Deploying Win7 using OSD at Microsoft Webcast Q & A – Part II
As promised, my team wanted to follow up with everyone regarding questions asked during our Webcast last week on How Microsoft IT deploys Windows 7 using Operating System Deployment. In this blog we will focus specifically on the questions and provide answers to those questions so please excuse us if we don’t have anything “technical” in this as we are just going down the list of questions.
Q: If multiple users use a single machine, does USMTv4 from WinPE backup all data related to all user profiles
A: Yes, USMTv4 can obtain all data for all users who have currently used the client that is getting migrated to Windows 7. This is highly configurable though via the command-line switch and for Microsoft we provided a switch for that said only migrate local and domain users who have been active in the last 45 days. In the below example, the /uel:45 indicates to the scanstate how far to go back when migrating user profiles whether local or domain:
| "%usmtbits%\scanstate.exe" "%usmtsafe%" /o /c /hardlink /nocompress /efs:hardlink /i:"%usmtconf%\MigDocs.xml" /i:"%usmtconf%\SelfHostApps.xml" /i:"%usmtbits%\MigApp.xml" /offlinewindir:"%2" /localonly /uel:45 /v:13 /L:"%usmtlogs%\Scanstate.log" /progress:"%usmtlogs%\Scanprogress.log" /ListFiles:"%usmtlogs%\ListFiles.txt" |
In the case above, you can change the /uel to something other than 45 and grab all profiles.
Q: What are the pre-reqs for the OSD Setup Wizard demo’d during this presentation?
A: The OSD Setup Wizard has no pre-requirements other than having the typical ConfigMgr 2007 SP2 needed for OSD. The wizard is completely self-contained and is made up of a single .exe (OSDSetupWizard.exe) and a customizable XML configuration file. This wizard can run within Windows PE or via a full operating system though the behavior is slightly different but still fully controlled using the configuration file.
Q: It sounds like there are pre-reqs for ConfigMgr 2007 Service Pack 2 for deploying Windows 7, is this correct?
A: This is correct. The only supported method for deploying Windows 7 is to first deploy Configuration Manager 2007 SP2.
Q: Can I use more than one profile when using USMTv4?
A: As mentioned above, absolutely. USMTv4 supports both local and domain profiles and is flexible in it’s ability of which profiles to migrate.
Q: Is the OSD Wizard a part of ConfigMgr 2007 or a stand-alone product?
A: The wizard shown was a separate, downloadable, piece of software that is packaged up as an add-on for Configuration Manager 2007 SP2. We will make it available along with a whitepaper soon for select customers and later broadly if possible. It doesn’t have any plans currently of shipping as part of the ConfigMgr 2007 or later products.
Q: If we are involved in the ConfigMgr SP2 TAP program, are these wizards and toolsets available to us?
A: Yes, absolutely. If you contact us via our blog (or directly via email) we will be happy to provide you the link to join our beta program to test the wizard and provide us feedback.
Q: Will this OSD setup wizard work for creating images of XP or only Windows 7?
A: The OSD setup wizard we showed works fine with any operating system as long as you have the configuration files setup properly and the appropriate WIMs to support the other operating systems. As demo’d by Cameron, you can easily include additional images (via the index number) that would offer the end-user Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 and let them select accordingly. The wizard has only a dependency on SP2 when & if it is used for deploying Windows 7. The wizard would work with OSD out-of-box for other operating systems.
Q: What about security groups?
A: This is tough for us to answer here as we can get “references” to exactly what is meant by the question. However, if you are referring to whether the wizard could be used to join security groups the answer is currently no. This isn’t something that we typically have a need for at Microsoft though with enough feedback we could certainly considering adding such functionality if needed.
Q: What the name of this XML file?
A: The default name for the OSD Setup wizard’s XML file is osdConf.xml though this is really irrelavant. For multiple hiearchy environments in ConfigMgr, the support exists to specify per the task sequence the wizard and include the custom configuration file for that location, site, etc. For example, you could have two XML files – osdConfUSA.xml and osdConfEurope.xml – and use them accordingly by specifying to use the correct configuration file. For example, osdSetupWizard.exe /xml:osdConf.xml.
Q: Does the OSD Setup Wizard work with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2008/2010?
A: This is untested on our part, unfortunately, so we really can’t speak to whether it would work or not. We are in discussions with the MDT team currently and will hopefully share more going forward about how well the integration does work and make plans to simplify that since we do realize that MDT is a very popular method for deployments.
Q: Why does the XML have to appear in that command-line? The task sequence “Apply Operating System Image” option allows the user to enter the unattended.xml in the GUI. Why is this different and will this difference still exist in ConfigMgr 2007 SP2?
A: To clarify, there are two configuration files in play here. We demo’d the use of osdconf.xml (osdSetupWizard /xml:osdconf.xml) as part of the XML configuration for the OSD setup wizard (not the operating system configuration) that sets the appropriate tas sequence variables at run-time. This configuration changes or manipulates the behavior of the wizard as it is shown to the end-user and impacts the overall user experience. On the other hand, the IT professional build the OSD task sequence can supply a custom unattend.xml to modify\change the operating system at run-time to match it’s desired configuration. This is a separate discussion around how to automate the deployment of Windows 7 using the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) and was outside the scope of what we were showing. The goal of our wizard is to provide a great user experience that is fully customizable yet returns the outcome the user desires upon completion of the OSD process.
Q: I have noticed that you have to create an exclusion list of NIC MAC addresses in ConfigMgr 2007 to avoid every machine from booting directly to OSD when plugged into the network. Is there a specific reason for this?
A: This is the base functionality offered by ConfigMgr 2007 unknown clients (PXE support). This is simply a behavior that can’t be avoided if you advertise to the unknown clients in Configuration Manager. If you don’t want this behavior, remove any advertisement and the exclusion problem will cease to exist.
Q: Where can I get my hands on ConfigMgr 2007 SP2 to start testing Windows 7?
A: The ConfigMgr TAP program is available on connect.microsoft.com by entering your Windows Live ID and searching for System Center Configuration Manager.
Summary
For now, we are going to close down and we will answer one set of last questions tomorrow from the webcast. Though we hope these are helpful!
-Chris
