Imaging Best Practices

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Imaging Best Practices - 6/18/2008 11:14:15 AM

nrunge

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From the material that I have read it looks like technically we only need one image per HAL. However I just captured an XP Pro image from an ACPI Single Core computer and tried to apply it to another ACPI Single Core machine. The result was that the PC would not boot into Windows. I have all of the drivers imported into SCCM so I am pretty sure that this is happening at the image level.

I am just curious what other people are doing for imaging. One image per PC? Seperate images for laptops and PC's....etc.

Post #: 1

RE: Imaging Best Practices - 6/18/2008 12:03:33 PM

cnackers

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From: Madison, WI
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you can make your image HAL independent, one image to rule them all is possible...

If you set your image to one of the HAL types it'll be compatable with the others... look for doc from Johan Aardwick, i just can't remember it off the top of my head.

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SATA integration - seems to always be asked
http://www.myitforum.com/forums/Adding_Sata-support_on_an_universal_image_for_zti%3F/m_145983/tm.htm
http://www.myitforum.com/forums/SATA_--_ACPI%2FCompatibility_Mode/m_164378/tm.htm

(in reply to nrunge)

Post #: 2

RE: Imaging Best Practices - 6/18/2008 12:04:05 PM

cnackers

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From: Madison, WI
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Don't for your storage drivers for SATA as well, windows will blue screen if you throw the image onto a SATA native hard drive without appropriate drivers

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SATA integration - seems to always be asked
http://www.myitforum.com/forums/Adding_Sata-support_on_an_universal_image_for_zti%3F/m_145983/tm.htm
http://www.myitforum.com/forums/SATA_--_ACPI%2FCompatibility_Mode/m_164378/tm.htm

(in reply to cnackers)

Post #: 3

RE: Imaging Best Practices - 6/18/2008 2:53:47 PM

jsandys

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The Uberbug will also cause a Bluescreen: http://blogs.technet.com/benhunter/archive/2007/04/14/windows-pe-2-0-xp-disk-partitioning-issues.aspx. Use the Set Diskpart BIOS Compatibility Mode task in your task sequence.

_____________________________

Jason
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(in reply to cnackers)

Post #: 4

RE: Imaging Best Practices - 6/19/2008 8:08:03 AM 1 votes

fracine

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From: Québec, Canada
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1. If you create an uniprocessor image, it will run on a multi processor computer. But not a multiprocessor image on a single processor computer. To get you computer working with multi processor if the image was a uniprocessor, you will need to change the HAL.

2. You need absolutely in your image:
a. NIC drivers
b. Chipset drivers
c. Boot drivers (SATA, VMWare, etc...)
d. Video drivers. It is not a must but it is good.

