The Deployment Guys : SCCM 2007

Persisting ConfigMgr Packages during a Task Sequence

DeploymentGuys — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:30:00 GMT

The MDT Task Sequences for System Center Configuration Manager 2007 use a clever technique to download and persist the MDT Files package during each phase of the Task Sequence. The Use Toolkit Package step uses the ZTISCCM.wsf script to copy the contents of the package to a WDPackage subfolder of the _SMSTaskSequence folder. The Task Sequencer maintains this folder (the path of which is held in the _SMSTSMDataPath variable) for holding the logs and downloaded package contents. So the WDPackage folder will continue to exist until the next reboot. MDT places the path to the WDPackage folder in the DeployRoot variable.

Doing this prevents repeated download of the MDT Files every time the execution of an MDT script is needed. My customer wanted to be able to used the same technique for their custom scripts. They maintain a package of custom scripts so that they are not mixed in with the MDT scripts. This will allow them to update/replace the MDT Files package as needed without having to worry about their custom scripts.

One way of doing this would be to simply create a Run Command Line step (after the Use Toolkit Package step) that simply does an xcopy of the files/folder in the package to either DeployRoot or ScriptRoot or a subfolder of those paths. You can then call your scripts relative to the DeployRoot or ScriptRoot variable.

I wanted to provide my customer with maximum flexibility for this so I created a custom script called ZTI-PersistSccmPackage.wsf. This script should be copied to the root of the package along with a copy of the MDT script ZTIUtility.vbs. The command has the following syntax:

cscript ZTI-PersistSccmPackage.wsf /pathvar:<path variable name> /xcopy:"<additional xcopy switches>"

The /pathvar switch sets the name of the variable the can be used to reference the path to the persisted files. If you specify a variable name that is either DeployRoot, ScriptRoot, or ToolRoot, the script will copy the contents of the package to the corresponding location in the WDPackage folder created by the Use Toolkit Package step. If you specify any other variable name, the script will create a randomly named folder in the _SMSTSMDataPath location, copy the contents of the package to that folder, and set a Task Sequence variable pointing to that folder path with the variable name specified with the /pathvar switch. For example, if you had a package of custom scripts you wanted to persist in their own folder, you would could run the script like this:

cscript ZTI-PersistSccmPackage.wsf /pathvar:CustomScriptRoot

You could then reference your scripts using the CustomScriptRoot variable. For example, if the package contained a script called MyScript.wsf you could run it from a Run Command Line step using the following syntax without having to add the package to the step:

cscript "%CustomScriptRoot%\MyScript.wsf"

The optional /xcopy switch is used to specify additional switches for the xcopy command. By default, the script uses xcopy with the following switches: /s /e /h /y /c. For example, if you wanted to add the /d switch to filter the copy by date or add the /exclude switch to exclude files from the copy, you would specify those using the /xcopy switch.

Disclaimer: The information on this site is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, confers no rights, and is not supported by the authors or Microsoft Corporation. Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified in the Terms of Use.

This post was contributed by Michael Murgolo, a Senior Consultant with Microsoft Services - U.S. East Region.

User Experience for Configuration Manager Task Sequences - Part I

DeploymentGuys — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:24:00 GMT

Ever wanted to add your own user communication and interaction to a Configuration Manager task sequence? Below is an HTML Application (HTA) that has a user interface for the task sequence with information about the deployment, a button to cancel or pause the deployment and even a button for a desktop support person to get debug information. This first post will cover how to implement a User Experience HTA and how to send messages to it.

