Windows 10 PXE deployment.

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m1013828

35 posts

Geek

#178928 19-Aug-2015 16:11

The business I work for will be rolling out large quantities of windows 10 PCs for our clients over the next year, and we don't have a standard imaging system yet, previously we have done EVERYTHING manually for each PC, with the exception of a few large clients where we have sysprepped one image for cloning with Shadow Protect. As I have worked a little with FOG pxe services in the past I have taken it upon myself to set up a solution for us. We will have multiple images, each specific to a clients network, and we don't want them to be hardware specific going forward, What are the best solutions currently available?

I have had a quick run with WDS which seems simple, but the first captured image fails to install properly, getting stuck at boot post install with msisadrv.sys error. How could there be driver issues capturing and then deploying an image on the same PC..... not a great start......... I hear great things about SCCM, especially the ability to keep the deployment images patched easily while offline, so I've asked my boss if there is a method we can acquire that in a cost effective manner...

Any suggestions? we need simple standardized images deployed that are hardware independent, not so much need for the unattended installation script stuff, as we would have apps etc in the deployment image, and easily prepatching the images would be a plus, none of us at work have any experience with WDS, SCCM etc, so we want to do it once, and do it right, and would be happy to use 3rd party tools if they are not too arcane.

Thanks

wasabi2k

2096 posts

Uber Geek

#1370351 19-Aug-2015 16:16

Depending on your budget it may be worth getting someone who knows what they are doing (a contractor or resource from a Datacom/whatever) to come in and build you a solution and if possible teach you along the way.

SCCM is a BIG product and OS deployment is about 10% of what it can do. You could go self study and learn how it works but experience from someone who knows what they are doing is invaluable.

Of course it all depends on your budget.

CYaBro

4583 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#1370371 19-Aug-2015 16:26

We have a WDS server setup here, running on Server 2012 R2 (in a Workgroup not a domain), and have had no issues deploying Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 & 10.
Including all versions of all of them from Home, Pro, Ultimate & Enterprise.

What boot image are you using to deploy Windows 10 on WDS?
We did have issues when first trying to deploy Windows 10 until I grabbed the boot.wim image from a Windows 10 ISO, and used that on the WDS server instead of the old Windows 8.1 boot image.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

m1013828

35 posts

Geek

#1370377 19-Aug-2015 16:38

windows 8.1 image, I tried the boot.wim from my windows 10 download and it was suggesting it was corrupt, despite it installing my NUC just fine.... Will redownload it and try again. Do you have an easy way to patch your install.wim files?

lxsw20

3552 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#1370381 19-Aug-2015 16:39

I use an WDS/MDT server at work. MDT has just been updated to support Windows 10 in the last couple of days I believe. You need at least 1 Windows 10 Volume Licence to have imaging rights.

I found a handy guide on the sysadmin subreddit when I set up MDT. I'll see if I can find a link somewhere. It took a while to get it setup and a good image, but once it's all up and running even with only a semi automated image, it's a huge time saver.

New bit of hardware shows up, I download the driver package for Windows 7 (What we use as a desktop OS) and Network/Disk Controller Drivers for 8.1 (What PXE PE image is based on)and away you go.

I use gImageX to capture the WIM file.

Edit: Basic Guide for Windows 7: http://thetechnosolution.com/deploy-windows-7-using-mdt/

nathan

5695 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1370387 19-Aug-2015 16:51

Use MDT 2013 Update 1 that came out yesterday as mentioned above

On the licensing thing you need to make sure the customers are licensed properly, you cant use your licensing for reimaging

m1013828

35 posts

Geek

#1370393 19-Aug-2015 17:12

So every client needs a volume license? well that's a downer... we deal with smaller businesses, so most are OEM licensed PCs for the OS, Will have to look at FOG for our imaging needs, last time I used it, it was as a PXE repository of bootable ISOs in a laptop repair shop, nothing on the actual imaging side,

lxsw20

3552 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#1370413 19-Aug-2015 17:48

Every client as in every business, not every machine. IIRC it doesn't matter what reimaging technology you use, be it MDT, FOG, Ghost, ShadowProtect. Technically you still need a licence with reimaging rights.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Licensing/learn-more/brief-reimaging-rights.aspx

Also if you're planning to do the free windows 10 upgrade for your clients, it has to be an upgrade not a fresh install.

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m1013828

35 posts

Geek

#1370425 19-Aug-2015 17:56

Thanks for the advice, will run it past the boss tomorrow as he is our licensing guru, we like to do things by the book so this could bring my plans to a screaming halt, there is the potential to save hundreds of hours of work over the next year so we could try and work out the cost/benefit for this.

nathan

5695 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1370453 19-Aug-2015 19:01

m1013828: Thanks for the advice, will run it past the boss tomorrow as he is our licensing guru, we like to do things by the book so this could bring my plans to a screaming halt, there is the potential to save hundreds of hours of work over the next year so we could try and work out the cost/benefit for this.

the cost/benefit is simple. You don't want to be doing things manually by hand. Unless you can charge by the hour to do that. And you won't get away with that for long as your customers will leave you :) you need to do things by the books especially since you are charging for the service you are providing to your customers

Any reimaging, with anything but the OEM-provided recovery media, is not allowed by OEM licensing. You need a VL agreement to do anything like this.

It’s not buying an additional license either – it’s just having the VL agreement in place.

Got 10,000 machines? Buy enough stuff (five copies) to sign an Open agreement, buy one copy of Windows Pro so that VLSC has the media for it (in case you want to use that VL media to create the media rather than grabbing an ISO from a public location), and you’re golden.

nathan

5695 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1370464 19-Aug-2015 19:08

lxsw20: Every client as in every business, not every machine. IIRC it doesn't matter what reimaging technology you use, be it MDT, FOG, Ghost, ShadowProtect. Technically you still need a licence with reimaging rights.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Licensing/learn-more/brief-reimaging-rights.aspx

Also if you're planning to do the free windows 10 upgrade for your clients, it has to be an upgrade not a fresh install.

correct the technology you use to do the reimaging is totally irrelevant to the license that you need if you wish to blow away the OEM license :)

as you point out VL is not that scary, you just need an Open license so you can buy a VL.

You just need 1 VL Windows Pro.

Per customer.