IT Going Green and Making a Difference in More Ways

This is a 1E customer who not only uses our NightWatchman software to save electricity and subsequently reduce their own carbon footprint in doing so but they are also saw a return on investment of of less than three months on a project that also included our user self service product Shopping and services to design and implement SMS.  In the long run they are going to reduce the amount of carbon emitted into the environment by 1 metric tonne annually and their head count is only 4,500 employees.  Other benefits they will realize are faster and easier application delivery to the end users, and less IT staff costs by implementing SMS and Shopping, all along side NightWatchman.

I was not involved in this project personally, but I can tell you that with all of my customers who use NightWatchman they are not only saving millions of dollars on electricity each year and saving the planet at the same time but when they add our other software solutions like 1E WakeUp with our custom Wake-on-LAN solution and the much imitated Client Health patching of computers is much faster and reaching a patch level of 100% compliant is not only possible but now the expectation, add in our branch distribution software Nomad Enterprise and the fear of sending a package over a link and hoping it doesn’t saturate the pipe is gone, no longer can the Network admin’s point their finders at the SMS or ConfigMgr if their traffic shaping doesn’t quite work, Nomad has dynamic true bandwidth throttling built in that handles any change in network traffic, oh the stories I could tell.  And then when you add Shopping in and you never have to worry again about getting those frantic phone calls from your manager or director telling you to stop what you were working on “…because the department head of X is leaving for the airport in 45 minutes and has to have the latest version of Visio and PowerPoint installed on their laptop before they go, and I mean right now!  Create the package and ad thing you do. No, I have no idea what their computer name is why?  Oh, and make sure they have the right service pack and all the patches installed with those too!  We can’t have them getting infected.”  Because with Shopping that department head could sit in their chair open up their browser, select Visio and PowerPoint from the list of application on the Shopping portal and in just a few minutes it would all be installed while they were checking online to make sure they had the best seat for their return flight next week, all without ever contacting IT!

My customers scale, as far as client numbers, are almost always in excess of 100k so I get to design and test some very interesting solutions.  Hierarchies are very large and complicated, not to mention the sheer size of the IT operations and the risk associated with making changes to the computing environment and processes.  But when the design is complete, and we have checked every box indicating that all of the PoC tests are a success, and all requirements have been met, and I produce a report telling them how much they are going to reduce their carbon footprint and save on electricity, that they no longer have to worry about traffic shaping to make sure an SMS distribution doesn’t cause a network outage, that we meet and exceed application delivery to the end users where service level agreements are measured in seconds not days, and they are finally going to get the client fixed on all those computers where it hasn’t worked for no one knows how long, all they can do is smile in disbelief and ask me why they didn’t call sooner!  

So I can attest to this case study being factual even though I didn’t work on the project because I have seen it all with my own customers using the 1E products and services.

PeterboroughCaseStudy.pdf

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

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More MMS Goodness

This is from the 1E site, but down towards the bottom you can see the schedule for demos at the 1E stand.  I will be presenting at least a couple times.  Brian Tucker and Neil Kimberly will also be presenting at the stand on other topics.  If you think I know SMS/ConfigMgr then you haven’t spent much time talking to Brian and Neil these guys are AMZAZING!

1E MMS Focus

1E will be exhibiting as a Gold Sponsor at the Microsoft Management Summit at the Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas from April 28 to May 2, 2008.

With a focus on System Center Success and ‘green’ IT, we will be highlighting:

• Expertise in deploying System Center solutions
• Automation solutions that dramatically reduce cost and complexity
• PC power management
• Self-service provisioning with licence control
• Content distribution and OS migration/deployment for distributed environments
• Actual customer experiences with proven ROI

SPEAKER SLOT: Real-world System Center success including PC power management: Significantly lower your PC and server management costs

Speaker: Sumir Karayi, CEO 1E

Date/Time: Tuesday 29, 11.45 – 13.00

Location: F-Veronese 2402-2503

Sumir Karayi, CEO 1E, will be speaking following Bill Anderson’s “ConfigMgr - State of the Nation” session. Sumir will talk about System Center and PC power management customer success stories.

