The Systems Management Server 2003 Operating System Deployment (OSD) Feature Pack: Webcast 2-10-2006

What a great web cast, and thank you for attending the web cast as promised (although a bit delayed) here are the scrubbed Q/A log (you kept John Baker very busy!).  Please comment if you need more information.  I mentioned a great web site where you can down load the slides and individual demos for this web cast take a look at the session home page: https://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/events/sms/mgt-10.mspx ****

Also if you can watch the stream of the web cast here: https://www.microsoft.com/events/EventDetails.aspx?CMTYSvcSource=MSCOMMedia&Params=%7eCMTYDataSvcParams%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22ID%22+Value%3d%221032289104%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22ProviderID%22+Value%3d%22A6B43178-497C-4225-BA42-DF595171F04C%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22lang%22+Value%3d%22en%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22cr%22+Value%3d%22US%22%2f%5e%7esParams%5e%7e%2fsParams%5e%7e%2fCMTYDataSvcParams%5e

Enjoy!

Question: When is SMS 2003 SP2 going to be released?
Answer: No definite date, although I imagine within second qtr.

Question: When will the next version of BDD be released?
Answer: The latest version is available at https://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/bddoverview.mspx  Not sure when the next update is out.

Question: Do you recommend and have you used www.1e.com Operating System Deployment Feature Pack (OSD) Plus Pack?
Answer: I haven’t used it so I can’t comment.  Maybe somebody reading this entry can give their $.02

Question: So the machine you are sending the image to cannot be blank?
Answer: Yes it can be a blank system. He'll talk about this in a while.

Question: Is there a free download of SMS 2003?
Answer: https://www.microsoft.com/smserver/evaluation/2003/default.mspx

Question: Will you allow editing of .wim with Windows XP and Windows 2000 images, or only with Vista images?
Answer: Both.

Question: Will Operating System Deployment Feature Pack (OSD) support partition resizing? For example, like PowerQuest DeployCenter does?
Answer: No it doesn’t.

Question: How do you handle the different HAL types?
Answer: Well it depends and I am not 100% quite sure of the answer here based on what OS you want to deploy.  If the systems are XP you will need different images, however with Vista the WIM image format is hardware-agnostic, meaning that you need only one image to address many different hardware configurations.  So I am not sure what it will look like with Vista, stay tuned and when I find out I will let you know.

Question: Can you modify the image with another app for example after the image has been created?
Answer: I don’t believe so.

Question: With USMT, it appears that everything you wish to save will not get replaced back into the same locations- for example all WinWord docs. Will this ever be changed, or will Operating System Deployment Feature Pack (OSD)be changed so that 3rd party user state saving utilities can be used instead? Does this make sense??
Answer: Have you checked the latest version of USMT https://support.microsoft.com/?id=911814

Question: Does windows Vista Ximage work with these WIM's?
Answer: It should do it’s the same format.

Question: You can modify the image by mounting the image using ximage.exe
Answer: It should do as it’s the same format, but i havent tested.

Question: once the Operating System Deployment Feature Pack (OSD) Package ID / Program ID have been created and then the Operating System Deployment Feature Pack (OSD)is sent to a DP, why is it...after a WS executes the advertisement, a folder %CSIDL_PERSONAL% is created back in the Package ID Share?
Answer: That comes from Windows Installer, for application installed on a per-user basis.

Question: Does it split the ISO file into chunks to allow it to fit on CD's?

Answer: I don’t think so

Question: since that CSIDL_PERSONAL is created under the Package ID, will that cause any "Content Mismatch Errors' when deploying the same image to a new group of workstations?
Answer: No.

Question: Don't you need a very good network infrastructure to distribute a 1 or 2gb image to your pcs??
Answer: Yes, and if you think about the scenarios of what this designed for, break fix, new system deployment, it makes sense for a healthy infrastructure.

Question: So if I capture an image of a system with a 20GB hard drive, and install on a system with a 40GB drive, does it just leave the remaining 20GB as un-partitioned?

Answer: no...it has to be installed on a system that is the size of the original reference computer or bigger. The WIM image format lets you install a disk image on partitions of any size, unlike sector-based image formats that require you to deploy a disk image to a partition that's the same size or larger than the source disk.

Question: Is there an equivalent tool like Ghost Explorer that MS offers to help add/remove files from images?

