 122 updates!!)

So I’ve configured a new Build and Capture task sequence to deploy a “Golden Image”. I’ve also integrated Windows Server Updates Services (WSUS) within SCCM, so during the Build and Capture task sequence the updates will also be installed. The task sequence takes a long time. After some troubleshooting, I’ve found some of the main reasons….Update KB3000850. This update is around the 700 MB and takes a long time to install!

Solution:
First of all, I’ve updated the Windows Server 2012 R2 WIM from the ISO with the latest Windows updates using Offline Servicing. This great feture is available within SCCM 2012 R2. With Offline Servicing it is possible to apply Windows Updates in a WIM file offline. After applying update KB3000850 in the WIM image, the Build and Capture task sequences is going realy faster!! 🙂

SCCM 2012 R2 SP1 CU1….Why are my task sequences not visible?

This week I’ve upgraded a SCCM 2012 R2 environment to Service Pack 1 with update CU1. After the upgrade, I noticed that not all my task sequences (deployment) where available after PXE boot. Why is that? Is this a ‘new feature’ or just a ‘bug’? After some Troubleshooting I’ve figured out that there’s a strange thing in my deployments!

As you can see in my example I’ve created a collection with 3 deployments active. After PXE boot a virtual machine, only the first deployment is available?!?! :S The other two deployments are also active, but not available…

When we go to the properties of the other two deployments, and change the schedule 1 day back in the time, the deployment became available!! Very strange behavior, but this is the only ‘solution’ I’ve figured out!

2015-10-05_21h47_55    2015-10-05_21h48_48    2015-10-05_21h50_01

2015-10-05_21h50_49    2015-10-05_21h52_01    2015-10-05_21h52_07

2015-10-05_21h52_33    2015-10-05_21h52_50    2015-10-05_21h53_00

2015-10-05_21h54_37    2015-10-05_21h54_43    2015-10-05_21h55_05

How to: View all packages within your ConfigMgr 2012 R2 environment

When you have a Microsoft ConfigMgr 2012 or 2012 R2 environment, you definitely have a lot of packages and applications. This could be: tools, scripts, client packages, boot images, ISO’s, WIM files, different software applications, etc. When you have no idea where all these source files are located, you can execute a query within your SQL environment.

You can generate an overview of all your packages, with the package ID, description, name, source location, version, etc. Very helpfull and it saves you alot of time!!

1.) Open the Microsoft SQL Server Managent Studio
2.) Login with a user that has enough rights to execute queries
3.) Select the ConfigMgr database (in my example CM_PS1)
4.) Select “New Query”
5.) Type “SELECT * from v_Package”
6.) Select “Execute” or press F5 on your keyboard
7.) Now you’ll see a list off all the packages within your ConfigMgr 2012 environment
8.) Navigate to the table “PkgSourcePath”
9.) Here are your source files locates of all the different packages

2015-02-19_11h03_04    2015-02-19_11h03_54    2015-02-19_11h04_36

2015-02-19_11h05_03    2015-02-19_11h16_42

Update Rollup 3 available for System Center 2012 R2

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.

 

How to: Disable the EU Browser Choice screen in Windows 8 and 8.1

The first time when you boot your new installed Windwos 8 or 8.1 machine, you get the Browser choice screen. In my situation I want to use Internet Explorer and don’t want to let the users choice what browser they are going to use. You can disable the browser choice screen with a simple registry key. You can use the following command to disable the browser choice screen within MDT or SCCM infastructures.

REG ADD HKLM\Software\BrowserChoice /v Enable /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Set the key to 1 if you want to enable the browser choice screen. Set the key to 0 if you want to disable it.

2013-10-28_10h35_42    2013-10-28_10h43_45    2013-10-28_10h44_47

2013-10-28_10h44_12    2013-10-28_10h43_52