1E has been providing robust integrated Windows systems management solutions for over 10 years. Come and listen to Sumir talk about real-world experiences of System Center success and PC power management implementations in large, complex, distributed environments. In this session you will learn how to address universal time and cost-saving initiatives such as:

• PC power and patch management including client health and energy usage reporting
• Automated self-service application provisioning with license management and control
• Optimization of software and OS deployments to bandwidth-constrained complex branch environments

Visit the 1E Stand 311

MMS provides us with a great opportunity to see friends – old and new. Please drop by the 1E stand to say hello, collect ‘green’ giveaways, enter our competition to win a Nintendo Wii, and attend ‘live’ technical demo sessions.

‘Live’ Theatre Demonstrations and Presentations

Tuesday April 29

1:10 - 1:30 PM PC Power Management: Go Green Overview Presentation Simon Francis

2:00 - 2:20 PM Self-Service Provisioning and License Control Anthony Clendenen

3:30 - 3:50 PM Fully Automated OS Deployment/Migrations Neil Kimberley

Wednesday April 30

1:10 - 1:30 PM PC Power Management, WOL and Client Health Brian Tucker

2:00 - 2:20 PM Fully Automated OS Deployment/Migrations Neil Kimberley

3:00 - 3:20 PM Self-Service Provisioning and License Control Anthony Clendenen

3:30 - 3:50 PM Bandwidth Optimization for Complex/Branch Environments Brian Tucker

Thursday May 1

1:10 - 1:30 PM Bandwidth Optimization for Complex/Branch Environments Brian Tucker

2:00 - 2:20 PM PC Power Management & Energy Usage Reporting Brian Tucker

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

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Hibernation Hotfix for Windows XP and Vista and Insomnia Madness

I have read of reports where systems will not resume from hibernation but have not seen it replicated myself.  Well if you have seen this problem in your environment this patch, released on April 7th by Microsoft (KB 951126), may be just what the doctor ordered. 

Insomnia? Ambien…

I have also heard reports of a software vendor that claims to have a patch for a situation they refer to as insomnia.  They claim that a bug in the Windows operating system will actually prevent the system from going into hibernate and have a patch to fix it. 

In reality there is no bug and here is what happens.  In the power scheme settings there is a specified time for the system to go into a low power state after n minutes of idle time.  Idle time is when there are no keyboard inputs, mouse movements or changes in window focus, all actions typically performed by the user.  Once the computers idle timer expires the OS will go into a low power state but before that it will query running applications to see if they are busy doing anything and if any of them respond with a "Yes, I am still working!"  the idle timer gets reset and the system stays in its current power state.  The idle timer will reset to n minutes and when it expires it will check again. 

This process is actually handled by SetThreadExecutionState function, which allows application to respond to this request with various values to be able to complete their tasks.  So not only is this not a bug in the OS, if there is a bug it lies in the application that is incorrectly responding and keeping the OS from going into a low power state or it truly is working and needs the computer to stay up.  The whole idea is to keep applications from crashing, causing a BSOD or worse a RSOD and corrupting files.  And personally, the only patch I am going to install for my operating system is going to have to come from Microsoft, I will apply patches from vendors for their own software but if they issue a patch to fix another vendors software I would be a bit concerned to say the least.

More technical details of the function can be found here on msdn.

If you are coming to MMS see you in just a couple weeks!  You can find me hanging out at the booth or in sessions.  I will actually be putting on a couple demos during the week at our booth as well.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

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Attending MMS 2008? Yes I Am - We Are

I have gotten a ton of emails asking me if I am going to be at MMS this year and when and up until now I have held off because I was waiting for some things to finalize.  But today 1E sent out an email to customer letting them know the booth number, and when Sumir, one of the founders of 1E, was going to speak.  Which is right after the State of the Union, and also at the same time as Paul Thomsen is presenting his session on ConfigMgr Client Health.  So yes, I will be there from Sunday to Friday afternoon.  And we are trying to get my wife to be able to attend at least a day or more as well, I know some of you look forward to seeing her more than me - but I won’t mention any names, you know who you are! Not that I can really blame you…

I will be doing my best to blog live or very close to it when I am there but this year I will have to actually work so it may be more hit and miss regarding coverage of the sessions for those who can’t attend or those who use my posts for your justification to attend. 