3. In you sysprep part
;SetupMgrTag
[Display]
BitsPerPel=32
Xresolution=800
YResolution=600
Vrefresh=75
[Unattended]
   DriverSigningPolicy = Ignore
   ExtendOEMPartition = 1
   OemSkipEula=Yes
   InstallFilesPath=C:\sysprep\i386
   TargetPath=\WINDOWS
   UpdateInstalledDrivers=No
   OemPnPDriversPath = "Drivers\CHIPSET\D400;Drivers\CHIPSET\D600;Drivers\CHIPSET\GX280\ICH6;Drivers\CHIPSET\GX620;Drivers\CHIPSET\745;Drivers\CHIPSET\TecraS3;Drivers\CHIPSET\TecraS4;Drivers\CHIPSET\TecraA9;Drivers\NIC\EL556;Drivers\NIC\B57XP32;Drivers\NIC\B57xx;Drivers\NIC\pro100;Drivers\NIC\3C920;Drivers\nic\pro1000;Drivers\NIC\8255x;Drivers\NIC\Yukon;Drivers\NIC\TecraWireless;Drivers\NIC\A9Wireless;Drivers\Audio\SMAXWDM;Drivers\Audio\ESS;Drivers\Audio\SMWDM;Drivers\Audio\SMWDMCH;Drivers\Audio\YACXG;Drivers\Audio\CMajor;Drivers\Audio\Realtek;Drivers\Autres\P3QFE;Drivers\Autres\TSDHost;Drivers\Autres\ToshInfraRed;Drivers\Autres\ToshRaid;Drivers\Autres\ToshTPM;Drivers\Modems\C600;Drivers\Modems\CPQ58D88;Drivers\Modems\SM31100;Drivers\Video\ATIMobR;Drivers\Video\d505;Drivers\Video\D600;Drivers\Video\D400;Drivers\Video\NVTNT2;Drivers\Video\NVGF4;Drivers\Video\GX280;Drivers\Video\D530;Drivers\Video\TecraS3;Drivers\Video\TecraS4;Drivers\Video\TecraA9;Drivers\Video\745;Drivers\PCMCIA\D600;Drivers\Ecran;Drivers\Ecran\1704FPV1;Ecran\Viewsonic;Drivers\DymoUSB;Drivers\Dymoserie;Drivers\VMscsi;Drivers\mass\ToshRaid;Drivers\Divers;Drivers\mass\LSILogic;Drivers\mass\A9"
[Sysprep]
   BuildMassStorageSection=Yes
[SysprepMassStorage]
;Toshiba RAID
;S3
pci\ven_8086&dev_2653&subsys_0f001179="C:\Drivers\mass\ToshRaid\KR10I.inf"
;S4
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C5&SUBSYS_0F001179="C:\Drivers\mass\ToshRaid\KR10I.inf"
;A9
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2829&CC_0106="C:\Drivers\mass\A9\iaahci.inf"
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2653&CC_0106="C:\Drivers\mass\A9\iaahci.inf"
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C1&CC_0106="C:\Drivers\mass\A9\iaahci.inf"
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C5&CC_0106="C:\Drivers\mass\A9\iaahci.inf"
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2681&CC_0106="C:\Drivers\mass\A9\iaahci.inf"
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2821&CC_0106="C:\Drivers\mass\A9\iaahci.inf"
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2922&CC_0106="C:\Drivers\mass\A9\iaahci.inf"
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_282A&CC_0104="C:\Drivers\mass\A9\iastor.inf"
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2822&CC_0104="C:\Drivers\mass\A9\iastor.inf"
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C6&CC_0104="C:\Drivers\mass\A9\iastor.inf"
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2682&CC_0104="C:\Drivers\mass\A9\iastor.inf"
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C3&CC_0104="C:\Drivers\mass\A9\iastor.inf"
;PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2850="C:\Drivers\mass\A9\ich8ide.inf"
;PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2850="C:\Drivers\mass\A9\ich8id2.inf"
;VMWARE RAID/SCSI
pci\ven_104B&DEV_1040="C:\Drivers\vmscsi\vmscsi.inf"
;LSILogic
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0624="C:\Drivers\mass\LSILogic\symmpi.inf"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0626="C:\Drivers\mass\LSILogic\symmpi.inf"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0628="C:\Drivers\mass\LSILogic\symmpi.inf"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0030="C:\Drivers\mass\LSILogic\symmpi.inf"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0032="C:\Drivers\mass\LSILogic\symmpi.inf"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0050="C:\Drivers\mass\LSILogic\symmpi.inf"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0054="C:\Drivers\mass\LSILogic\symmpi.inf"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0058="C:\Drivers\mass\LSILogic\symmpi.inf"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_005E="C:\Drivers\mass\LSILogic\symmpi.inf"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0640="C:\Drivers\mass\LSILogic\symmpi.inf"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0642="C:\Drivers\mass\LSILogic\symmpi.inf"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0054&SUBSYS_1F041028="C:\Drivers\mass\LSILogic\symmpi.inf"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0054&SUBSYS_1F051028="C:\Drivers\mass\LSILogic\symmpi.inf"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0054&SUBSYS_1F061028="C:\Drivers\mass\LSILogic\symmpi.inf"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0054&SUBSYS_1F071028="C:\Drivers\mass\LSILogic\symmpi.inf"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0054&SUBSYS_1F081028="C:\Drivers\mass\LSILogic\symmpi.inf"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0054&SUBSYS_1F091028="C:\Drivers\mass\LSILogic\symmpi.inf"
[GuiUnattended]
   AdminPassword=xxxxx
   EncryptedAdminPassword=No
   AutoLogon=No
   AutoLogonCount=0
   OEMSkipRegional=1
   OEMDuplicatorstring=
   TimeZone=35
   OemSkipWelcome=1
[UserData]
   ProductKey=***Product key***
   FullName="xxx"
   OrgName="xxx"
   ComputerName=*
[TapiLocation]
   CountryCode=107
   AreaCode=418
   Dialing=Tone
[RegionalSettings]
   LanguageGroup=1
   Language=00000c0c
[GuiRunOnce]

