Windows XP Operating System with SP2 Deployment (OSD) through SCCM
                                                                   ZeroTouch Installation Method








In my previous blogs you had seen few articles on system center configuration management like prerequisites for SCCM, Installation guide, how to create boundaries and doing inventory.
I would recommend you to refer those articles before you could see refer this for your OSD:
System Center Configuration Manager

Still there are many features you can get in SCCM like publishing the package, doing software update, remote access etc etc.

In this article I am fully focusing on operating system deployment of windows xp with sp2. Reason for publishing this article there are very few articles which talks about this XP Deployment and very important thing is that I faced lots of issue to get this deployment successful, so I thought to share out the knowledge so that you can do your home work before you could perform this activities in the production.

Disclaimer: This article is purely based on the lab environment and I am still a learner, so I might miss any recommended steps. Moreover this article is for testing purpose only in the production you might need to have customized setting.

My Current Setup:
All the OS deployment testing is done on virtual pc 2007.
Note: I would recommend you to do this lab in the virtual PC 2007 because in Vmware I faced lots of issue like drivers issue, my new client computer is getting rebooted again and again because of improper driver update.

I have total 4 computers and description of each computer given below:

1) MainDC.happy.com: This computer is a domain controller for happy.com who also holds the role of GC, DNS and DHCP as well.

2) Sccm.happy.com: This is a just member server for happy.com where I installed SCCM sp1 and SQL  2005 with sp2.
For installation guide click here

3) Winxp: This is going to be my reference computer from where I am going to copy the image for my new client machine. This winxp has two drives C and E.
Note: In my lab you need to have atleast two drives because you need to create WIM image of this reference computer.

4) Labxp: This is going to be my new client machine (currently it has built-in hardware)

Deployment of Windows XP SP2:

1. Configuring your SCCM Server:
Lets  understand certain basic things when we are talking about operating system deployment in a normal way. Well, we will bring one hardware then we will insert windows xp cd which will have the boot image and other softwares. Later we will configure the drivers for the hardware then install application. If you see here the very first thing comes into the picture is booting process. But when we are doing an OSD remotely how we can bring this boot process into the picture and the way it works is PXE boot image. Now what is PXE? Preboot Execution Environment - typically running in Windows, to boot up without the need for a hard drive or boot diskette. In SCCM we need to install PXE role as a first step in terms of OSD deployment.

Before that we need follow certain prerequisite:
i) Enable Windows Deployment Service:
Go to Control Panel => add/remove components and then enable Windows Deployment Service
Note: This will ask you to reboot the server
Figure1:


 
ii)  Install Windows Deployment Service : Inorder to download – click here
iii) Create a boundaries for your AD Site : How to create boundaries click here
iv) Configure Client Agents:
    a. Open the SCCM Console
    b. Expand Site database => Site Management => Site => Site Settings
    c. Click on Click Agents => on the right hand you will see list of agents double click on Computer Client Agent and set the administrator account details under network access account
Figure2:

 
v) Install PXE service Point:
    a. Open the SCCM Console
    b. Expand Site database => Site Management => Site => Site Settings
    c. Expand Site Systems => the click on Server, from the action menu click on New role and select PXE Service Point and following the steps.
In my lab I have already installed it.
Figure 3:

 
vi) Configure the configmgr integration:
Click on Start => Program files => Microsoft Deployment Toolkit => Configure Configmgr Integration
Figure 4:

 
vii) Configure Windows Deployment Service:

Note : I did tested by configuring the WDS it is working and even without configuring i.e just installing WDS and then configured the PXE service point, PXE Service point will set the WDS service from manual to automatic.

    a. Click on Start => Programs => Administrative Tools => Windows Deployment Service
    b. In the console expand the servers => right click that specific server in which you have installed WDS, in my case it is the sccm server, just you simply configure it.
Note: Don’t add any image, just keep this WDS configured and the service should be started.
    c. Then right click your server under WDS console => Properties and click on PXE response Setting and under PXE Response Policy select “ Do not respond to any client computers”  and PXE response in Delay : set it to 1 seconds. This is because we have PXE service point in SCCM which is having zero seconds and that is what we need.
Figure 5:

 
viii) Configure WDS PXE Filter : 
        a. Click on Start => Program => Microsoft Deployment Toolkit => Click on Configure WDS PXE Filter => Edit PXEFilter.vbs
Figure6:

