If you try to PXE boot a Windows Technical Preview VM running on Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 R2, you are greeted by a nice error message: Boot Failed. EFI Network. Failed Secure Boot Verification. The simple fix Until there is an update available turn off secure boot for the Gen 2 VM. Disabling Secure […]
Here are samples files and links I demonstrated during The Ultimate Event II roadshow that took place during September 22 – 26, 2014.
Earlier today the CU3 update for ConfigMgr 2012 R2 was released, containing a few nice to have fixes for ConfigMgr. The full list of fixes, and link to request the hotfix is available here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2994331 Backup your Site Server Before continuing, make sure you have a SQL Backup of the Site Server. The update will […]
Earlier today I got an email from a fellow deployment geek having issues with Windows 8.1 deployments. He had an unattend file that worked perfect for Windows 7 deployments, but failed when deploying Windows 8.1. Now, it's simply comes down to that Windows 8.1 does not support all unattend.xml settings that Windows 7 does. So […]
On September 15, 2014 – Microsoft made the fourth release of Windows ADK 8.1 available. As usual without any explanation on what's been changed 🙂 Windows ADK 8.1 history First release, September 2013: 2.79 GB in size Initial release, contained ACT 6.0, WinPE 5.0, and USMT 6.3 Second release, October 2013: 2.85 GB in size, […]
Earlier this morning I got an email with some questions on how to deploy Windows using MDT 2013 Lite Touch. The questions were the basic deployment questions I hear over and over again so I thought it was about time to write a list of valuable deployment resources. The questions How do I capture a […]
Between October 28 – 31 (27 for preconferences) Microsoft is running TechEd in Barcelona, don't miss this! From TechEd 2013 in Madrid, handing out a book in reward for a good question. My sessions list for TechEd Europe 2014 Here is the my list of sessions at TechEd Europe 2014 in Barcelona. I would […]
If you are using MDT 2013 Lite Touch for offline media deployment, the feature to set a static IP during deployment doesn't work. MDT will set the IP address in WinPE, but not in full Windows. This is because of a bug in the Litetouch.wsf script, and the bug is for offline media only (not […]
Don't miss chance of getting the latest tips and tricks for building and managing a Microsoft infrastructure, delivered by computer industry experts like Mark Minasi, Johan Arwidmark and Mikael Nystrom. This is full-day, technical event, held in five cities in Sweden and Norway in September 2014. The five sessions are: Keynote – Get a grip […]
Yesterday I got a question in my twitter feed (@jarwidmark) about how to create a custom variable in MDT 2013 using a script. The answer is, yes you can do that, but you rarely have to, because you can create them directly in CustomSettings.ini to begin with. Anyway, some times it does makes sense to […]
Todays post is contributed by Bill Burnley, a fellow deployment specialist in the Washington D.C. Metro Area. Solution to get System Properties Performance to work stick in our image In our VDI environment, which is currently hosted built on VMware vSphere environment using linked clones, I had a problem getting performance settings to stick in […]
Of course you should not be deploying applications, but rather packages in your ConfigMgr 2012 (SCCM) task sequences. But if you do, you can use this little PowerShell script to list applications that have the AutoInstall property set to True, meaning being configured for task sequence deployment. The Script Note #1: If you want to […]
Last week I got an email from a fellow deployment geek wanting to generate computer names based on what files that were in a folder. Every time they deployed a machined they had a script that saved the machine name to a folder, and he wanted a routine that figured out the next available name. […]
If you are using ConfigMgr 2012 R2 for OS deployment and have not completed this TechNet Virtual Lab you might be doing it wrong. This lab will take you through all needed steps to get a rock solid OSD configuration, including all needed tweaks to the default task sequence templates. Deploying Windows 8.1 with Configuration […]
The last two weeks I've been working on a ConfigMgr 2012 R2 project in the US, that also involved OS Deployment. During the project all but one computer model deployed nicely, and the failing machine was the HP ProBook 640 G1 laptop. Even though all drivers installed fine, once the machine was put to standby/hibernate, […]
During TechEd I was discussing a ConfigMgr issue with Eric Leonard, a fellow ConfigMgr admin in Canada. The issue we were discussing were the following: When having multiple network access accounts configured in ConfigMgr, Orchestrator runbooks could not be started. It turned out there was a bug in ZTIExecuteRunbook.wsf script, a missing single quite. Big […]
I just stumbled across a great white-paper on creating a Scale-Out File Server Cluster. http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/5/8/258E73C5-D851-4654-852E-98B4222CC882/Achieving%20over%201-Million%20IOPS%20from%20Hyper-V%20VMs%20in%20a%20Scale-Out%20File%20Server%20Cluster%20using%20WS12%20R2.docx / Johan
It’s a great week here at TechEd 2014 in Houston, later this afternoon I will present the never-dying “Creating the perfect reference image” with my partner in crime (and good friend), Mikael Nystrom. If you ever attended one of my deployment sessions before, you know I recommend using MDT Lite Touch for most scenarios, but what if you want to speed up the process?
During the ConfigMgr 2012 R2 preconference at TechEd I showed a few links in the demos, here is a collection. The links are also posted to the #teprc10 hash tag on Twitter, and if you don't use Twitter, you better start, now! I'm @jarwidmark on twitter and the elder geek (Kent Agerlund) is @agerlund 🙂 […]
During the TechEd 2014 NA preconference earlier today, I demonstrated how to deploy a VM fully unattended using a PowerShell script. A few people asked for the script being used so here it is. Requirements, for this script to work, you need to have a MDT 2013 Lite Touch deployment share, configured for full automation. […]