Obsolete Computer Objects after Reimaging

After reimaging a computer in SCCM 2007 sp2 r2 with Windows 7, I end up with two computer objects for the same computer, one being obsolete.  With XP, this never happened.  This causes any collections that included direct memberships to be lost for the reimaged computer. 
 
Is there a setting that I am missing for the client install that tells it to use the existing computer object?

For the most part that is a timing issue and I guess you have been lucky. Create a collection of obsolete clients and deleted. Or adjust your maintenance task settings.

My problem is that the obsolete computer object is direct membership in a number of collections.  i want to know if there is a way to make it so SCCM uses the existing computer object instead of creating a new one.  Deleting obsolete isn't the problem in my case.

No, you can't do that, unless you are deploying your image via Zero Touch.

And how is Zero touch handling it differently.  I am essentially doing zero touch.

See Configuration Manager 2007 Initiated Operating System Deployments section within the doc http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/library/bb693934.aspx

If you image via PXE then this will always happen, it's by design.  If you image the machine while it's in windows, either using RAP or a mandatory advertisement then it will automatically pickup the GUID of the client and restore it to the re-imaged machine.

However, I have seen this fail to happen in one circumstance.  A client of mine had captured a Win7 image manually without the client on it.  This was done by running sysprep and then rebooting and booting to a custom WinPE disk and using ImageX to manually capture the machine.  Upon deployment a new client was created regardless of previous client status (in the database or not).  The fix for this was simply to capture an image correctly with the client installed and using the capture media created through the console.

So wanted to update you all with the solution that I believe works (still double and triple checking).  We have our environment in native mode and have a group policy for Auto Certificate enrollment.  It was setup for Windows XP.  We then made a new GP for Win7 we must have missed the check box for Update certificates that use certificate templates.  Once that was checked, the machine gets the same cert with the current info, which SCCM will use and see as the same computer object.  Thus, when we reimage a machine (from the os or winpe), the machine keeps the same object and the same direct collection memberships.

I could use a little clarification on this process.  Are you saying that if I install the SCCM client on my reference computer, and then build and capture the image using a task sequence created by the New Task Sequence Wizard, that when the Image is deployed the existing SCCM client GUID will be used (no duplicate GUID's because my reference computer had the SCCM Client installed)? 
 
Does this also apply if I build and capture the reference computer image using the iso file created by the "Create Task Sequence Media" wizard with the "Stand-Alone Media" or "Bootable Media" options?

From how I understand it works, it has nothing to do with how you created your image or how you are imaging, but rather it is based on the computers certificate.  We are in native mode and have computer cert auto enrollment on via GP.  Once a computer comes on line, it gets a cert.  If it is an existing computer (same name and guid), it updates the existing cert and uses that.  The server sees it as the same object and does not create a new one.  

mbaird


I could use a little clarification on this process.  Are you saying that if I install the SCCM client on my reference computer, and then build and capture the image using a task sequence created by the New Task Sequence Wizard, that when the Image is deployed the existing SCCM client GUID will be used (no duplicate GUID's because my reference computer had the SCCM Client installed)? 
 
Does this also apply if I build and capture the reference computer image using the iso file created by the "Create Task Sequence Media" wizard with the "Stand-Alone Media" or "Bootable Media" options?

Correct.  It is common wisdom to not install the client on an image captured with something like Ghost because each image created later would have the same GUID. 

Capturing an image with OSD is the opposite.  It actually requires that you have the client installed before it will begin the capture.  When it performs the capture, just before it runs sysprep, it prepares the client by stripping the GUID.  If you run the capture from the Capture Media iso and the client is not present, it will give an error and stop.