A Configuration Manager Task Sequence runs as SYSTEM and therefore anything launched from it will also run in the SYSTEM context . In WinPE, this will be visible to the user and you can simply launch the HTA from the task sequence. However, if you try to run a User Experience HTA from the task sequence, it will be invisible to your user in the Full OS. Fortunately, you can get around this with by launching your user experience application as a package that runs before the task sequence:

1. Download the sample HTA files provided in the link.

2. Create a package in Configuration manager with the files from (1) as the source files (in the exact directory structure, with CopyUE.bat in the root of the package and the UserExperience subfolder)

3. Create a program that runs the CopyUE.bat file included in the download. Use the following properties for the program

<Choose Allow users to interact with this program> and <Run the program as hidden>

4. Right click on the task sequence in Configuration Manager and choose Properties

5. On the Advanced tab choose "Run another program first" and browse to the Package/Program with the HTA

6. In your task sequence scripts add the following header:

                <script language="VBScript" src="OutputMessage.vbs"/>

7. In your script to output to the user experience screen use the following syntax in Vbscript:

                OutputMessage <severity>,<LeftColumnText>, <RightColumnText>

Where <severity> is either "Info", "Success, "Warning" or "Error"

               e.g. OutputMessage "Info", "Validating machine", "Please wait while your deployment begins"

8. Copy the OutputMessage.vbs file to the package where your script in (7) is located.

Feel free to try out the HTA and customize it as you please. Stay tuned for the future installments of this post that will talk about how to allow users to cancel a deployment, show debug information or perform other interactions.

This post was contributed by Aly Shivji a consultant with Microsoft Services - U.S. East Region.

Documenting Your Task Sequences Automagically

DeploymentGuys — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 08:53:00 GMT

Often times, after creating an MDT or SCCM task sequence, you need to document it for yourself or your customers. Usually, this involves creating a table with the groups and steps, extracting their descriptions, identifying conditions and denoting the step actions and variables and then having format it all nicely and with indents denoting hierarchy. All of this information is usually already in the XML of the task sequence and all you're really doing is formatting. You can automatically format XML documents by using an XSL transform with the right logic. In order to do this:

1. Copy the attached file at the bottom of the post to the same folder as your task sequence.

2. Open your task sequence in your favourite text editor.

3. After the first line which should look something like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?> or <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

enter the following as the second line:

<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="tsDocumentorv1.xsl"?>

4. Save your task sequence file and open it in Internet Explorer. Presto! The XSL takes care of formatting, indents and sizing.

Your Task Sequence should look like this:

You can even change the styles of groups and steps easily.

1. Open up the tsDocumentorv1.xsl file

2. Edit the following section:

<STYLE TYPE="text/css">
TD.group { background-color:teal;color:white }
TD.step { background-color:beige }
</STYLE>

Change the colours or any other css properties you choose!

The XSL should work with task sequences created with BDD 2007, MDT 2008 and SCCM 2007.

Please try it out and post comments.

This post was contributed by Aly Shivji a consultant with Microsoft Services - U.S. East Region. Credit to Michael Murgolo for initial idea and effort.

Useful Script Number 6 - Pausing the Task Sequence

DeploymentGuys — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:59:18 GMT

Have you ever wanted to pause the task sequence in MDT 2008 or ConfigMgr 2007 for a few seconds while something catches up...? I had a requirement to do this recently where I ran a task to close and cancel the Windows Sidebar at the start of the State Restore phase of the task sequencer and then turn the Windows Sidebar back on again at the end of the State Restore phase - I was doing this as the Windows Sidebar can sometimes get in the way of some customisation scripts and you can also see peculiar VB messages when 2007 Office System updates are applied. When the Windows Sidebar is turned back on, there is a couple of seconds before the Sidebar actually appears - yet my task for turning on the Sidebar had returned and the task sequence had moved on...it made be think that there may be other situations where a slight delay in returning to the task sequence may be useful - sure you could add sleep commands to the scripts that your running as commands - but that doesn't help with the tasks that are not scripted - so here is an MDT based script that will pause the task sequence for a specified number of seconds (specified on the command line)

I first have a couple of variables to store the time to pause (strTime) and the script name (strSName - for logging purposes) and the integer argument for the sleep method

Dim strTime, strSName, IntTime

ZTIProcess=1

...I then use a call to ZTIUtility.wsf to set the script name to the strSName variable - this is then used to insert the script name at the start of each line in the log.

