Blog - Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything

Location: Blogs Johan Arwidmark
Posted by: johan	3/22/2011
Ever since I started my very first BBS back in 1988 I have been inspired and empowered by the IT community. Contributing simply makes me feel good… I have never quite understood the point of holding on to knowledge like it was something that only you would own, and only you should know about. In contrast, the moment I figure something out, and then write a blog post about it, it sort of leaves my hand (and sometimes head J ), leaving room for other items to be grabbed, researched and tested. I don’t say that Intellectual property is all evil, it’s nothing like that, but by expanding and sharing tips and tricks over various social media, we really help the IT-Pro through the daily work. In that spirit it is time for the next set of working tools for the deployment savvy… a few weeks of solid work is now being released to the community - On March 21, the first day of MMS 2011, I announced the immediate availability of the http://www.deploymentresearch.com blog and Deployment Research Facebook page. Sites filled with video-tutorials on how to deploy operating systems. Iinformation about this new site, as well a bunch of other deployment related community sites was by the way also printed (thank you FedEx) and put in the attendee-bag (Thank you Microsoft) for every MMS 2011 attendee, about 4000 people. This also means that the old deployvista.com blog will not be much active anymore. It will still exist, but the content will gradually be migrated over to the new site, cleaned-up and converted into the new format… Happy deployment, and I hope to see you online in the forums… Regards / Johan Arwidmark Microsoft MVP – Setup & Deployment

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Comments (24)

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything

By maburke01 on 6/27/2011

Johan can you please answer this for me. I am deploying WXP using MDT2010 I capture a reference image and it did save to the capture folder. Good! Now I creaate a deployment share and import the operating system. I choose the custome image file then, next now I browse for the Wxp3.wim file, next. Now I am not sure from her so I used the bottom bullet copy Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 Sysprep files from the specified path. (sysprep directory). So I click on this and then expand the windods XPSP3 that is loaded all the way to tools then next and it load; this is now my source files which include the Cab files. is this correct? what additional do i have to add to the rules (CS.INI)?

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything	By johan on 6/30/2011
No need to add the sysprep files if you alreayd have a custom image. / Johan

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything	By maburke01 on 7/7/2011
The problem I am getting when I try to select the setup files. I choose the button: Copy windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or later setup files from the specified path. Import Operating System wizard came up with: Please fix all errors before continuing. I am using Windows Xp with service pack 3. What do you think is causeing this error? what is my next move?

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything	By johan on 7/10/2011
Don't select to add the setup files when adding a XP image, select "Setup and Sysprep files are not needed"" / Johan

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything	By droteliuk on 10/7/2011
Hi Johan, Is there a way to create a standalone boot media ISO file larger than 8.5GB within SCCM OSD 2007 without it being split into 2 parts?

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything	By johan on 10/10/2011
Yes, if you use the TSMediaApi.dll from the ConfigMgr 2007 SDK, but I recommend using USB sticks instead. / Johan

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything

By ronromualdo on 10/18/2011

Hello Johan! I have been happily deploying Windows 7 & Windows XP using MDT 2010 Update 1 for more than a year now. Yesterday, I encountered an unusual failure - "Windows Setup could not configure Windows to run on this computer's hardware". This occurs on a Lenovo X220 Tablet. (a collegue in Australia report the same problem when deploying Win7 via SCCM).

I am using a Windows 7 image that I have deployed successfully on other PC models - Dell E6400, E6410, D630, Lenovo T410, T420, Optiplex 280, HP 8440p and 2740p among others.

I have never encountered this error before. It occurs during the OS (Windows) Install Phase - specifically while Setup is at the "Complete Installation" stage.

I made sure that (at least) the SATA and NIC drivers for the tablet is imported into MDT and created a task to inject the drivers before the OS install task. This did not resolve the problem.

MDT successfully installed Windows 7 and complete the task sequence when I changed the SATA mode in the BIOS from AHCI to Compatibility prior to starting the whole installation process.

Any suggestions? I am considering re-creating the image and imbed the SATA driver for the X220 Tablet in the image.

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything	By johan on 10/19/2011
Most likely an incorrect driver, bios setting/version or faulty hardware... See if you can deploy a clean windows 7 image to it, using the following guidance: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/guides-and-manuals/detail.page?DocID=UM006576

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything	By ronromualdo on 10/19/2011
Hello Johan! Thanks for the quick reply. I forgot to mention that I also tried a clean install of Win 7 and it installed successfully. I thought the inject driver task that runs before the OS Install task runs would have installed the NIC and SATA for the X220 tablet. Did I understand that wrong?

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything	By johan on 10/19/2011
That step does inject drivers, but it doesn't help when the wrong drivers are added. Configure the Inject Drivers action in the task sequence to use the "Nothing" selection profile and see if the deployment works. Then you can start troubleshoot drivers...

