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. […]
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 […]