strSName=oUtility.ScriptName

...then it's another call to ZTIUtility.wsf to use the arguments class - this makes passing input to the script via the command line easy - in this case I am setting a command line input called "Time"

strTime = oUtility.Arguments("Time")

oLogging.CreateEntry strSName & ": Starting Actions ********************************************* ",LogTypeInfo

...then I check that Time has been specified as a command line input (exit if not) or set the IntTime to number of seconds from the command line x 1000 to get milliseconds

If strTime="" Then
    oLogging.CreateEntry strSName & ": No pause time was specified on the command line.",LogTypeError
    ZTIProcess=90
    Exit Function
Else
    oLogging.CreateEntry strSName & ": Pause time has been set to " & strTime & " seconds",LogTypeInfo

IntTime = strTime * 1000
End if

...I then take the intTime (in milliseconds) and add it to the sleep method to pause the script

oLogging.CreateEntry strSName & ": Task Sequence will pause for " & int(IntTime/1000) & " seconds",LogTypeInfo

wscript.sleep intTime

oLogging.CreateEntry strSName & ": Task Sequence has been paused for " & int(IntTime/1000) & " seconds - returning control to the Task Sequence now",LogTypeInfo

oLogging.CreateEntry strSName & ": Completed Actions ********************************************* ",LogTypeInfo
ZTIProcess = 0
End Function

The script is called CFG-TSPause.wsf so the command line to run it would be CFG-TSPause.wsf /Time:xx (where xx = the number of seconds that you want to pause the task sequence for) Drop the script into your <Deployment Share>\Scripts directory. You can then add the script anywhere in your task sequence by adding a Run Command Line task and specifying the script and the command line input for the number of seconds you want to pause.

As usual, the full script is up on the Deployment Guys SkyDrive:

This post was contributed by Richard Smith a Senior Consultant with Microsoft Services, UK.

Updating System Center Configuration Manager 2007 for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 Deployment

DeploymentGuys — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:58:00 GMT

The SCCM 2007 Operating System Deployment components use the Windows Automated Installation Toolkit (WAIK) for creating, managing, and deploying Windows Imaging (WIM) images. SCCM 2007 setup installs the Windows Vista RTM WAIK (WAIK 1.0) during installation if it is not already installed. In order to deploy Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 with SCCM 2007, the WAIK must be updated to the latest version (WAIK 1.1) This process is documented in this Microsoft Knowledge Base article: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=950782. (SCCM 2007 Service Pack 1 will natively support these operating systems when it becomes available.)

The first two steps in this process are very straight forward: uninstall WAIK 1.0, then install WAIK 1.1. The second two steps document a method of creating new WinPE 1.1 Boot Images and importing them into SCCM. The WinPE Boot Images need to be version 1.1 to support deploying Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008. If you are using the latest version of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2008 with SCCM 2007 integration enabled (v4.1 released in March is the latest), you can use the menu option that MDT adds to the SCCM Boot Images node for creating new boot images and avoid step 3.

However, if you are not using MDT and want to create new default SCCM boot images, the method documented in step 3 of KB 950782 is likely to give you about as much pleasure as a root canal. This method uses WBEMTest, a tool for testing WMI that is built into the OS. If you've used WBEMTest before, the experience is usually something you don't want to repeat. While it is very flexible for testing many WMI options, it is very tedious to use to execute a simple WMI method (as is needed to create new default SCCM boot images). So to alleviate this pain, I used the WMI Code Creator and the SCCM SDK to create a VBScript that turns the long mouse click tedium of WBEMTest into a few second operation.

To use this script, log on to the SCCM site server as an SCCM administrator. Create a folder that will hold the new boot images. If you are going to import the boot images from this folder, you may want to create it in the location when you keep your package source folders. (The folder from which the WinPE WIM file is imported becomes the boot image package data source.) Copy the ExportDefaultBootImages.vbs (listed below) to a folder on the server and edit the strExportFolder variable to point to the folder you just created. Then run then script from a command prompt with cscript.exe. When the script is finished you will have two sub folders, one containing an x86 boot image and one containing an x64 boot image. You can then either import the images as documented in step 4 of KB 950782 from these folders or move them to another location and import from there.

