Getting ready for TechEd IT Pro Barcelona

Today I arrived to Barcelona for some work before next weeks big event. The coming week I will be at TechEd IT Professionals at the CCIB. You will find me in the ATE (Ask The Experts) booth for System Center Configuration Manager. So if you are attending please come by and visit and we can discuss Config Mgr.

Ways of getting an Image for Configuration Manager Operating System Deployment.

There are different ways of getting your .wim file for deployment in Configuration Manager.

1. Use the Build and Capture Task Sequense

2. Manuall install and use the Capture Media in Configuration Manager

3. Using imagex.exe to create the .wim file.

If you use the install.wim from the Vista media it will work to deploy but the installation will be under the D: drive so its not a preffered or good way of getting your .wim file for deployment.

A often asked question is can I use my .wim file from SMS 2003 OS Deployment, there are some concerns with this so the best way to use them is to apply the Image to a computer make your modifications to it and make a capture again.

And what about .wim files from WDS can I use them ? The answer is yes.

My preffered way of creating a .wim file is through the Build and Capture Task Sequense it gives me lots of flexibillity and I know the build is always done the same way and I dont miss steps that I might miss when building my reference machine manually.

 If you want to create a wim file for Windows XP or Windows 2003 you need to create a Sysprep package for the Build and Capture process or by placing it in the C:sysprep folder for manual captures.

So do I need to sysprep the Machine before I do a Capture ? The answer is NO!, the capture process does this for you so you should NOT run Sysprep before you make a Capture.

FCS + Config Mgr = True

As some of you has seen before I have been referecing to some ways of distributing Forefront Security Patches within a Config Mgr integrated WSUS.

There is now an offical KB for this 958491 Supported configurations for using WSUS to distribute Forefront Client Security Definition updates within SCCM 2007

Links wehre you can read more on this !

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/958491

http://blogs.technet.com/smsandmom/archive/2008/10/16/supported-configurations-for-using-wsus-to-distribute-forefront-client-security-definition-updates-within-sccm-2007.aspx