Answer: Yes take a look at Ximage.  It’s a Vista utility. Although it can be used to modify wim images, i'm not sure about the supportability for SMS Operating System Deployment Feature Pack (OSD) feature pack: https://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/expert/ximage.mspx

Question: Can Operating System Deployment Feature Pack (OSD)capture Many Partitions. a C: and D: and E:?

Answer: Single partitions I believe, I’m looking to see if i can find something that confirms this.

Question: Is DHCP required for pushing out these images?
Answer: If you're deploying to new systems through RIS yes. When a Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE) client boots, it must perform two actions: it must obtain an IP address from a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server, and it must locate a PXE boot server that will send it the appropriate files from which to boot.

Question: So, If I do not have DHCP I can not use Operating System Deployment Feature Pack (OSD) to updated my SMS clients?
Answer: No. The reference computer that the image capture is done from must be configured to obtain IP address through DHCP; it must not use a static IP address, but by default, the "Use the existing static IP address if it is available" option is selected. Deselect this option to cause the destination computer to obtain its IP address from a DHCP server

Question: what happens when you send the image package to a system that has multiple partitions? Just it just blows everything away and makes one big C drive?
Answer: If it’s going to an existing system it will install it in the C drive

Question: Does SMS client have to exist on the client computer before the deployment can be sent down?
Answer: No.  If it’s a clean disk it will be using RIS to deploy.

Question: There is a reference to SMS r2 in the newsgroups any news about that?
Answer: It must be a misprint. The only thing i know of is SMS 2003 SP2, but not R2.

Question: in the capture phase where are the files stored? for instance user profile?
Answer: Its in a UNC location path from the configuration file something like \\xyz\state\%COMPUTERNAME%

Question: Will an in-place upgrade retail all user static mappings, printers, application and display customizations? What about data that may be stored locally not in My Documents?
Answer: That would be capture by the User State Migration tool during the State capture phase.

Question: Is WIM completely free of charge?
Answer: The image capture is part of Operating System Deployment Feature Pack (OSD).

Question: How do I recover a system if it fails during capture phase?
Answer: The OS Deployment Feature Pack agent stores all information under the C:\MININT\SMSOSD folder on the destination computer. Log files are stored in a subfolder called OSDLOGS. You can also enable more detailed logging by creating a file called “C:\OSD.DEBUG”. You must create this file before the OS Deployment begins and the contents do not matter. If you are using an unattended script to deploy the image, the minint folder is removed after the script has been run. If the OS Deployment fails, the OSDLOGS folder is backed up to the temp folder before the MININT folder is cleaned up.

Question: Say you want to deploy a new image to a sales force that it in town for a convention, is Operating System Deployment Feature Pack (OSD)the tool to use? How will it handle the bandwidth? Does it detect multiple requests for the same package and use a multicast type method?
Answer: Depends on how many machines we're talking about. Many and you run the risk of network saturation. It doesn’t use multicast.

Question: Are the network configuration settings captured during the capture phase (such as the machines static IP address, gateway, etc) and then applied during the user state restore phase?
Answer: Yes.

Question: In the last slide it mentioned you can, install win98?
Answer: Let me clarify a bit, I meant you can us a Operating System Deployment Feature Pack (OSD) to upgrade a Windows 98 but only with a Install CD not via the network, You cannot deploy Windows 98 with Operating System Deployment Feature Pack (OSD), only Windows XP, 2000 or 2003

Question: If you deploy a English OS to a say German OS, will USMT manage to capture all the settings as well?
Answer: The OS Deployment Feature Pack is released in English, German, French, Japanese, and International Client Pack (ICP) languages. The OS Deployment Feature Pack is not released in Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, or Korean language versions.  To learn more about the International Client Pack take a look here: https://www.microsoft.com/smserver/downloads/2003/osdfp/icp.mspx

Question: Is there a stage of the Operating System Deployment Feature Pack (OSD) process that captures the "add-on" applications and then reinstalls them after the image installation stage and USMT stage are completed?
Answer: Technically I do not think so, but you can add the applications after the fact via SMS as normal packages, so we have the choice to include SMS packages during the install or after the install

Question: What does SMS state capture do?
Answer: The Microsoft® Windows® User State Migration Tool (USMT) version 2.6 migrates user files and settings during deployments of Windows 2000 or Microsoft Windows XP.   You can download it here: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4af2d2c9-f16c-4c52-a203-8daf944dd555&DisplayLang=en