ExportDefaultBootImages.vbs

' Windows Script Host Sample Script
' ------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Copyright (C) 2008
'
' You have a royalty-free right to use, modify, reproduce and distribute
' the Sample Application Files (and/or any modified version) in any way
' you find useful, provided that you agree that Microsoft and the author
' have no warranty, obligations or liability for any Sample Application
' Files.
' ------------------------------------------------------------------------

'This script replaces the procedure in step 3
'of this Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
'http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=950782

strExportFolder = "E:\BootImages"

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

'Export x86 boot image
strx86Folder = strExportFolder & "\Default_WAIK_1_1_x86"
If Not objFSO.FolderExists(strx86Folder) Then objFSO.CreateFolder(strx86Folder)
ExportBootImage "x86", strx86Folder & "\WAIK_1_1_boot_image_x86.wim", 1

'Export x64 boot image
strx64Folder = strExportFolder & "\Default_WAIK_1_1_x64"
If Not objFSO.FolderExists(strx64Folder) Then objFSO.CreateFolder(strx64Folder)
ExportBootImage "x64", strx64Folder & "\WAIK_1_1_boot_image_x64.wim", 1

Function GetSiteCode

GetSiteCode = ""

    strComputer = "."
    Set objWmiSmsNamespace = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\SMS")
    Set objSmsProviderLoc = objWmiSmsNamespace.InstancesOf("SMS_ProviderLocation")

    For Each location In objSmsProviderLoc
        If location.ProviderForLocalSite = True Then
                GetSiteCode = location.SiteCode
        End If
    Next

End Function

Sub ExportBootImage(strArchitecture, strExportImagePath, intImageIndex)

strComputer = "."
Set objWmiSmsSiteNamespace = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\SMS\site_" & GetSiteCode)

' Obtain an instance of the the class
Set objShare = objWmiSmsSiteNamespace.Get("SMS_BootImagePackage")

    ' Obtain an InParameters object specific
    ' to the method.
    Set objInParam = objShare.Methods_("ExportDefaultBootImage").inParameters.SpawnInstance_()

    ' Add the input parameters.
    objInParam.Properties_.Item("Architecture") = strArchitecture
    objInParam.Properties_.Item("ExportImagePath") = strExportImagePath
    objInParam.Properties_.Item("ImageIndex") = intImageIndex

    ' Execute the method and obtain the return status.
    ' The OutParameters object in objOutParams
    ' is created by the provider.
    Set objOutParams = objWmiSmsSiteNamespace.ExecMethod("SMS_BootImagePackage", "ExportDefaultBootImage", objInParam)

    ' List OutParams
    Wscript.Echo "Out Parameters for " & strArchitecture & " boot image : "
    Wscript.echo "ReturnValue: " & objOutParams.ReturnValue

End Sub

References

How to replace Windows AIK version 1.0 with Windows AIK version 1.1 when you use System Center Configuration Manager 2007
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=950782

Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 (WAIK 1.1)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=94BB6E34-D890-4932-81A5-5B50C657DE08&displaylang=en

TechNet Magazine Utility Spotlight: WMI Code Creator
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc161034.aspx

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Software Development Kit (SDK) v4.0
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=064A995F-EF13-4200-81AD-E3AF6218EDCC&displaylang=en

This post was contributed by Michael Murgolo a Senior Consultant with Microsoft Services, U.S. East Region.

SCCM 2007 and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit - Video Walkthrough

DeploymentGuys — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:35:00 GMT

Are you struggling with setting up SCCM 2007 Operating System Deployment and integrating MDT? - I have created a video walkthrough that shows you how to:

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

View the SCCM and MDT Video Walkthrough from the Windows Media Servers here!

View the SCCM and MDT Video Walkthrough from the TechNet Edge Media Servers here!

This post was contributed by Richard Smith a Senior Consultant with Microsoft Services, UK.