Update! (22-Nov-2014) Updated the script to include a prompt for which distribution point group to use and a couple of minor improvements Have you ever wanted to have the capability of scheduling a package distribution in ConfigMgr to occur at a specific date / time? Or perhaps you want to monitor your package distributions an receive an … Continue reading Schedule and Monitor ConfigMgr Package Distributions with PowerShell
Category: OS Deployment
Get the Deployment Status of ConfigMgr Packages and Task Sequences with PowerShell
In my last post, we looked at how to report on the deployment status of ConfigMgr Applications using PowerShell. Of course, you can get this information from the built-in ConfigMgr SSRS reports too, but our aim here is to report this data quickly by using PowerShell to query the ConfigMgr database directly. It enables you to … Continue reading Get the Deployment Status of ConfigMgr Packages and Task Sequences with PowerShell
Monitor OS Deployments with PowerShell
If you have access to your ConfigMgr database, you have access to a wealth of information, including the detailed steps of your OS deployments. Below is a PowerShell script that will query the ConfigMgr database and return the detailed steps of your deployments. You can specify a particular machine that is being or has been deployed, the … Continue reading Monitor OS Deployments with PowerShell
PXE Boot Fails After Computer Rename
Today I had an interesting PXE boot problem where a computer kept aborting the PXE boot. So I checked the SMSPXE.log and found that there were no advertisements for that machine: Client boot action reply: <ClientIDReply><Identification Unknown="0" ItemKey="16777684" ServerName=""><Machine><ClientID/><NetbiosName/></Machine></Identification><PXEBootAction LastPXEAdvertisementID="" LastPXEAdvertisementTime="" OfferID="" OfferIDTime="" PkgID="" PackageVersion="" PackagePath="" BootImageID="" Mandatory=""/></ClientIDReply> F0:1F:AF:6C:05:53, 4C4C4544-0047-5310-8034-C3C04F595931: no advertisements found F0:1F:AF:6C:05:53, 4C4C4544-0047-5310-8034-C3C04F595931: … Continue reading PXE Boot Fails After Computer Rename
Quick Tip: Creating USB Standalone Media on a VMWare VM
Using USB media for a Standalone OS deployment is a great idea - you have greater storage capacity than a DVD, and the read speed is quicker, resulting in easier and quicker deployments. But what if your SCCM server is a VM? You can't physically connect a USB storage device to the server, but you … Continue reading Quick Tip: Creating USB Standalone Media on a VMWare VM
Creating an OS Deployment Summary Email with Orchestrator
System Center Orchestrator is very useful as complementary tool to OS Deployment. I use it for several things during deployment including adding computers to SCCM collections, adding computers to AD groups, moving computer accounts into different AD OUs, adding a description to the computer account etc. Previously, I had to use scripts to accomplish those … Continue reading Creating an OS Deployment Summary Email with Orchestrator
Prompting for Input During a Task Sequence
Sometimes when running an SCCM task sequence, you want to prompt for input, for example to populate a Task Sequence variable that you will use later. In this example, I am encrypting a laptop HDD (SED) using Wave ERAS, and I'm using a command-line tool that populates the pre-boot authentication screen with the AD account … Continue reading Prompting for Input During a Task Sequence
Installing Drivers with Standalone Media Deployments
Using SCCM standalone media can be a good way to deploy an OS when you have, for example, remote offices with no local distribution point. However, if you use DVD media it can result in several DVDs if you include all the applications and drivers. So I prefer to install the drivers and applications separately … Continue reading Installing Drivers with Standalone Media Deployments
Installing Intel Rapid Storage Technology During a Task Sequence
With our SCCM OS deployments, I like to install some of the 'driver apps' that come with our Dell machines, such as the Intel Management Engine Components (AMT), Bluetooth, and Rapid Storage Technology. But for a long time the Rapid Storage Technology always bugged me because I couldn't install it during a task sequence, either … Continue reading Installing Intel Rapid Storage Technology During a Task Sequence