Understanding BDD rule processing

BDD 2007 Tips - Creating Model Aliases

Ben Hunter — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 10:48:48 GMT

When trying to manage drivers and hardware specific application with BDD 2007, I have found that with

BDD 2007 - Tips and Tricks - Multiple Keyboard Locales

Ben Hunter — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 05:16:48 GMT

I have had recently had a couple of enquires from people having issues with setting multiple keyboard

BDD 2007 - Tips and Tricks - How to write a custom script

Ben Hunter — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 12:47:05 GMT

BDD provides a scripting framework, by leveraging this framework you can write a custom script that can

BDD 2007 - Tips and Tricks - Identifying hardware types

Ben Hunter — Sun, 20 May 2007 06:43:11 GMT

When using BDD to deploy and OS one of the first things it does is detect information about the hardware

BDD 2007 - Troubleshooting Database issues

Ben Hunter — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 22:21:42 GMT

I have lost count of the number of times I have been asked to help some troubleshoot their database issues,

BDD 2007 - Reusing the SMS GUID in the New Computer Scenario

Ben Hunter — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 12:50:14 GMT

When performing a refresh based deployment using Zero Touch BDD will retain the computers current SMS

BDD 2007 - How do you do it?

Ben Hunter — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 03:57:00 GMT

I am often asked how I install and configure BDD 2007. So I thought now was a good time detail at a high

re: Understanding BDD rule processing

Chris — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:51:54 GMT

I have setup a build which has several applications installing through the task sequence method, and id believe it is possible to create rules so that certain applications can be installed or not depending on the make and model of the machine, when interogated though WMI.

Ive seen several blogs on how to do this, but really cant see how the wmi query is put together within the "options" of the task.

What i am having trouble with is working out how to do a WQL query (as im not a programmer), assign it or them to variables and use them to determine whether or not to install specific applications.

So far i have this tried this from some code i found in a vbscript to get model info, not my code as i cant program.

- WQL Query=p_model = trim(p_WMIObj.model)

- If ALL Condiotns are true

- Task sequence variable p_model equals 2374PG2

Ive run the TS.xml for an applications only build as described elsewhere and nothing happens. What should happen is a hardware specific app installation.

Please Help

Im sure this is possible, and would really like some guidance on this.

Many Thanks

Chris Snell

re: Understanding BDD rule processing

BenHunter — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 10:57:46 GMT

Hi Chris,

BDD will gather the WMI value for you automatically. You can then use these values within scripts or in the customsettings.ini file. You can also use the database to dynamically install applications based on the hardware type.

For information on how to write a customscript have a look at the following post:

http://blogs.technet.com/benhunter/archive/2007/04/15/bdd-2007-ndash-tips-and-tricks-ndash-how-to-write-a-custom-script.aspx

For information on how to create and use model aliases have a look at the following post:

http://blogs.technet.com/benhunter/archive/2007/03/28/bdd-2007-tips-creating-model-aliases.aspx

You will also find lots of good information on myitforum.com:

http://www.myitforum.com/myITWiki/BDD2007Config_ConfigureModels.ashx

Thanks,

Ben

re: Understanding BDD rule processing

Rudolph — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 02:35:40 GMT

Ben,

Thanks for the great blog and post. I'm having difficulty finding out how to assign a static IP address during the deployment process. I'm open to a user prompt in the wizard or a web service/or db call but I don't know how to integrate into the bdd process. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

re: Understanding BDD rule processing

BenHunter — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 22:18:37 GMT

Hi Rudolph,

Are you wanting to assign static address to WinPE or withing Windows?

If you want to do it within Windows then I suggest that you use MDT as it provides this functionality natively.

