Operating System Deployment-SCCM 2007 Step By Step Procedure

This post explains the step by step by procedure (flow) to build, capture and deploy Operating System to a bare metal machine.

It covers:

A] Preparing SCCM Server for OSD
B] Building and capturing OS image
C] Deploying Operating Systems.

There are two methods to capture OS image.
a] Using Task sequence to capture  the OS from a reference machine.(Automating BUILD as well)
b] Using Manual method.( build an operating system and then capture using SCCM)

Here, I am building and capturing the image through Task Sequence. And also not using any USMT to migrate data since it is a plain bare metal deployment, not an upgrade.

A]. Preparing SCCM Server for OSD:

1. Install WDS server role
WDS
2. Install and configure PXE service point.
PXE Service Point
3.General Supported Configurations.

4.Create and set Network access account. 
5. Create and distribute the Configuration Manager 2007 package, all the relevant KB updates as packages.
This post helps to create the SCCM 2007 Client package:

In the same way, KB977384 - Advanced Client Hotfix and other hotfixes can be packaged for deploying to the client.

6.Enable Command support and distribute Boot images to Distribution Points.
   Link

B] Building and capturing OS image

1. Source Files and Image folder structure:

In order to build a machine, we would need the Operating System source files that we want to deploy. Get the  Source files and copy it to a shared folder.. preferably on SCCM server itself.
Create another shared folder for storing the captured image after the build is complete. An example folder structure that I have created in the LAB environment.

\\SCCM1\OSD_Source\Windows7\ - Consists the Source files for Windows 7 OS and it is shared folder.
\\SCCM1\OSD_Deploy\Windows7\ - shared folder that will store the Windows 7 image files( WIM file) once the capturing is  done.

2. Adding the Operating System Install Package:

To build a reference machine with the Windows 7 Operating System, we need source files. So copy all the files and folders of Windows 7 content to \\SCCM1\OSD_Source\Windows7 shared folder.

The below steps explain how to add the Operating System Install Package:

a] In SCCM 2007 Console, go to "Operating System Install Packages" under OSD node of the computer management. Click on "Add Operating System Install package".

b]On "Data Source" tab, enter the shared network path where the source files are present as shown in the below screenshot. Click Next.

c] On  General tab, enter the name, version and comments. Click Next, review summary and click on close to complete the wizard.

3. Distributing the Windows 7 Install Package:

a] In SCCM 2007 Console, go to "Operating System Install Packages" under OSD node of the computer management. Expand the previously added Windows 7 Install image and select Distribution points.

b] Click on " New Distribution Points' , click next on the Welcome screen. On the "Copy Package" tab, select all the available applicable DP's. 

c]Click Next and click close to complete the wizard

**Note that the SMSPXEIMAGES$ Share should be used only for Boot Images and  not for any other software packages.**

4. Creating a task sequence to "Build & Capture Win7 Reference machine"

Please follow the steps in this link to create the task sequence for build and capture of the Windows 7 Reference machine.

After the creation of the task sequence following the steps in the above link, the next thing that has to be done is advertising the task sequence to computers.

5.Advertise the task sequence to Unknown Computers

This OSD specific advertisement will run when we boot a machine to get this advertisement. If PXE Service point is installed, it will automatically fetch the OS image through network boot.
This post explains the step by step procedure to advertise the Task sequence to Unknown Computers.


6.Boot the reference computer:

As PXE Service point is already installed and DHCP is configured, just boot the reference computer. Just make sure that the reference computer is on the same network. 
The steps and the process to capture the image is detailed in this link.

OK,now the OS image is finally captured and is waiting to be deployed.

C] Deploying Operating Systems

The OS Reference image is successfully created and is available to be deployed to the clients.We can further customize by adding other software applications and drivers into the OS.

1. Create OS Image Package:

a] Open the SCCM 2007 console and navigate to Site Database / Computer Management / Operating System Deployment, from the actions menu. Click on “Add Operating System Image”.

b] On the “Add Operating System Image Wizard” , Data Source Tab, enter the Network path for the WIM image that is created.

Here the path is \\SCCM1\OSDeploy\Windows7.wim

Click Next to continue

c] On the General Tab, enter the appropriate name and the version.

Click Next  and click close to complete the wizard.

2. Distributing the image to DPs:

a] Expand  the newly added Operating System Image " Windows 7 Ultimate-32 Bit", go to Distribution Points>>>> Click  on "New Distribution points" from the Actions menu.

b] On the New Distribution wizard, click next on the welcome screen then on the "copy package"  tab select the applicable DPs.

Note that SMSPXEIMAGES$ Share is only for Boot images and not for other OS or software applications.

c] Click Next and click Close to complete the wizard.

3.Creating a Task Sequence to deploy Operating System:

To create a task sequence to deploy OS, follow the steps from this link.

4.Advertise the task sequence to Unknown Computers

This OSD specific advertisement will run when we boot a machine to get this advertisement. If PXE Service point is installed, it will automatically fetch the OS image through network boot.
This post explains the step by step procedure to advertise the Task sequence to Unknown Computers.

Once it is  advertised, boot a new machine that is on the same sub-net.  

The booted machine will download  the boot file , install OS ,software and joins the computer to domain as specified in the Task  sequence.

We can also use scripts to rename the computer using a Task sequence variable.

For troubleshooting OSD Task sequence issues, check SMSTS.LOG