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. […]
Wohoo, three brand new deployment labs are available on the TechNet Virtual Labs platform. Yep, if you have internet access, they can be run from anywhere, even a train 🙂 Creating a Windows 8.1 reference image http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9845755 (labs no longer available) Deploying Windows 8.1 with MDT 2013 (Lite Touch) http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9845757 (labs no longer available) Deploying […]
Just wanted to share a few "features" discovered after deploying the Windows Server 2012 R2 Update to a bunch of servers in our lab. First, the update does spike the CPUs pretty hard during installation so plan your deployments carefully. Second, if you (like me) have a few demo machines running Windows Server 2012 R2, […]
Yes, finally, the Windows ADK 8.1 update (for Windows 8.1 Update) is available for download: Windows ADK 8.1 update (including doc links): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/hh825494.aspx direct download only: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39982 You still run adksetup.exe to install or download the updated ADK, but you do see that the new ADK is slightly bigger than the previous kit. The Patches […]
What to do in a hotel room, after a new Windows version (well update) has been released? Well, of course, see what changes there are. After comparing the policy definition files between Windows 8.1 Enterprise and Windows 8.1 Update Enterprise I noticed there were some differences. For example, the following new group policies were added: […]
Turned out there were a few new PowerShell cmdlets in the Windows 8.1 Update released earlier today. Not yet with any documentation, but still 🙂 Function Enable-StorageEnclosureIdentification Storage Function Disable-StorageEnclosureIdentification Storage Function Get-StorageEnclosure Storage Function Get-StorageEnclosureVendorData Storage Cmdlet Export-WindowsDriver Dism Cmdlet New-WindowsCustomImage Dism Cmdlet Optimize-WindowsImage Dism Cmdlet Update-WIMBootEntry Dism / Johan
For all of you struggling with the Windows 8.1 GA missing-tiles issue, it's been fixed in Windows 8.1 Update. Here is the screenshot from a reference image I just did using MDT 2013 Lite Touch. Tiles are working again. Happy Deployment, / Johan
Today was an interesting day, during the Build 2014 keynote the new Windows 8.1 start menu was demonstrated, and I thought: "WOW! – Finally", and I was happy for about 45 minutes. Because that's the time it took for me to download the Windows 8.1 Update and deploy it. It turned out the new start […]
Todays post is a guest post by Darryl Shiels, wanting to share a tip on gather PC info using the MDT Gather process. As Darryl put it in an email he sent to me: I thought you might like a little TS I put together after reading your 'Save time (and avoid pain) – Create […]
During the last month, a really long thread has been running in the OSD mailing list at myitforum, a discussion about what solution to use when building reference images for ConfigMgr 2012. Then some idiot (me), against better judgment, promised to write a blog post about it… 🙂 Yes, you do need a reference image […]
Emile Cabot, at the Nit and Grit of IT blog has put together a nice summary about the OSDWeek with me and Dave Kawula Read the full post here: OSDWeek with Johan Arwidmark and Dave Kawula http://www.nitandgritofit.com/?p=274 (link via Wayback Machine, Internet Archive) The next OSDWeek is scheduled to kick off on April 28, 2014 […]
While many of the Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 default policies are good (somewhat) for production environment, they will sure mess up your classroom virtual labs when doing trainings. Here is a list of settings I use for my classroom virtual machines, and sometimes the Hyper-V hosts, to prevent most of the annoying […]
During the MVA Windows 8.1 Deployment Jump Start session, I demonstrated a PowerShell that Mikael Nystrom and I put together for an upcoming book. You find the script below. The Script sets correct permissions in AD for a Domain Join Account to work in OSD. The scripts sets the following permissions: Scope: This object and […]
Earlier this week I was following a distribution list thread about setting scratch space size in WinPE 5.0, which both MDT 2013 and ConfigMgr 2012 R2 is using, and I thought it needed some explanation. So here is short post on scratch space in WinPE 5.0, and why you, most of the times, don't need […]
Every once in a while you need to install SQL Server. It could be the SQL Server Express edition because you are using the Database for MDT 2013 Lite Touch, or the full SQL Server to support a System Center 2012 R2 product. Either way, both versions supports installing updates as part of the setup, […]
If you ever need a script that deploys and activates 25 virtual machines against a KMS Server, here it is. The solution is based on a MDT 2013 deployment share, and a script that deploys the VMs. The script is for Hyper-V only, but can easily be adjusted for VMware.