Thanks,

Ben

re: Understanding BDD rule processing

Ghost — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 18:20:35 GMT

Ben,

I have a problem using custom properties in BDD 2007. I have designed a solution for replacing computers during the installation. The idea was to let the property "ReplaceComputerName" be populated by a user dialog during the first installation phase, and then use this property in the StateRestore phase to remove the old computer and inherit its AD memberships. But the property value doesn't seem to survive to the next phase. I can see that the value for the property is saved to the Variables.dat file on the client, but ZTIutility.vbs seemes to ignore reading the value back to the oEnvironment dictionary. Is it necessary to populate the CustomSettings.ini variables in each phase by the BDD rule processing?

Thanks for any advice!

Jack

re: Understanding BDD rule processing

BenHunter — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 03:16:55 GMT

Hi Jack,

If you are going to use a non-standard variable then you need to specify it using the properties line in the customsettings.ini file, for example:

[Settings]

Properties=ReplaceComputerName

This will then be available across all phases.

How are you referencing the variable in your script?

Thanks,

Ben

re: Understanding BDD rule processing

Ghost — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:58:59 GMT

Thanks Ben!

The confirmation that properties should be available across the phases help me look at the problem from another angle. I discovered that the Variables.dat file is just one property store, another file - OSDenv.ini contains more properties. The loss of my value in Variables.dat threw me off.

I have addded a feature to the logging class in ZTIutility to write logg entries to a SQL table. I could post it if you want it.

Thanks again!

Jack

re: Understanding BDD rule processing

BenHunter — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 11:35:40 GMT

That would be great. I like t see other peoples ideas!

Thanks,

Ben

BDD logging to SQL database table

Ghost — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 19:46:13 GMT

Start by creating an EventLog table on a SQL server (in this example - BDD). Then create a stored procedure in the database called WriteLogEntry which basically does a simple "INSERT INTO EventLog". The benefit of using a stored procedure is that you can let it stamp the log entries with the local time on the SQL server. When the SQL server is prepared you need to add the following code to ZTIUtility.vbs:

'Global constants in the header part of the file

Public Const adOpenKeyset = 1

Public Const sSQLlogserver="MySQLserver",sLogDatabase="BDD",SQLUserID="User",SQLpwd="P@ssword!"

Dim bWriteCentralLog

bWriteCentralLog=True

'Find this function in the "class Logging" part

Public Function CreateEntry(sLogMsg, iType)

......

'Call to SQL log function inserted above

'oUtiltity.VerifyPathExists entry

If bWriteCentralLog Then

WriteCentralLog Component,sDate,sTime,iType,sLogMsg

End If

oUtility.VerifyPathExists LogPath

.......

End Function

'New WriteCentralLog function

Function WriteCentralLog(sSource,sDate,sTime,iType,sLogMsg)

bWriteCentralLog=False

'To filter log to send to SQL you can use oEnvironment.Item("PHASE")

'or sSource content not ZTIgatherer...

If iType>0 Then

Dim sMACaddress,sSerialNumber,sIPaddress

Dim dicMacAddresses

Dim colBIOS

Dim oWMI,oAdapters,oAdapter,oInstance

If Not VarType(oEnvironment)=9 Then

Set oWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:")

Set oAdapters = oWMI.ExecQuery("select MacAddress,IPAddress from Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration where IPEnabled = 1")

For Each oAdapter In oAdapters

sMACaddress=oAdapter.MacAddress

For Each sIPaddress in oAdapter.IPAddress

If sIPaddress<>"0.0.0.0" And Left(sIPaddress,7)<>"169.254" And Len(sIPaddress)>0 Then

Exit For

End If

'Only use first adapter

Exit For

Set colBIOS = oWMI.InstancesOf("Win32_BIOS")

For Each oInstance in colBIOS

' Get the serial number

If Not IsNull(oInstance.SerialNumber) Then

sSerialNumber = Trim(oInstance.SerialNumber)

End if

Else

If oEnvironment.Exists("MacAddress") Then

Set dicMacAddresses=oEnvronment.Item("MacAddress")

