Reimage PC's with SCCM

[staylor1972]

Hi All

 

I'm looking to upgrade our PC's from Windows 10 1803 to Windows 10 1909 using SCCM. This is the first time I've used it to deploy an OS as I've mainly been using it for Endpoint protection and App installations which is working well.

 

I've got to a point where I've created a device collection and added a couple of test PC's in there and they seem to build without any issues but my question is how can I quickly rebuild a pc?

 

I'm coming from using WDS, so it was a just a case of hitting F12 and initialising a network boot and selecting the image I want to install. The way i've sort of got round it is by creating a new Device Collection and deploying the Task sequence to that, and leaving SCCM to refresh the policy to instigate the rebuild. But if i have to rebuild the test pc again it wont as it can see that its sucessfully completed the install.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Steve

[sparkeh]

You can do exactly the same as you were doing with WDS and pxe boot to choose an image to deploy.

 

I have my images advertised to all machines but have them as optional. Also there is password required when you pxe boot.

 

Therefore I just turn on machine, pxe boot, enter password, select image to deploy.

[staylor1972]

Hi Sparkeh

 

Thanks for the speedy response!

 

Where abouts do I set the images as being optional? Is that part of when you are deploying the task sequence? is there an easy way to apply a password?

[sparkeh]

Take a look at your TS deployment and there is the option to set the 'purpose' to 'available' (sorry I said optional) - this means that it will appear in the list for selection but won't be enforced

The password option is tucked away in "Administration -> Site Configuration -> Server and Sire Systems Roles" Right click "Distribution Point" and then "PXE" tab and check the "Require a password when computers use PXE"

[staylor1972]

Thanks again Sparkeh I've changed those settings now and will give it a go.

[staylor1972]

Not having much luck :-( i'm struggling to get it to PXE boot. Do these DHCP settings look right?

 

[Guest Guest]

You shouldn't have any settings in DHCP for PXE boot SCCM deals with all that

[BOOT]

They won't build from the same deployment a second time. The PXE boot log will show "Already in database" "No deployments available".

[TechMonkey]

They won't build from the same deployment a second time. The PXE boot log will show "Already in database" "No deployments available".

 

That means it is only deployed to "Unknown PCs". If you also deploy to "All Workstations" you can re-image. As an additional check I always set it the "Make available" drop to just PXE, to make sure nothing can accidentally deployed and it overwrite all servers or something hideous as has happened elsewhere.

Edited January 29, 2020 by TechMonkey

[staylor1972]

Thanks for the input folks.

 

I've got it PXE booting to a couple of models of our machines, some need a few tweaks in the Bios to get them to work.

 

Thanks again

[staylor1972]

Hi All back again with another question!

​

I've got 2 Device Groups - Windows 1909 with Office 365 and Reimage. The windows 1909 with Office365 has a TS to installs the OS and is set to Required, the PC's build without any issues. Ive check the monitoring and Deployment Status and its set as Success and the Program will not rerun.​

​

Now if I want to rebuild a PC I put it in to the reimage group which TS is set to Available and it reimages the PC without any issues. So far so good.​ However what I'm finding is after a few minutes the PC will then restart and reimage itself with the Windows 1909 with Office 365 TS.

 

I've also tried deploying the reimage TS to the Windows 1909 with Office 365 Device group but when I PXE boot it says that there are no task sequences available and just restarts.

 

Anyone offer any gudiance as to where i'm going wrong?

[Whisky]

 

​

Now if I want to rebuild a PC I put it in to the reimage group which TS is set to Available and it reimages the PC without any issues. So far so good.​ However what I'm finding is after a few minutes the PC will then restart and reimage itself with the Windows 1909 with Office 365 TS.

 

 

We have a few device collections that will deploy the OSD ASAP. We manually move the devices to these collections as and when we perhaps want to automatically put a fresh image onto a known device. The TS is set to required so any device put into the collection will have the OSD deployed to it. Problem we initially had with that was onces the device had been reimaged it would re-imaged the device repeatedly, as if it's stuck in a loop. We had create a status filter to remove the device from the collection after it had imaged.

 

Not sure if that is what is happening to you. Have a look at this to give you an idea of what was happening to us. https://www.systemcenterdudes.com/239/ or https://ccmexec.com/2013/06/remove-computer-from-collection-after-osd-powershell/