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Creating faster OEM Images with OSD and MDT.

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Creating faster OEM Images with OSD and MDT.

 

Introduction

OEM scenario is where you prepare the reference computer and duplicate the hard drive using any tool or hardware duplicator.

Microsoft offers two products to accomplish OEM image creation.

1. Operating System Deployment from System Center Configuration Manager

2. Microsoft Deployment toolkit

Let’s compare two solutions

OSD

Pros:

Capable to lay down WIM image without having to run setup.exe. In OEM scenario it speeds up the process a lot

Cons:

Image is not truly self-contained. When duplicated computer starts up, it requires active Advertisement from Management point

MDT:

Pros:

Does not require active advertisement, can be completely self-contained

Cons:

Always uses setup.exe. In OEM scenario, it means that image will be extracted from locally stored WIM file back to the hard drive.

So, how to make your OEM image self-contained and fast? The solution, “best of both worlds”, would be using SCCM OSD to prepare reference computer, and MDT Media on the local drive to complete cloned installation. Some numbers - for x64 6.5GB Windows 7 image it takes about 10 minutes instead of 30 minutes.

 

 

Prerequisites

 

· Working SCCM 2007 SP2 Site. This does not have to be your production site, you can prepare image for the customer in the lab, and move to production when ready.

· MDT 2010 Update 1 installed on the same computer as a site server

· Your reference Windows 7 WIM image, created using automated MDT Task Sequence (out of scope here, see https://blogs.msdn.com/b/alex_semi/archive/2009/07/16/images-builder.aspx for instance)

· Files from “FastOEMImage.zip”

 

1. Configure ConfigMgr Integration if not done yet by going to All Programs, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, Configure ConfigMgr Integration. Run elevated.

2. Pick first, default option called “Install the ConfigMGR extensions.

3. Add you reference Windows 7 Image to ConfigMgr

4. Add distribution point to just added Custom Image

5. Right Click on Task Sequences, Create Microsoft Deployment Task Sequence

6. Select OEM Preload Task Sequence (Pre-OEM)

7. Call Task Sequence PRELOAD-OEM

8. Create a new Boot Image package. I recommend keeping Packages sources under the same location, i.e. C:\Packages. Recommended locations for each Package:

a. Boot Image: \\<servername>\c$\packages\BootImage

b. MDT Package: \\<servername>\c$\packages\MDTPackage

c. Settings Package: \\<servername>\c$\packages\Settings\<NameOfTheImage>

9. Open Microsoft Deployment Toolkit

10. You can use existing Deployment Share or, you can create a new one

11. In case you want to use existing one (multi-purpose Deployment Share), you should create a separate Selection Profile

12. Create a folder called Post-OEM under Applications, Out-Of-Box Drivers, and Task Sequences.

13. Under Task Sequences\Post-OEM create a new Custom Task Sequence, call it POST-OEM with ID – POST-OEM

14. Replace <Deployement Share>\Control\POST-OEM\ts.xml with file from attached FastOEMImage.zip

15. Create a selection profile, call it Post-OEM and include respective Post-OEM folders from Applications, Out-of-Box Drivers and Task Sequences

16. Create a new Media, call it “Post-OEM”, with location under C:\Packages\POST-OEM-MEDIA

17. Make sure that you select the right architecture and Generate ISO image is not selected

18. Choose selection profile “Post-OEM”, the one that you created in previous steps

19. Replace C:\Packages\POST-OEM-MEDIA\Content\Deploy\Control\customsettings.ini with the file from attached FastOEMImage.zip

20. Customize Media DS Rules if needed by changing default password, suppressing/enabling dialogs, etc.

21. Right click on the Deployment Media and select “Update Media Content”

22. Go to C:\Packages\POST-OEM-MEDIA\Content\Deploy and copy install.cmd and activate.txt from attached FastOEMImage.zip to this folder

23. Go back to SCCM console, go to Software Distribution, Packages and create a new Package. Call it “Post-OEM Injection” , Setting Data Source to C:\Packages\POST-OEM-MEDIA\Content

24. Add Distribution Point

25. Go to Operating System Deployment, Task Sequences, Right click on your PRELOAD-OEM task sequence, Edit

26. Find and highlight “Prepare Computer for OEM Capture” step

27. Go to Add, General, Run Command Line

28. Call new step “LTI Post-OEM Injection”

29. Enter DEPLOY\install.cmd %OSDisk% for Command line

30. Check Package and select “Post-OEM Injection”

31. Right Click on PRELOAD-OEM, Choose Create Task Sequence Media

32. Select “Stand Alone Media” and click “Next”

33. Select USB flash drive or DVD image and make sure that the right drive letter selected

34. Answer “Yes” to the warning

35. Uncheck “Protect Media with a password”, click next

36. Click Next

37. In Distribution Points hit “Add” button in the middle and click “Next”

38. In Add variables click “Next” skipping the prompt

39. In Summary click “Next”

40. Wait about 20 minutes until completion prompt

41. Insert just created media to any of the computers or VM

42. Answer all questions by default

43. After computer reboot and you see this Deployment Wizard prompt , turn off the computer with power off button

44. Take out the drive or capture it with any duplication tool.

 

Now we have the image to give to OEM!

45. When running on duplicated drive, it will walk you through prompts and restore the computer from Pre-OEM state

46. Then, it will run Task Sequence in standard MDT LTI and Shutdown the computer if you used scripts attached to this article.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FastOEMImage.zip

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 06, 2011
    Hi AlexeyThis is realy good, but I have one problem.After I modifyed the customsettings file and let the computer join the domin it nerver shutdown, So the client is standing logged on with the local administrator and don´t start the ts agian. Do you hav e any ide way it´s  no continue and shoutdown the computer?Best regardsAndreas
  • Anonymous
    January 26, 2012
    There is a rule you can add to the CustomSettings.ini to force the shutdown or reboot its called "FinishAction".  Try adding that.
  • Anonymous
    May 01, 2012
    We are moving into SCCM from another product.  Is there a XP version as well?
  • Anonymous
    November 30, 2012
    WHERE WOUDL I FIND - FastOEMImage.zip FILES
  • Anonymous
    December 16, 2012
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    April 14, 2014
    Is there may be an update for MDT 2013?It fails during POST-OEM Injections and during POST-OEM. Replaced POST-OEM Injection with MDT 2010 and it then completed the OEM Injection. During the MDT/POST-OEM boot it failed again with several Errors.Is there unique files in MDT 2010 that might have been replaced with others in MDT 2013?