We will be having demos at the booth of the different 1e products and most of us can also do an impromptu demo if you want to see something that isn’t on the schedule.  Just hunt me down and I can arrange it. 

There is more info on the 1E presence below, our booth is in the second row right as you walk in the doors. I am finalizing some plans to hold a special session in one of our conference rooms and when that it finalized I will publish the detail of it.

I look forward to meeting up with a bunch of you again I am sure there will be quite a few people from the myITforum.com list, Microsoft, and Dimension Data that I haven’t seen in at least a few months, people like Omar it has been since last MMS. 

Dear Colleague,

1E will be exhibiting at the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) in Las Vegas from
April 28 - May 2, 2008. Please come and visit us on Stand 311, where you can:

· Find out how to dramatically reduce the cost of running Windows infrastructures

· See ‘live’ technical demos of our core solutions

· Discover how you can quickly & easily save $45 per PC per year

· Find out how Dell is saving $1.8 million a year across 50k PCs

· Enter our competition to win a Nintendo Wii

Come and listen to 1E CEO Sumir Karayi speak, following Bill Anderson’s "ConfigMgr - State
of the Nation" session.  Sumir will talk about real customer System Center and PC power management success stories.

Speaker: Sumir Karayi, CEO 1E

Date/Time: Tuesday 29, 11.45 – 13.00

Location: F-Veronese 2402-2503

1E has been providing robust integrated Windows systems management solutions for over 10 years. Join us as we detail real-world experiences of System Center success and PC power management implementations in large, complex, distributed environments.

» Book a 1:1 meeting
Use this opportunity to book a pre-arranged 1:1 meeting with 1E while you are at MMS. This
will give you the chance of discussing your requirements with us at an agreed date and time, and make sure that you maximize your attendance at the event.

For more information, please visit the 1E website.

We look forward to seeing you at MMS 2008.

Best regards,
1E Events Team

www.1e.com

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

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The Deployment Guys : ConfigMgr 2007 and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit - Video Walkthrough

ConfigMgr 2007 and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit - Video Walkthrough

Are you struggling with setting up ConfigMgr 2007 Operating System Deployment and integrating MDT? - download and view the video walkthrough that shows you how to:

• Setup the server environment for ConfigMgr 2007 OS deployment
• Configure the ConfigMgr 2007 Site Settings
• Configure the ConfigMgr 2007 Computer Management Settings
• Configure the ConfigMgr 2007 Operating System Deployment Settings
• Setup and use MDT integration with ConfigMgr 2007
• Add a reference machine object to ConfigMgr 2007
• Create a build and capture reference image for mass deployment using ConfigMgr 2007

Download from here (51.2Mb)

The download pack contains the following high resolution (1024 x 768) narrated video

• ConfigMgr and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Setup and Config.wmv

The Deployment Guys : SCCM 2007 and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit - Video Walkthrough

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

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Nomad Enterprise Webcast - March 5

It is not often I blog about 1E, I think it has only happened once before actually.  Even before I got an offer from them they told me they didn’t want me to blog about them or their products because they didn’t want my blog to turn into PR for 1E.  And over the last year I have not talked about the products at all.  But as you may have noticed the number of posts I put up have also dropped dramatically.  Well I spend most of my time working with the 1E products, back when I was at ESRI I spent most of my time working on SMS, so if I don’t blog about the 1E products I don’t have too much else to talk about.  But I have been thinking about this over the past few weeks and I think I am going to politely ignore their request to not talk about 1E products.  I think there is some extremely cool stuff that 1E offers, be it Services or products and as long as I talk about what I want and not what the Marketing guys and gals tell me I think I can keep my blog from turning into a 1E ad.  I mean look at how many people at Microsoft blog, and what do they blog about?  Microsoft! 

