SCCM PXE Build

[StephenHardy]

Hi There,

I'm trying to stage a migration away from an RM CC4 setup, so far I've been running SCCM for a number of years to push out applications such as SCEP/Office/Java/Adobe Reader etc to our vanilla station, this all works just fine.

I've come to the stage where I would like to start testing 'building' workstations using SCCM (Installing the OS/applications & joining domain in correct OU), but for the testing stage I will need to use the existing WDS server for PXE booting.

To this end I've managed to get a boot.wim working and created a task sequence that should work (I've deployed this to unknown computers) but when any test client PXE boots it starts loading the PE environment, then just restarts.

The SMSLog shows that no task sequences are available...

My question then is, what am I doing wrong? Are there any walk throughs for this setup? I've seen a stack to use the SCCM DP/MP as the PXE boot server, but at the moment I cant do that and in any case I dont think that is the issue here.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I think I'm missing something really simple

 

[CAWJames]

0x80004005 is a rather generic error! Have you got the right drivers injected into the boot image? Is the BIOS time correct? This is before any task sequence is selected I assume, so shouldn't be a dependency not distributed. I would look at having the correct drivers for the NIC you are deploying to injected into the image. What kind of machine are you deploying to in your test? Have you tried deploying to a blank VM, if you have some kind of virtual infrastructure.

[StephenHardy]

Hi there

 

Thanks for the reply, this is Hyper-V VM :s I'll try a completely blank one though.

 

My thought was that it's not an unknown one, but I don't seem to be able to assign the task sequence to known computers, or rather a large enough group to encompass the 700 or so we have.

 

Thanks

 

Stephen

[CAWJames]

It usually has to be a completely new VM, as unknown is a computer with no known MAC address, not name or IP, if you have recycled a VM that had a MAC known to SCCM, it doesn't treat it as unknown, if that makes sense?

[StephenHardy]

Totally, but how do you rebuild a computer that is already known?

[snagrat]

Totally, but how do you rebuild a computer that is already known?

 

Either delete device from SCCM or advertise the TS to another group the device belong to

[CAWJames]

You have to add the computer from devices into a collection, then deploy the TS to that collection, I usually make one called Test, also making sure you make it is available to PXE clients in the drop down box in the deploy wizard, and stay away from Required, just keep it Available. Also make sure you click on the TS itself and distribute it, so it is at the required DP, sometimes just having the component parts distributed isnt enough, but distributing the TS itself makes sure all dependencies are there.

[StephenHardy]

Yeah seems to work absolutely fine with a new VM Happy days on that front.

 

I've advertised it to a new collection called 'TEST' and PXE booted the only member of that collection - still no dice...

[Guest MD5T]

Give up with SCCM it never just works !

[CAWJames]

When you deployed it to the collection, did you make sure to select PXE from the drop down box? You have to explicitly tell it what kind of client can use it, I think its the third choice which includes clients and PXE. As long as the client you are PXE'ing to is the client in the collection it should work, boot to PXE and F12 to boot, if you don't get the F12, then it isn't the right client. You can check by pressing pause on the PXE boot initial DCHP transaction(ie the keyboard pause) and note down the MAC address, then go into the SCCM console, right click on the client and Properties, and double check they are the same.

[CAWJames]

I know SCCM feels like a faff to begin with, but when it is set right, you have all your clients in it, collections set up for rooms/departments/tests whatever, all the drivers you need, deployment is a breeze. Make a TS, test TS on a PC, iron out any crinkles(usually an app or package not distributed), then build those PC's! I especially like the system where you can create standalone media, ie distribute everything in a TS to a memory stick, and just boot from the memory stick and let it build with no network access. Perfect for small rooms with crappy network, and easy to keep in the pocket for those, "f**k it, can't find the problem, just rebuild it" situations!

[StephenHardy]

It was because for the unknown computer deployment I had it set to 'media and PXE' but for my test collection I'd made a boo boo and set it to 'media and PXE (hidden)'. Set it correctly and of it goes!!!

 

Cheers all - now off to customise the build client, import thousands of drivers and generally save a few £1000 in the years to come... if I'm still here now that we're in special measures post OFSTED last week [emoji106]