OSDCloud

[garethEds]

Good afternoon everyone,

 

Are there any people out there using OSDCloud for bare metal deployments? Using it to replace their MDT solution? If so - please could you get in touch? Some questions I wanted to ask about it. Our MDT is fine, but I'm evaluating other ways of deploying as we are not due to go to inTune/AutoPilot for a while yet.

 

Cheers

 

Gareth

[PotNoodleTech]

Looks like all Welsh LAs are going to be forced to move their schools to HWB intune etc so I wouldn't go spending thousands on third party options as the HWB takeover is literally imminant.

Edited March 25, 2025 by PotNoodleTech

[garethEds]

I don't think anyone will be 'forced' - it just makes sense. Still think there needs to be a bare metal solution available to us.

 

G

[3s-gtech]

9 minutes ago, PotNoodleTech said:

Looks like all Welsh LAs are going to be forced to move their schools to HWB intune etc so I wouldn't go spending thousands on third party options as the HWB takeover is literally imminant.

Fight the power!

 

I'm happily renewing my MS licensing again this year. Hwb can do one.

[PotNoodleTech]

17 minutes ago, garethedmondson said:

I don't think anyone will be 'forced' - it just makes sense. Still think there needs to be a bare metal solution available to us.

 

G

Well.  If they remove your existing LA domain.  I am categorising that as "forced"

[PotNoodleTech]

18 minutes ago, 3s-gtech said:

Fight the power!

 

I'm happily renewing my MS licensing again this year. Hwb can do one.

 

Good luck Ned!!

[lmrogers]

I have managed to use OSDCloud for ZTI from USB boot. I am still working on getting it to work over PXE.

[garethEds]

Fair comment.

[3s-gtech]

11 minutes ago, PotNoodleTech said:

 

 

Good luck Ned!!

 

Haha, our LA would have to actually somehow take on responsibility of high school ICT for that to happen! They have pretty minimal intervention at present, though they do control the DNS... 😮 😮 😮 

[kennysarmy]

About to start looking at OSDCloud.

 

Currently like the OP, using MDT (WDS) to image and then I use Group Policies to manage settings and push out software, but a little dabbling with Intune means some software is now pushed out via Intune.

 

My plan (I think) is to use OSDCloud to install Windows 25H2 from a standard WIM, booting from a USB, then hand-off to Intune to complete the installation of any required software.

I think for now I'll keep running in hybrid mode and use GPO's to lock down the devices.

 

Can anyone point me to any resources to help get me started on this journey?

Cheers

 

[LewRichAIM]

We are about to start using OSDCloud on mass, really basic config, we get the devices into autopilot using the autopilot info script before we wipe.  Then boot from the USB to re install the OS, once finished autopilot takes over.  I love the fact it does the drivers for us, we are mostly a Dell house.  I did play with the autopilot info script within the OSDCloud PE image, but I don't think PE contains all the bits of powershell that are needed.  Tbh once it's in autopilot it's there for life so not much of an issue.

[LewRichAIM]

Update on this, I managed to get enrolment working inside OSDCloud using this guide https://github.com/blawalt/WinPEAP modified the powershell script to set the device name too.  So once it goes into autopilot it names the PC correctly.  We have the asset number in the device name so it's important for us.

[gshaw]

We use OSDCloud to build our InTune machines, very quick and slick for branded machines. Not quite as clean with drivers for Stone and similar OEMs as you get the Windows Update drivers rather than the manufacturer curated driver packs. Was playing with adding a custom driver injection script for these though not used it in anger yet.

 

 

Edited March 30 by gshaw

[robk]

Has anyone seen/used a good guide on how to set this up from scratch?

 

Would love to replace MDT with this, either from PXE or USB stick...

 

A "quick start" guide would be excellent I suspect.

[LewRichAIM]

This is a good place to start https://www.learningittogether.com/posts/osdcloud-v2-getting-started/

[kennysarmy]

What will determine if the device imaged using OSDCloud is joined to Entra in hybrid mode or not?

 

I'm finding my test devices are "Microsoft Entra joined" - rather than hybrid which is what I'd expect from the AutoPilot Deployment Profile...

[LewRichAIM]

Have you used that profile before outside of OSDCloud does it work if you manually install the OS etc.

[kennysarmy]

My OSDCloud commands - if anyone can advise any amendments?

 

New-OSDCloudTemplate -Language en-gb -SetInputLocale en-gb -Verbose

New-OSDCloudWorkspace

Set-OSDCloudWorkspace C:\OSDCloud

Edit-OSDCloudWinPE -DriverPath 'D:\drivers'

Edit-OSDCloudWinPE -StartOSDCloudGUI

New-OSDCloudISO

 

Burn files (C:\OSDCloud) using Rufus to USB

[jthompson]

For localising the template to use en-GB, I have a slightly different command:
 

# Create a named template that is set to en-GB
New-OSDCloudTemplate -Name "ADK en-GB" -Language en-GB -SetAllIntl en-GB
# Ensure that it is the current default template.
Set-OSDCloudTemplate -Name "ADK en-GB"

 

I'm currently working through how to use an install image from an on-prem network share, but am struggling to work it out due to the documentation being so..... interesting. Gemini is therefore having a hard time helping me work out what scripts need to be placed where, and which cmdlets I need to be using at various stages. I'm booting WinPE from WDS for this, trying to emulate as much as possible our current MDT setup (network credentials prompt at the start, leading to a ZTI, classroom-safe unattended deployment that joins to the domain with the serial number mapping to a hostname in a CSV). Would welcome and tips from anyone else using OSDCloud in a similar on-prem fashion.