If you don’t know what Nomad is, it rocks!  You can get rid of those pesky, lowly, DP’s in every single remote office with Nomad.  When you use Nomad only one of your SMS clients on the subnet copies the package down from the DP.  It pulls it down and then lets all the other clients on that subnet copy, or better yet, streams it to them in a Multicast session.  So you only have one client that makes the trip to the DP instead of each client, saving you all that bandwidth and from having to manage the DP.  One of the best features is the way it handles bandwidth throttling, it does real time bandwidth throttling that you can configure.  It doesn’t just use an arbitrary figure it measures the amount of time it takes for a round trip to the DP and back, and then based on what you have configured, say 20%, it will use 20% of the bandwidth that is actually available, and it does this each time it goes and grabs another piece of the package from the DP so if the user who is the one that is caching the package for that subnet fires off a copy of a huge file it will immediately notice it and remeasure the available bandwidth and only use 20% of what is left over, so the user never even notices!  I told you it rocks!  There are some other really cool features too, but I don’t want to steal all of Brian’s thunder.  Check it out by attending the webcast and tell Brian I sent you.

Register here.

Event Title

Nomad Enterprise Solution Overview

 

Event Description

Nomad Enterprise enables OS releases, software applications and updates to be distributed quickly and efficiently to remote serverless branch offices and to bandwidth-challenged environments.

This 30 minute Webinar will allow you the opportunity to ask questions and learn directly from 1E Solutions Engineer, Brian Tucker.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

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Repurpose That Old Laptop

Most IT related folks have an old laptop laying around that is too slow for what they need to do or they get a brand new one every six months.  I know I have one that the hard drive has bad sectors on and don’t want to spend the $40-60 to get a replacement drive since I have over half a dozen computers in my house and only four people.  I have used it for testing in the past, setting up Server 2003 with SMS 2003 on it for upgrade testing to CM, testing the 1E products in different configurations, as a DC, and other scenarios.  LifeHacker ran an article last week on different idea on what to do with your old laptop and there are some good idea that may spark life into some of your old equipment, check the comments too for additional ideas.  If you find that it doesn’t then you may want to consider recycling it or donating it since you can’t just toss it.

Like a famed race horse or a classic book, you don’t just throw away a laptop because it’s banged up a little. Even if it seems outdated and underpowered, most any laptop is still small, quiet, and relatively low on power consumption, making it a seriously valuable spare to keep handy—even without a working screen. With some free software, a little know-how and some creative thinking about your home network, nearly any old laptop can find its second wind, and today I’ll run through some of the best ways to get it there.Photo by daveynin.

Create a no-monitor, low-power spare system

So everything on your laptop runs just fine—except the screen, the most important (and expensive) part. That’s not a death knell, just a chance for re-purposing. Set your laptop up somewhere near your router, connect it with network cable, then read up on how to set up your system to run "headless" with any OS and only when you wake it up. That way, you’ve got a computer that uses a bare minimum of power and doesn’t neeed no fancy screen to convert a file, download a big file, or serve as a temporary backup box. But if your system lacks Wake on LAN abilities, or you’re just looking for more use out of that laptop, you could always …

Convert it to a home server

The idea of a "server" usually conjures images of rack-mounted, temperature-controlled boxes, or at least a desktop system, but a laptop’s power-scaling abilities, small size, and built-in screen can actually make for a quietly-great unit. You could put it next to your printer to allow printing from anywhere, use a browser to get it grabbing BitTorrents in Windows or Mac systems, or set up your own web server for grabbing files or hosting things like your personal Wiki. Oh, and don’t forget your multi-purpose media server, if you’ve got the hard drive space. Once you’re set up and have enabled outside access, the world—or at least your files at home—is at your fingertips.

Make a better digital photo frame

Unless you avoided the big stores entirely last holiday season, you’ve probably noticed the boom in digital picture frames—those small $100-and-up devices with not-so-amazing screens and a canned slideshow ability. If you know your laptop isn’t much for getting anything done these days, consider bending it over backwards to make for a sizable, attention-grabbing frame that can show whatever you want and possibly even grab photos as they’re dropped on a main computer. Instructables has a highly detailed guide to taking apart a MacBook to get started, while Popular Science shows an alternate scheme using an old ThinkPad. To keep your spare laptop from becoming a power draw (or running long and hot), consider setting up timers to run your "frame" only during your waking hours.

