Well, the topic is at least true when automating deployment tests in UEFI-based virtual machines. When spinning up multiple VMs, the last thing you want to do is having the connect to each one of them and "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD….." Well, that's not to hard to fix, simply replace […]
Per request from a fellow tweep, here is crash course in ConfigMgr Distribution Points, Boundaries, and Boundary Groups. Distribution Points In ConfigMgr environments, the Distribution Points, or DPs, are simply there to store packages that client connects to for downloading software like applications, software updates, and OS deployment images etc.. To make sure clients are […]
Here is a quick guide on how to use #OSDBuilder from David Segura (@SeguraOSD) to create a Windows 10 1909 reference image with two language packs (German and Swedish), as well as with .NET Framework enabled. This guide contains of the following steps: Installing OSD Builder Import OS Media, with Language Packs, and run the […]
Here is a operations guide sysadmin or operations team can follow to maintain a ConfigMgr environment. The guide is divided in to daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly operation tasks. In general the tasks described in these documents should be implemented into whatever ticketing system that is being used, such as Service Now, Remedy or Zendesk. […]
For ConfigMgr admins and operation teams the struggle for better ConfigMgr client health is very real. The harsh truth is that unless you are managing a small lab with like 50 clients, you are very likely to never reach 100 percent client health (sorry). There will always be machines that simply will not fully cooperate […]
Since mid-2015, major ConfigMgr versions are released every for months, with usually a Hotfix Rollup (called HFRU) or two in between each major release. Anew ConfigMgr version is released into the early update ring first, and then after a few weeks, released broadly without you having to opt in for the update. Start upgrading your […]
This kit builds a complete ConfigMgr Current Branch 22203 infrastructure running on Windows Server 2019 and SQL Server 2017. This kit is tested on both Hyper-V and VMware virtual platforms, but should work fine on any virtualization platform that can boot from an ISO file. This kit now also adds and configuring SQL Server Reporting Services, and has been updated for Windows 11 support.
Here is a step-by-step quick guide on building the perfect Windows Server 2016 reference image. This guide is divided in two parts: The first part covers how to create a Windows Server 2016 reference image in just a few minutes using offline servicing. The quick-and-dirty method. The second part is about creating a Windows Server 2016 reference image using MDT 8443. The SHINY method.
When deploying task sequences with the purpose of pre-caching of content – for example before a large application roll-out, or Windows 10 servicing (Inplace upgrade – you better pick the right settings, or you'll find that the clients may download the same content twice. The trick to pre-caching is to make sure the content ends […]
For those of you using BranchCache, for example to reduce the network impact Windows 10 will have on your environment, I highly recommend changing the size and default for the BranchCache Publication Cache. Why you ask? Well, the default settings are just not good enough. Background Info In the Windows 10 era, especially when starting […]
In a recent customer project we needed to detect whether the clients where connected via Wired, Wireless (WiFi) and/or VPN. This was a decent sized environment, about 50K clients, with hardware models from both HP, Dell, and Lenovo. The existing code I had did not work across all the hardware, so I reached out to […]
Exciting times! ConfigMgr TP 1903 was just released and so the very first public beta of Delivery Optimization In-Network Cache (DOINC), nicely integrated with ConfigMgr. Here is a link to the documentation for ConfigMgr TP 1903: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sccm/core/get-started/2019/technical-preview-1903
In my personal labs, and in our classroom labs, we’ve been using Samsung NVMe SSD Pro and Evo disks (950/960/070) for many years with good result. But when Amazon announced a dang good deal, moneywise, just before Christmas, on Crucial NVMe SSD’s (the CT1000P1SSD8 – Crucial P1 1TB 3D NAND NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD), I could not stop myself and asked my manager to order 15 of them, so we could upgrade the remaining classroom hosts from 512 GB to 1 TB. Shiny idea, right?
One of the new features in MDT 8456 (Lite Touch) is the support for nested task sequences. That’s very useful when you have multiple task sequences using a common block of actions, such us a BIOS configuration block, drivers configuration block, applications block etc..
In this post you learn to upgrade an existing MDT 8450 environment, with or without ConfigMgr integration, to MDT 8456. The guide is divided in two parts:
Here are the links referenced in the Advanced System Center Configuration Manager Troubleshooting class I presented in New York in January 2019.
ConfigMgr TP 1901 was released yesterday, and among the many new features, there was an improved task sequence error dialog box. Had to be tested… 🙂
Yet another ConfigMgr consulting day, yet another interesting find 🙂
Here is a step-by-step quick guide on building the perfect Windows 10 v1809 reference image using MDT 8450, Windows ADK 10 v1809, and WinPE Addon for Windows ADK 10 v1809. If you are looking for a Windows 7 version of this guide, check this post: https://deploymentresearch.com/521/Back-to-Basics-Building-a-Windows-7-SP1-Reference-Image-using-MDT-2013-Update-2
Starting with Windows ADK 10 v1809, WinPE is now a separate install (Addon) to Windows ADK 10. As with previous Windows ADK 10 releases you find the setup files on the Microsoft Hardware Dev Center: http://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/get-started/adk-install