[kennysarmy]

3 hours ago, jthompson said:

For localising the template to use en-GB, I have a slightly different command:
 

# Create a named template that is set to en-GB
New-OSDCloudTemplate -Name "ADK en-GB" -Language en-GB -SetAllIntl en-GB
# Ensure that it is the current default template.
Set-OSDCloudTemplate -Name "ADK en-GB"

 

I'm currently working through how to use an install image from an on-prem network share, but am struggling to work it out due to the documentation being so..... interesting. Gemini is therefore having a hard time helping me work out what scripts need to be placed where, and which cmdlets I need to be using at various stages. I'm booting WinPE from WDS for this, trying to emulate as much as possible our current MDT setup (network credentials prompt at the start, leading to a ZTI, classroom-safe unattended deployment that joins to the domain with the serial number mapping to a hostname in a CSV). Would welcome and tips from anyone else using OSDCloud in a similar on-prem fashion.

 

Good luck.

 

I'm struggling to get an unattend.xml parsed to bypass all the OOBE stuff so it's more light touch, so far no good! 

[LewRichAIM]

I am no expert on this but I have done a lot of back and forward in Claude AI, to get a complete script working.  The script is stored in the workspace in the StartNet folder, this launches automatically when you boot from the OSDCloud PE before OSDCloud does anything.  We are moving fully to Autopilot and Intune, so no local AD.  When we boot up it launches a powershell form, asks for a computer name, has some logic in it to set the site based on the start of the name e.g XXX-NAME sets the site as XXX etc, then you have an option of a staff or student device, then press go, the hardware hash is uploaded to Intune using an Azure app key and secret, group ID set which inturn sets and assigns a deployment profile.  Then OSDCloud launches to wipe the HDD, install the OS and drivers.  Machine then restarts, OOBE kicks in and does the rest.  End result is a finished device at a login screen ready to go.

 

I just asked it about your your scenario with the unattended.xml (not needed in my setup, as I need the OOBE for the autopilot phase).  It came back with a pretty complete layout for it including a powershell script to start the process.  Similar to the way I am doing it.

 

Happy to share the script if anyone wants to have a play!

[kennysarmy]

10 hours ago, LewRichAIM said:

I am no expert on this but I have done a lot of back and forward in Claude AI, to get a complete script working.  The script is stored in the workspace in the StartNet folder, this launches automatically when you boot from the OSDCloud PE before OSDCloud does anything.  We are moving fully to Autopilot and Intune, so no local AD.  When we boot up it launches a powershell form, asks for a computer name, has some logic in it to set the site based on the start of the name e.g XXX-NAME sets the site as XXX etc, then you have an option of a staff or student device, then press go, the hardware hash is uploaded to Intune using an Azure app key and secret, group ID set which inturn sets and assigns a deployment profile.  Then OSDCloud launches to wipe the HDD, install the OS and drivers.  Machine then restarts, OOBE kicks in and does the rest.  End result is a finished device at a login screen ready to go.

 

I just asked it about your your scenario with the unattended.xml (not needed in my setup, as I need the OOBE for the autopilot phase).  It came back with a pretty complete layout for it including a powershell script to start the process.  Similar to the way I am doing it.

 

Happy to share the script if anyone wants to have a play!

 

Where would I find the StartNet folder? 

Do I create this in "C:\OSDCloud\Config" ?

 

And then once it's in place run "New-OSDCloudISO" - again and burn the ISO to USB?

[LewRichAIM]

That's it, inside Config >> Scripts, tbh I don't remember creating it, but it was a while ago!  Then when you rerun the process everything is merged into the ISO/WIM, everything inside StartNet runs right after the network adapter becomes live.

[jthompson]

For developing this, I've got my script stored in a network share rather than in the WinPE image, and then in the config/scripts/startnet folder of the workspace I just have a powershell script with the following to make that share available in WinPE as Z:

 

# Map the network share.
# Enclose password in single quotes if it contains a $ (e.g. 'pa$$word').
net use Z: "\\server\share$" /user:domain\user 'thepassword'
# Set the OSDCloudPath to point to the share.
$env:OSDCloudPath = "Z:\"

 

I've build WinPE using the Edit-OSDCloudWinPE cmdlet that includes the parameter

-StartPSCommand "Z:\OSDCloud\myScript.ps1"

to automatically run that script after WinPE starts up. myScript.ps1 can then just be updated in that network share to avoid having to build a new WinPE image each time I wat to try a change. I guess once it's 'finished', it can be baked into the image by combining both scripts and storing it in the config/scripts/startnet folder of the workspace and dropping the -StartPSCommand parameter from the Edit-OSDCloudWinPE command.

[LewRichAIM]

That's a good idea! The amount of times I regenerated the WIM!  Might host it in SharePoint, that's worked quite well for copying desktop icons for students 👍