Make it fly again with lightweight Linux

If you’re shelfing your trusty road warrior mostly because it just runs … so … slow, consider that it’s not always the laptop’s fault. Most modern operating systems aren’t designed to give you only the web, email, document handling, and a little multimedia, but there is an entire OS realm that is that can make your old system seem new again. Here are a few free, open-source recommendations and what an old laptop might get out of them:

• Puppy Linux: Very slim (97 MB) distribution, but retains a basically smooth and polished interface, with apps to cover common computer uses.
• Damn Small Linux: For really, really fast and light performance with a straight-up interface. A system smaller than 50 MB that can run on a machine with a minimum of 16 MB memory (assuming you can boot/load it on there).
• Xubuntu: Puts the Ubuntu methodology and software support into a lighter, XFCE-based desktop (check out its look and newest features here). For an even lighter kind of "Damn Small Ubuntu," try Fluxbuntu.
• gOS: For those who live inside their browser, gOS isn’t so much a gimmicky "Wal-Mart OS" as a webapp-focused version of Ubuntu, with a lightweight window manager (Enlightenment) and an OS X-like bottom dock containing most of what you need

Convert its LCD into a Stand-Alone Monitor

Not for the faint of heart or unsteady of hand, this Instructables guide runs you through the basics of turning a perfectly good LCD laptop screen into a vertical-mounted monitor. Havingl pulled apart a laptop myself to replace a monitor cable, I can just tell you that you should go real slow, and make sure you have a place to put all the spare screws and parts during disassembly.

Salvage an external back up drive from it

Assuming your laptop didn’t die from hard drive failure, those little magnetic platters inside it can make for a really handy pocket-sized external drive. Follow Lifehacker alum Rick Broida’s instructions on properly enclosing a 2.5" drive, and you’ll have avoided paying a premium for a seriously useful addition to your computer inventory. Photo by Justin Ruckman.

Extend your wireless coverage

If wireless coverage throughout your house is hit or miss, your best bet is to do a little DIY router upgrading. If, however, your router can’t handle Tomato or DD-WRT boost, your trusty laptop can serve as a temporary booster. If your trusty laptop is running OS X, Vista, or XP, you can turn on its hot spot abilities with only minor tweaking. Linux users should check out this Linux.com tutorial for general guidance, while Ubuntu fans can get more specific instructions here. Finally, those who also keep an Xbox on their network but think Microsoft’s $100 wireless adapter is a bit much can jerry-rig that shelved laptop to serve as a stand-in.

I tried to cover the basics and a few quirky ideas for an old-but-trusted laptop, but many of you have years of experience on me in this area. What’s the coolest, or most useful, thing you’ve done with an old laptop? What do you wish you could do with it? Share your tales and wishes in the comments.

Kevin Purdy, associate editor at Lifehacker, hopes he never has to part ways with his ThinkPad. His weekly feature, Open Sourcery, appears every Friday on Lifehacker.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

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WAIK for Vista SP1 and Server 2008 and XP SP3 Dates

Hopefully you have heard by now that Vista SP1 and Server 2008 went RTM on Monday.  But can you use these with OSD or MD?  Well of course you can with the new version of WAIK.

Also it is being reported that Vista SP1 goes live on Feb 18th or 19th and Windows XP SP3 goes live on March 23rd or 24th. 

Download details here direct download here (1.1 GB).

Overview

The Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK) is designed to help corporate IT professionals customize and deploy the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 family of operation systems. By using Windows AIK, you can perform unattended Windows installations, capture Windows images with ImageX, and create Windows PE images.

This update is provided to you and licensed under the Windows Vista License Terms.

Related links:

Windows Server 2008 Group Policy Settings Reference spreadsheet.

Windows Vista Group Policy Settings Reference spreadsheet.

Group policy administrative templates for Vista.

ADMX migrator for old group policies.

Notable Changes in Vista SP1.

Release Notes for Vista SP1.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

I Recommend These Books!
SMS 2003 Administrator’s Reference: Systems Management Server 2003 -  SMS 2003 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach  -  Microsoft SMS Installer (Book/CD-ROM package)  -  Pro SMS 2003  -  Professional MOM 2005, SMS 2003, and WSUS  -  Start to Finish Guide to Distributing Software With Systems Management Server 2003  -  Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 - Administrator’s Companion

And you can check out more books and gadgets at my Amazon store here.

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This is How the 1E SE Team Does Con Calls

It’s not only Microsoft, but we love these tunes as well, but we get a female voice with a British accent!