 
        b. Then edit the PXEFilter.vsb with the following information
                sProviderServer = "sccm" (Your sccm servername)
                sSiteCode = "PRI"  (Your site code)
                sNamespace = "root\sms\site_" & sSiteCode
                sUsername = "Administrator"  (User name)
                sPassword = "xxxxxxx" (password
                sCollection = "Collection ID"   ' This must be a collection ID, not a collection name
ix)  Create a collection:
    It is always best practice to create new collection set for testing purpose, inorder to do this:
        a. Open SCCM Console
        b. Expand Site Database => Computer Management
        c. Right click on Collections => then click on New Collections
        d. Give a name for your collections like test and create it.
                In my lab I created collection name as Test
Figure7:

 
x) Create a package from Microsoft Configuration Manager Client and then distribute it.
    This will create a package for configuration manager client and this sccm client software will be installed in the new computer automatically during the Operating System Deployment..
        • Open SCCM Console
        • Expand Site Database => Computer Management
        • Expand Software Distribution
        • Right Click on Packages and click on New and then click on New Package from Definition
        • It will show you welcome screen, click on NEXT
        • Under Publisher : Select Microsoft and package definition select “Configuration Management Client Upgrade” and click on Next
Figure 8:

 
        • Under Source File : Select the Always obtain files from a source directory
Figure 9:

 
        • Under source directory : Select Network path
        • Then source directory network path : file://sccmserver/sccmsite/client (Note client is folder under your sccm server . In my case my server name is sccm and code is pri so the path will be file://sccm/SMS_PRI/Client
Figure 10:

 
        • Then it will display the summary of the selection you made simply click on NEXT and then finish it.
        • After that you will have your Microsoft Configuration Manager Client, simply expand it and then click on distribution point, from the action menu click on new distribution point
        • It will show you welcome screen, click on NEXT
        • Under copy package screen select your server under Distribution Points and click on NEXT
Figure11:

 
Note: First you understand why there is need of distribution point, this distribution point configuration will create a Microsoft Configuration client package under local DP server, this will help the local dp to have copy of the image or any package so that it can distribute to local site user, rather requesting the package from primary site.

    • Once you click on NEXT, progress about the configuration then click on Finish.

XI) Configure the boot image:
Now you might be thinking why I said to configure boot image under SCCM console rather then creating it, the reason is very simple SCCM will already create the boot image itself. This boot image is nothing vista boot image.
Figure 12:

 
So we need to configure the image, whether  you are going to have boot image for x86 client machine or x64 I would personally suggest you to configure the DP (Distribution point for both the image one at the same time). For more details on boot image information just you double click that image.
    • Create a distribution for both image:
    • Just expand the boot image (Here I am taking x86 image as an example)
    • Click on Distribution points and from the action menu click on new distribution point
    • Under Distribution Point select PXE server DP and Server
Figure 13:

 
    • Then click on Next and finish it
    • Right click boot image x86 : Click on Windows PE tab and select “Enable command support (testing only), the reason why I stressing on this because at the time of OSD you can troubleshoot on the new client machine by mode of command prompt
Figure 14:

 
    • Once you click on apply, it will ask you to update the Distribution point, just you click on yes and update it.

Xii) Create boot image for capturing the reference computer into WIM image:
 This step is very important if you are planning to capture the image from the reference computer.  In this we will create a boot iso image which you can extract into CD\DVD then insert it on the reference computer to copy the image into WIM format. I will explain you later in this article why we are running this and what it will do. However inorder to do this 
    • Open the SCCM Console
    • Expand Site Database
    • Expand Computer Management
    • Expand Operating System Deployment
    • Click on Task Sequence
    • From the action menu, click on Create a Task Sequence Media
    • It will open a task sequence wizard , select capture media option and click on NEXT
Figure 15:
 
    • In the Media Type:  Select CD\DVD Set and select the media file network path. I would recommend create one folder called as Image and under that create one folder called as Capture. Share the image folder and give full control to Administrator and SCCM computer and share that folder.
Figure 16:

 
    • Then you can extract the above ISO image into the CD\DVD and insert that to your reference computer, in my case I set my reference computer DVD path to this image.