For Each sMACaddress in dicMacAddresses.Keys

'Only use first adapter

Exit For

For Each sIPaddress in oEnvironment.ListItem("IPAddress").Keys

Exit For

sSerialNumber=oEnvironment.Item("SerialNumber")

Else

Set oWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:")

Set oAdapters = oWMI.ExecQuery("select MacAddress,IPAddress from Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration where IPEnabled = 1")

For Each oAdapter In oAdapters

sMACaddress=oAdapter.MacAddress

For Each sIPaddress in oAdapter.IPAddress

If sIPaddress<>"0.0.0.0" And Left(sIPaddress,7)<>"169.254" And Len(sIPaddress)>0 Then

Exit For

End If

'Only use first adapter

Exit For

Set colBIOS = oWMI.InstancesOf("Win32_BIOS")

For Each oInstance in colBIOS

' Get the serial number

If Not IsNull(oInstance.SerialNumber) Then

sSerialNumber = Trim(oInstance.SerialNumber)

End if

End If

Dim sConnectString

sConnectString="PROVIDER=SQLOLEDB;Data source=" & sSQLlogserver & _

";Initial Catalog=" & sLogDataBase & ";User ID=" & SQLUserID & ";Password=" & SQLpwd

Dim oDBconnect

Dim oDBcommand

Set oDBconnect = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")

On Error Resume Next

oDBconnect.Open sConnectString

If Err Then

Dim oX

For Each oX in oDBconnect.Errors

wscript.echo "WriteCentralLog OLEDBERR: " & oX.Description

Exit Function

End If

On Error GoTo 0

Dim sQuery

sQuery="EXECUTE WriteLogEntry '" & sSource & "'," & _

"'" & sSerialNumber & "'," & _

"'" & sMACaddress & "'," & _

"'" & sIPaddress & "'," & _

"'" & sDate & "'," & _

"'" & sTime & "'," & _

"'" & iType & "'," & _

"'" & Replace(sLogMsg,"'","''") & "'"

Dim oRecordSet

'MsgBox sQuery

On Error Resume Next

Set oRecordSet=CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")

oRecordSet.Open sQuery,oDBconnect,adOpenKeySet

If Err Then

wscript.echo "WriteCentralLog ERR: 0x" & Hex(Err.Number) & vbCRLF & Err.Description

wscript.echo "Command: " & sQuery

Exit Function

End If

On Error GoTo 0

End If

bWriteCentralLog=True

End Function

GOOD LUCK!!

/Jack

re: Understanding BDD rule processing

BenHunter — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 23:19:07 GMT

Hi Jack,

Thanks for this it looks great.

Ben

re: Understanding BDD rule processing

amoschb — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:57:48 GMT

Hi,Jack

Can you give me more details about your script and store procedure?

Processing rules for RApps exclusive of MMApps

Alan.1 — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 07:22:45 GMT

Ben,

My company defined our Model Aliases according to the post at:

http://blogs.technet.com/benhunter/archive/2007/03/28/bdd-2007-tips-creating-model-aliases.aspx

We also want to selectively use Computer Roles that define the RoleApplications result set in [RApps] which override the MakeModelApplications result set in [MMApps] with the following priority settings:

Priority=SetModel, CRoles, RSettings, RApps, MMSettings, MMApps, Default

Properties=ModelAlias

Unfortunately this does not appear to work when both the serial number matches in the Roles database, and the ModelAlias matches the Make and Model database. Instead, the combined result sets of all the applications in both RoleApplications and MakeModelApplications for the corresponding Role and ModelAlias for the computer are selected.

Can this be forced to use just one of these result sets, as defined in the priority setting?

Don’t forget our old blogs!

The Deployment Guys — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:32:09 GMT

I am very happy with the progress of the deployment guys blog so far. Hopefully you all agree that we

Extending the MDT Database with Custom Settings

Maik Koster at myITforum.com — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:38:37 GMT

The Settings within the MDT Database cover already a wide area of possibilities during a Deployment.