MDT: Deploy Windows 7 without DHCP

We came across a scenario at one of our esteemed clients where we needed to deploy Windows 7 on hundreds of machine without the DHCP environment. So all the clients had Static IP assigned to it. When system boots into WinPE it doesn’t get the IP. It is easy in NEW COMPUTER scenario as when the system boots up into WinPE you can assign the Static IP from Welcome screen. But in case of REFRESH scenario we don’t get the Welcome screen in MDT 2010. To achieve the above requirement i have done the customization in the Task Sequence with script as shown below.

Use ImageX to capture a Windows 7 Image

In the EARLIER post we showed you how to create WinPE boot disk to capture the Windows 7 reference machine. Now we will discuss the steps to be used to capture the reference machine using ImageX.

1.       Configure Windows 7 the reference machine as per the requirement (applications and settings).

2.       Make sure you have 2 partitions on reference machine, one OS partition and other to capture and save the image.

3.       Go to Windows 7 reference machine Start type cmd , run the command prompt as administrator.

SCCM 2007 R3 OSD Deployment

Through SCCM, OS can be deployed on multiple numbers of computers simultaneously. In SCCM, operating system can be deployed on machines using PXE boot method. This method is used to deploy OS on bare metal machines. OS deployment feature can be also used to upgrade an existing OS on the system. Multiple set of customised OS images can be created. As per the requirement, different OS images can be used for deploying on a particular set of computers.

In this section, the complete procedure for deploying OS is provided. Operating System deployment consists of the following configurations which have to be carried out as given below:-

· Installation of Pre-requisites for PXE boot method

· Installing PXE Service point role on SCCM server

· Creating a separate Collection for OS deployment

· Configuration of Boot Images

· Creating Computer Association for bare metal computers

· Capturing customised OS image from a reference computer

· Creating OS image package

· Creating Task Sequence for OS image

· Advertising Task Sequence on the Collection for deploying OS

Where is smsts.log located?

To troubleshoot the SCCM OSD deployment issues we can enable the F8 feature in our Windows PE boot images. Below is the process for the same:-

ü Enable the Command Prompt on your boot image
Boot images have an option to enable a command shell while running in Windows PE. This is turned off by default for security reasons but can be enabled on the “Windows PE”property page.