Share via

Using a SCCM task Sequence to create a full image backup of a computer.

  • Article

Overview:

For many different reasons, administrators may want to have an image backup of a machine. SCCM along with the integrated MDT tools, give administrators a simple solution for creating wim based backups of machine, which can be fully restored if the machine has problems. In addition for complex tasks, this can be incorporated as part of the sequence for a complete backup of a computer before imaging with a new operating system.

Prerequisites:

  1. File Server:  with space to store backups can be very simple. In some scenarios, workstations have been used (Instructions to setup the file server shares in the procedure section).
  2. Hotfix KB2910552 for windows XP: If you are running Windows XP make and SCCM 2012 R2 make sure that Hotfix KB2910552. If this is not installed the computer will stage the boot media and throw a NTLDR missing error. For more detailed information please see blog post: http://davejaskie.wordpress.com/2014/03/30/system-center-configuration-manager-sccm-2012-r2-and-xp-migrations-require-hotfix-2910552-to-ensure-no-ntldr-missing-error/
  3. MDT 2013 Tools: Backups use the MDT 2013 Tools. If you do not have this integrated into your SCCM environment, it is a very minor addition to the sccm site. For additional information see blog post:  http://davejaskie.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/15/

Procedure:

  1. Build an Active Directory security group for the sccm servers.
  2. Setup a file Share to Store Wims
  3. Build a task to run a backup of the computer

Active Directory Group Setup:

  1. While not required it is recommended that the sccm servers be added to a security group. This will ensure that in a large environment all of the sccm servers have access to save the information to the backup share. In this example we will use the group SCCM-SiteServers.
  2. Open up the sccm site servers group and click on the members tab, then click the add button.
  3. When prompted for the object name, click object types.
  4. http://davejaskie.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/adobjecttypes.jpg?w=300&h=159
  5. Make sure that computer objects are selected and click OK.
  6. http://davejaskie.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/adcomputerobject.jpg?w=300&h=168
  7. Enter in the names of the sccm servers. In the example below, we use a fairly large test setup that contains 6 servers.
  8. After the Active Directory group for the site servers is populated, we can move to setting up the file server to store the backed up WIM files.

File Share Setup:

  1. Log on to the file server and create a share. The share name is not important; however the sccm site servers need full access to drop the newly created wim files. In this example we use an sccm share name on the server \sccm-backups.testsite.com
  2. http://davejaskie.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sccm-permissions.jpg?w=300&h=275
  3. After the file share is setup, the next step is to build the task sequence.

Building the task Sequence:

  1. The Task sequence has 5 steps,
    1. Reboot the machine to Windows PE
    2. Use MDT toolkit package: We use 2013, however previous versions work as well. For more information on MDT integration see my post (http://davejaskie.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/15/)
    3. http://davejaskie.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/mdt-use-toolkit.jpg?w=300&h=124
    4. Set a task sequence variable to use the backup share that was created in the previous step
    5. http://davejaskie.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/backuploc.jpg?w=300&h=120
    6. Set another variable for the backup drive. I would recommend doing all.
    7. http://davejaskie.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/backupdrive.jpg?w=300&h=130
    8. Finally run a commandline to perform the backup
    9. http://davejaskie.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/runbackup.jpg?w=300&h=130
  2. Once the task is created it can be deployed to computers and successfully pull images.