2) Capturing Reference Computer Image:

 Reference computer is nothing but your source computer from where you going to capture the image for Operating system deployment. In my case, it is winxp : this computer has winxp with sp2 OS, installed some applications. Very important thing this computer must be a workgroup and moreover the administrator password should be blank then if possible disable windows firewall otherwise you won’t able to ping this computer from your any server.  I have inserted the xpbootimage.iso in the reference computer DVD.
    • Create one folder called as sysprep in the C root drive and extract deploy.cab content to that folder (Deploy.cab you can get it from windows xp CD\i386\supports\tools) : What we are doing here, we will run the minisetup of our existing operating which will not contain any SID value of our existing computer, nor network information or computer name information. This minisetup will be saved in the WIM format . And this is the reason I recommend you to have two disk drive so that if the c drive is formatted by mode sysprep still you can save it on another driver (this is just my personal recommendation)
Figure 17:

 

    • Then right click that DVD drive click on auto run where you have this xpbootiamge.iso
    • This will do a minisetup – like asking you name and organization name as like use to get in actual setup, then  product key, network type, network setting like workgroup or domain just you select workgroup, computer name – give any name, then it will install xp.
    • Now when you go to the drive where you want to save the wim image you will find it there. In my case it was E Drive and file name called as XPCapture.wim Image.
Print Screen for the sysprep:



 
Then next screen it will ask for created by like author name, version and any comments, just you put your information and then click on next
Then it will give you the summary of the setting you saved for capturing the image click on Finish.
Once you click on finish it will start to capture the print image
 
Then it will finish the capturing process

 
Once you click on ok, this reference computer will re-initialize a minisetup..

 
It will open setup wizard here you need to click on NEXT and then EULA select “I agree”

 

Then Regional and language options:

 

 
Then enter the product key


 
Then computer name and administrator password (I use to keep it as blank password)

 
Then Date and time settings:

 
Then network setting selection:

 

Then workgroup or domain joining information: I selected this reference computer as workgroup.

 

Then it will perform final tasks:

 
Then it will get finish and it will reboot the xp computer, once it gets rebooted then you will get that xpcapture image in the drive where you saved it. In my case E:\xpcapture.wim

 
We are done with reference computer capturing information. Next we need to do is add this capture image into our SCCM operating image console.


3) Adding Operating System Image:
• Copy that XPCapture.wim image to the local drive of SCCM server, in my case I shared one drive called as Image where I copied this image.
• Then open SCCM Console
• Expand site database – Computer Management => Operating System Deployment
• Right click on Operating System Images then click on Add Operating System Image
• It will open operating system image wizard where you need to point the location of windows xp WIM image, in my it is file://sccm/Images/captured/xpcapture.wim
Figure 18:

 
• In the General : If you wish you can give a name or let it be the default one
Figure 19:

 
• Then click on Next and finish the task.
• After this expand this newly created operating system image and then click on distribution points, from the action menu click on New Distribution Point and select the sccm server or local Distribution points as your DP point and finish the task.
5) Creating a Task Sequence:
This is very important place where you are going to assemble the list of packages which you created in other word bundling the content into one bag. This task sequence will help us to deploy osd by set of steps and if we goof up then you are in trouble because once you create the task sequence and advertise it, you have to wait to till the error message come in the new computer, in my case I configured the task sequence to keep the new computer in workgroup mode , by the mode of task sequence I deployed new OS however it was in a workgroup the only way I came to know after the installation. This is just an example so please re-analyze the task which you are going advertise.
Inorder to create a task sequence:
• Open the SCCM Console
• Expand Site Database => Computer Management => Operating System Deployment => Task Sequence
• From the Action Menu , click on NEW and select the task sequence option
• It will give you 3 options : out of which you need to select “Install an existing image package” and the click on next
Figure 20:

 
• Give a name for your task sequence and browse the boot image path
Figure 21:

 
• Under Install windows : Select the path of Xp capture image, type the product key and select always use the same administrator password
Figure 22:
 
• Under Configure Network:  Select the mode you want to keep the computer like either you can keep it in a workgroup or domain, in my case I want to keep it in a domain. So I selected my domain name and the OU where this computer needs to located. In the production environment you can create a specific OU based on the site location and give the administrator and SCCM computer full access control. Once you put the domain details , set the user account who will be joining this computer as a member of the domain i.e your administrator account details
Figure 23:

 
• Install ConfigMgr: When you click on next as per figure 22 you will see this option, this is nothing but asking the package for installing sccm client software, just you select Microsoft Configuration Client Package and click on Next.
Figure 24:

 
• Then next screen will state migration, if you are migrating user account then you need to create one USMT package and update this in the task sequence, in my case it is going to be fresh installation so I am skipping it.
• Install updates: I don’t have any updates, I left it blank and hit next
• Install software : No software require for my client.
• Click next and finish the task.