Source.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

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Microsoft Deployment FAQ Online

Grab this link and bookmark it as the MD team will be updating the post as the FAQ grows.

 

Lite Touch Installation

Q:  Is it possible to change the text IT Organization in the task sequence dialog box?

A: Yes!  You can set the variable _SMSTSORGNAME in the custom settings.ini to match the text you want to use.  For example to set the text to Microsoft Corporation, add the following line to your customsettings.ini:

_SMSTSORGNAME = Microsoft Corporation

Q:  What is the purpose of each of the task sequence templates?

A: In BDD 2007 we supported only the installation of a client Operating System and did not technically support using task sequences for anything other than deploying an Operating System.  With Microsoft Deployment we now support deploying server Operating Systems as well as running customized task sequences that can perform any number of operations.  Here is a list of the templates we provide and their purpose:

• Standard Client Task Sequence - Task sequence used for deploying client Operating Systems such as Windows XP or Windows Vista
• Standard Server Task Sequence - Task sequence used for deploying server Operating Systems such as Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008
• Standard Client Replace Task Sequence - This task sequence is designed to be run on the machine that is being replaced.  This task sequence should be initiated within the client Operating System and will perform a User State Migration, Boot into Windows PE, optionally perform a full system backup, and optionally securely wipe the disk
• Custom Task Sequence - This task sequence is used as a template to install Applications.  This task sequence can be customized to perform any additional actions that you would like to add

Q:  For the Client Replace task sequence, how do I make the task sequence wipe the disk?

A:  Set the variable WipeDisk = TRUE in the customsettings.ini

Q:  In BDD 2007 I modified ztidiskpart.txt to create partitions.  How do I do this in Microsoft Deployment?

A:  Microsoft deployment does not use the ztidiskpart.txt file to create the partitions.  Now, this disks are configured run time based on the task sequence parameters in the Format and Partition Disk step.  This step allows you to create multiple partitions across several disks.  If you do not want a partition formatted you can create your own custom script that calls diskpart /s and provide your own diskpart.xt file

Q:  When trying to add a custom Vista WIM to the workbench, I receive the following error:
Error during wizard processing
An unexpected error occurred while processing the wizard results.
Collection was modified; enumeration operation may not execute.

A:  There is a hotfix available that will fix this problem.  See the following KB article for more information and to retrieve the hotfix:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941595

Zero Touch Installation with ConfigMgr 2007

Q:  How do I use the media hook capabilities in Microsoft Deployment to deploy to unknown computers?

A: Michael Niehaus has a great blog entry and screencast on how to set up and configure this feature: http://blogs.technet.com/mniehaus/archive/2008/01/19/microsoft-deployment-configmgr-boot-media-unknown-computers-web-services.aspx

Q:  How do I configure my task sequence to capture a reference image?

A:  In the standard client task sequence there are a series of steps at the end of the task sequence that prepare the system for imaging, reboot to Windows PE, and then captures an image of the computer.  To enable these steps the following variable should be set in the customsettings.ini, Microsoft Deployment Database, ConfigMgr variables, or task sequence variables:

DoCapture = YES

Q:  Do I need to use the Microsoft Deployment database with ConfigMgr 2007?

A:  It depends.  We have made Microsoft Deployment flexible enough for you to use the Microsoft Deployment Database, customsettings.ini, ConfigMgr 2007 Task Sequence variables, Web Services, or Collection or Computer variables.  If you already have a populated database from using BDD 2007, you have the ability to use that database in conjunction with Microsoft Deployment and ConfigMgr by customizing the customsettings.ini to make the database connection.  If you choose to use the Microsoft Deployment database (or any other database) then you will need to use the Import Microsoft Deployment Task sequence to create a custom Windows PE image that includes ADO support

Q:  What is install updates offline and how do I use it?

A:  Install Updates offline is a step that can be added to the task sequence that will install Vista and Windows Server 2008 patches to the Operating System prior to the Operating System booting for the first time.  To use this step in the task sequence, you first need to create an updates package inside of ConfigMgr: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680701.aspx.  After creating your updates package you need to add the Install Updates Offline step in the task sequence in the PostInstall section immediately prior to the Configure step

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

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