I was asked to prepare an SCCM image for a new batch of machines that will be installed by the vendor.
Afterwards the machines will recieve their name and join the domain after being shipped onsite.
the vendor will be providing us with a list of all mac-addresses, so we can use that to import the computer information and create the link between collection and advertisement.
I will try to go through all steps I did to achieve this result.
1° Create a capture of the current TS
as all new machines will be based on the same model, we use this procedure to save some time later on. (the capture will also have the default applications embedded)
2° Create the Prestage media via a TS
Note: this can be done via one of 2 ways, check the full explanation here:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/configurationmgr/archive/2011/01/11/how-to-stage-task-sequence-prestaged-media-on-a-hard-drive-in-configuration-manager-2007.aspx
Right Click on the Task Sequence and select Create Task Sequence Media
Select the option to create Prestaged Media (R3 required !)
Specify publisher information
Specify name and destination of the output file (this will be a WIMfile)
Select boot and OS image to be used.
This TS has been exported as standalone media on an USB stick that will be handed out to our vendor.
Tip: by default when the Autorun is launched, you have to click on the NEXT button before continuing. If you want to avoid this, edit the tsmbootstrap.ini (located in SMS\data) and change the value of unattend=false into TRUE
3° Add the Prestaged OS image in the SCCM console
The next step is to create an OS image under OSD
Right click on OS images and select ADD operating system image
Input the UNC path of the captured wimfile from step 2
Distribute this new os image to a DP
4° Create a TS to prestage the OS image
Select a custom tasksequence
Step 1 : Format and partition disk
Define the necessary partitions
Step 2 : Apply data image
Select the image package we created in step 2
Make sure to select the correct location, if you have worked with a variable in the partition disk step, you have to reuse that variable again or things will fail.
Step 3 : add a new command line with : wpeutil.exe shutdown
as you can see, the difficulty in this process lies not in this part…
Advertise this TS non-mandatory.
5° Create a TS to finalize the prestaging
This is the part that will be executed onsite
Start with a duplicate of your regular tasksequence, you can remove the step restart in WindowsPE (machines that have the data image, will start from the local bootimage anyway)
You will have to edit the step partition disk and insert a new task sequence variable _SMSTSMediaType set to: not equals OEMMedia
Verify the step Apply OS to make sure that the correct partition will be targeted (again
if you have worked with a variable, this will not function any more as the TS
will now have skipped the partition disk step.), instead choose the correct destination in
‘Specific disk and partition’
Since we used a captured image, we do not need to install any drivers or software any
more (saves us much time)
You will have to cleanup some leftovers of the OEMMedia on the local disk, like the file
autorun.inf and folders oemmedia, sms, smslogs and sources (for now I used separate steps, I know this can be improved…)
After all this it is safe to restart the computer it will now be ready.
Advertise this TS non-mandatory.
So, as end-result how does this process look like?
Part 1 (offsite)
During part 1 (offsite) the prestaged TS will extract the WIM to the local harddisk and then
shutdown the machine.
The machine is now ready for shipping
Part 2 (onsite)
In part 2 (onsite) make sure the machine is not booting to PXE
The machine will boot by default from the bootimage off the hard disk and will then lookup
the advertised Task Sequence by contacting the SCCM server.
(this is done by the autorun.inf which will launch tsmbautorun.exe)
The TS will skip the partition disk step and continue rather quickly with the rest of the TS.