6) Advertise the created task sequence:
Now we have created the task sequence wit h a set of command now it is important to select the collection set where we need to advertise these task sequence so that computers under that collection should get an update of certain activities which is being bundled on this task sequence. Inorder to do so :
• Right click the newly created task sequence, in my case it is task sequence 3
• Click on Advertise
• It will open a Wizard
• Under that specify the collection name, in my case it is Test, then select “Make this task sequence available to boot media and PXE and hit next
Figure 25:

 

• Then select the advertisement time for running this task sequence
Figure 26:

 

• Select the mode of distribution points as per your requirement for publishing this task sequence and hit next
Figure 27:

 

• Then click on next and finally finish the advertisement.
Once you create the advertisement for the above task sequence you can cross verify it by right clicking that specific collections and then click on Advertisements tab.

7) Import the new computer information:
Now we need to import the new computer mac address into the advertised collections, in my case it is Test Collection. Inorder to do that
• Open SCCM console
• Expand computer management
• Operating System Deployment => right click on computer association and select “import computer information”
• You can import multiple computers mac address details in the csv format or you can just import single computer mac address information, in my case – I am importing single computer details
Figure 28:

 
• Then give the mac address detail and computer name you prefer
Figure 29:

 
• Then select the collection where you want to save this computer information
Figure 30:

 
• ` Then click on Next and finish the task.
Now we have completed 99% task but still one thing we need to configure i.e set the PXEclient 060 scope option in the dhcp server. The reason why I am stressing here is because you can run the show as per the above information however when you restart your new computer after the installation it will redo the same task again and again so inorder to stop it need to follow the below steps

8) Configure PXE Client scope option:
In a real time there are two way you can have your workstation contact your SCCM server if your sccm server and OSD workstation in different dhcp scope
1) IP HELPER (MS recommend this)
2) Enabling DHCP scope

I will discuss on the IP HELPER and DHCP scope options.

Enabling DHCP Scope option

By default you won’t see 060 option under the scope option , first you need to enable it and inroder to do so:
• Open the command prompt
• Type netsh
• dhcp server file://servername/ (in my case it would maindc)
• add optiondef 60 PXEClient STRING 0 comment=”Option added for PXE support”
• set optionvalue 60 STRING PXEClient
• show optionvalue all
• exit
i. Restart the dhcp service
ii. Open the dhcp console
iii. Expand the server (FQDN)
iv. Expand the scope
v. Right click on Scope Options and click on Configure Options and select 060 then click on OK
vi. Enable Option 66 Give the FQDN of SCCM Server Name
vii. Enable option 67 and give the path of pxeboot.com

 

9) Installing operating system on new hardware:
Note: Make sure this computer has two drive partition otherwise it will fail because our xpcapture.wim was took from that machine where we had two drives.
Start your new computer : You will see that dhcp server will assign one ip address then it will connect to my pxe boot server, then it will boot up by contacting  my SCCM server
Figure:
 

Then it will initialize the process from the task sequence

 
Then it will do a format of the partions
Figure

 
Note it will do for C Drive and E Drive as well.

 
Then it will apply the computer setting, then network setting (Joining the domain), drivers update etc.
Figure

 
Then it will setup windows and configmgr.
Figure

 

Then it will load windows xp

 

After this it will show you the product key entered (don’t click on NEXT) it will automatically move you to network setting
 

Then it will decide whether it needs to join workgroup or domain as per our task sequence information, in my case it is domain option I selected

Then it will perform a final task:

 

Then it will download and install configuration client manager
 

After that it will bring this computer into domain and ready to use by computer owner
See the logon screen of the new computer:
 

IF you see the above task, it is nothing but my task sequence process as per the below figure
Figure 31:
 

• Once the installation being done under sccm you can see this new computer information as part of domain and client manager installation progress
Figure 32:
 

IF you go to users and computers you will see the labxp as part your member in that specific OU.

I hope this article is being very informative to you all, thanks for sharing your time in this matter. If you would like add any update for this article please feel free to put your comment because in the SCCM we are just a starter.
I would like to thanks to Rajnish Sharma who was very helpful in making the concept clear for me whenever I required his help. To my other colleagues like Milind Naphade, Lakshmi (unisys), Char Raghavendra (Unisys) & Gopalakrishna Kannan (Unisys)  who had encouraged me to do this and to my mentor Lescher Henning who had given this opportunity.


Upcoming Articles:
How to build and capture operating system image

Reference Articles
Operating System Deployment in Configuration Manager - Please go through this link to get detailed picture of OSD concept.

SCCM 2007 and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit - Video Walkthrough This link is complete video on OSD deployment of vista i.e zero method and Lite method installation.

Implementing Configuration Manager 2007 (SMS V4) OSD This link take you to OSD deployment procedures.

Logs SCCM 2007 This link is very very important which talks about the logs file description and this is very important for the troubleshooting.