[Identification]
   JoinDomain=xxx
   DomainAdmin=xxx\xxx
   DomainAdminPassword=xxx
[Networking]
; InstallDefaultComponents=Yes
[NetClients]
MS_MSClient=params.MS_MSClient
[NetServices]
MS_Server=params.MS_Server
[Branding]
   BrandIEUsingUnattended=Yes
[Proxy]
   Proxy_Enable=0
   Use_Same_Proxy=0
[sysprepcleanup]

4. The important part is to install only the basic OS. For us, we are not installing no other software. When the computer is joining the domain, we have a script querying the manufacturer and model (WMI), then we are adding the others drivers and software. So we are getting only a single image and we can deploy it almost anywhere...

_____________________________

François Racine
Technicien

Please rate my post :)

(in reply to nrunge)

Post #: 5

RE: Imaging Best Practices - 6/19/2008 12:38:05 PM

nrunge

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It is just the OS. I have packaged all of our software into msi's. My situation is somewhat unique because I work for a college so we have the same MFG and model in a number of labs all of which have different software loads. I was planning on creating a task sequence for each lab instead of using as script.

I thought that importing drivers and driver packages into SCCM took the place of using the "OemPnPDriversPath" directive in sysprep.inf.

< Message edited by nrunge -- 6/19/2008 12:53:53 PM >

(in reply to fracine)

Post #: 6

RE: Imaging Best Practices - 6/19/2008 1:05:41 PM

jsandys

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From: San Antonio, TX
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It does. I don't think François is using OSD in ConfigMgr. You shouldn't really have to fidle with Sysprep.inf at all (or very much) in ConfgiMgr OSD.

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RE: Imaging Best Practices - 6/19/2008 1:40:15 PM

nrunge

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That is what I thought. Is there any reason why a custom sysprep would need to be used? The task sequences in OSD seem to cover everything that I would use in sysprep.

(in reply to jsandys)

Post #: 8

RE: Imaging Best Practices - 6/19/2008 1:58:42 PM

jsandys

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From: San Antonio, TX
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Sometimes. Though for ConfigMgr OSD I use the Capture and Build Task Sequence to capture my image and thus sometimes use a slightly customized unattended.txt file to remove things like games and the media player desktop shortcut.

But in general, ConfigMgr does a good job of presenting all the options via the interface and building these files on the fly so unless you find a spcific thing not presented that you have to have, you shouldn't have to muck with either the sysprep.inf or unattend.txt file at all.

_____________________________

Jason
________________________________________
http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jsandys/default.aspx

(in reply to nrunge)

Post #: 9

RE: Imaging Best Practices - 6/19/2008 3:15:54 PM

nrunge

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I do make changes to the default user profile when I make an image. If I do not use a custom sysprep.inf doesn't the default user get blown away?

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Post #: 10

RE: Imaging Best Practices - 6/19/2008 3:40:50 PM

jsandys

Posts: 464
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From: San Antonio, TX
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No. A sysprep.inf file is actually built on the fly by ConfigMgr. Are you using XP SP2 or SP3? For XP SP2 sysprep, the Administrator Profile is actually copied to the default user profile during sysprep. They reversed this in XP SP3.

A side note, I really try not to manually touch an image in any way. You should find a way to either use unattend.txt, hivedef.inf, or a GPO to implment your profile change. Manual image creation is too much work and introduces to many points of failure: http://ihaveablog.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/master-deployment-images-part-1/.

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Jason
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Post #: 11

RE: Imaging Best Practices - 6/19/2008 4:22:04 PM

nrunge

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Looking back at our image I do not beleive there is any reason to touch the default profile. I am just going to write a script to make the changes after the OS image is deployed. It is really hard to break old habits somtimes :]

(in reply to jsandys)

Post #: 12