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything

By ronromualdo on 10/21/2011

I finally resolved it and found root cause. It was the SATA controller within the image. I had to recreate the image and included the specific SATA controller driver for the X220 Tablet. Apparently, what worked for the X220 laptop version and T420 does not work for the X220 tablet (I don't know why that is). Anyway, the new image works.

On that note, I have one last question - would it be wise when creating the image that I do not include any driver except the ones that came with the Windows 7 code? I ask because installing Windows 7 downloaded from Microsoft's Enterprise site installed successfully without additional SATA drivers being installed.

Thanks again!

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything	By johan on 10/23/2011
You should never, ever, build you reference images on physical machines, use a virtual machine - Either Hyper-V or VMware. And no, don't include any additional drivers.

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything

By c0mputernick on 10/25/2011

I was wondering if there is a way to use an already customized machine to capture with instead of doing a fresh install and manually adding all the programs/drivers you want by hand in MDT? Seems it would be easier to make the machine the way you want it first, then sysprep and capture the image. The boot cd to create the capture always wants to format/reinstall the OS before the capture. Is there a way to skip that step and just sysprep/capture?

Thanks for the help.

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything	By johan on 10/26/2011
Sure, you can create a capture only task sequence, but you really should use a build and capture process, possibly with a suspend action in the middle to any apps you can't automate. You want to be able to reproduce the image at a later date. / Johan

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything

By droteliuk on 10/31/2011

Hi Johan, I tried your suggestion but the iso still gets split into 2 separate pieces. I want to create the iso in one piece rather than using USB to create the image for use with creating test VM's. If I try using an ISO in 2 pieces, the VM prompts to change discs and then fails.

Thanks,
Dennis

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything By droteliuk on 10/7/2011
Hi Johan,
Is there a way to create a standalone boot media ISO file larger than 8.5GB within SCCM OSD 2007 without it being split into 2 parts?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything By johan on 10/10/2011
Yes, if you use the TSMediaApi.dll from the ConfigMgr 2007 SDK, but I recommend using USB sticks instead.

/ Johan

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything	By johan on 11/2/2011
Using the TSMEDIA.API in a custom vbscript I have successfully created SCCM ISO's larger than 8.5 GB, the last one I tested was about 12 GB / Johan

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything	By droteliuk on 11/2/2011
Do you have a sample of the custom vbscript that you use? Thanks, Dennis

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything

By johan on 11/3/2011

Here is the script I used: http://www.deploymentresearch.com/DRFiles/CreateTSStandalonemedia.zip

Please note that TSMEDIA.API is a bit buggy, and if you need to run it with a x86 cscript.exe if you are running in a x64 host. It will still crash when you run with the x86 cscript.exe, but the ISO will be created fine.

And don't forget to register the tsmediaapi.dll before running the script.

/ Johan

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything

By droteliuk on 11/4/2011

Thanks Johan, I'm able to create the 9GB iso file now. There is still a problem when I try to create a VM from the iso file. Instead of prestaging the boot iso, restarting and then applying the image, the ISO file I created immediately tries to copy the image to the vm and then errors with a "0x80070050" code. The smsts.log shows "Installation of image 2 in package STN00169 failed to complete..
The file exists. (Error: 80070050; Source: Windows)". Sorry for being sucha pest, but do you have any suggestions why this is happening?

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything	By johan on 11/6/2011
You need to have version 4.0.7069 of tsmediaapi.dll for the script to work with iso's larger than 4 GB. If you call CSS they should be able to send you the updated version. / Johan

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything	By droteliuk on 11/8/2011
What is CSS? Could you email me a zip file with the updated tsmediaapi? dennis.roteliuk@stantec.com Thanks,

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything	By johan on 11/9/2011
CSS is Microsoft Customer Support Services, they will be able to give you the file if you ask for it. They just want to keep track over what customers that have the file. / Johan

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything

By mirmur on 3/26/2012

Dear Johan!
I have a small question with our MDT installation. In MDT installation wizard, we fill the description field, its the user name. Work correctly your ZTISetComputerDescriptionInAD.wsf and ZTISetComputerDescriptionLocally.wsf script. But, I like to make, that this login (from description field) automatically add to local admin group on the PC. Because in our system, the users have admin rights on his PC-s. How can to this in VBS Script? I cant make this. I try to modify ZTISetComputerDescriptionLocally.wsf, but its not work. Command line:
"net localgroup administrators /add". Please give me advise pls. I take about 6 ours with this problem, but i can't solved...
Many thx, mark

Re: Deployment Research – Contributing Is Everything	By johan on 3/28/2012
Hey Mark, I have answered your email about the same topic. / Johan