Mike's Tech Head Blog

TechEd North America – I’ve got a Pre Conf day

Well, its not “only” me, Its me (Mike), Johan Arwidmark, Chris Jackson Jeremy Chapman and Mr "MDT" Michael Niehaus. And we are doing a one day full blown Windows 7 Deployment day. Right now we are working on the content to be able to show you real world answers from real world deployments that we have done, this day is going to be the day of all the details, the drivers, the apps, the inventory, the decisions and the big How to do this. So…

Sign up for the event and meet us there, and you, yes you. If you come to the session, walk up to the podium and say “Hey Mike, I do read your blog from time to time”

TechEd Online – Recorded session around W7 Deployment

Last time at TechEd EMEA I did a TechTalk, which is a short interview, in this case Johan Arwidmark is asking all the questions (Well hi does not know Windows 7 Deployment so he keeps asking me all the time, or something)

Anyway, it was kind of fun to do, we talk about MAP, ACT, WAIK and the one we all love, MDT 2010. Enjoy.

/mike

Recorded Session about Windows 7 Deployment

In November I did a LiveMeeting for Microsoft regarding Windows 7 Deployment. For some reason that session was recorded. Surprise :-)

The recording is in the Swedish language and you can watch it here…

/mike

Our Deployment Road show is coming to town

So folks, if you live in Stockholm, Malmö, Göteborg or Sundsvall. Johan and I will come to visit you next week. Johan and I have been talking about doing a road show for many years now, for many reasons it never happened until now (And only “hi” knows when its going to happen again.

So, please com join us for a whole day of OS deployment, as you might know OS Deployment is something that means a lot for Johan and me (yes, we are strange, but in a nice way I think)

We will cover OS deployment from very, very small environment to very very large ones, we will cover Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Physical machines, Virtual Machines, some really nice tips and tricks and some really odd ones to :-)

And hey, you, don't be afraid to step up and shale my hand and say that you read my blog, I always wanted to see if there is anyone that really do that. I might even have some kind of gift for you in return. :-)

One more thing, if you think that installing Windows using a DVD, watch this and think once more…

/mike

MDT2010 – Publish Windows 7 upgrade/refresh using Group Policy’s

This time it will be fun. There is one thing that many people do not know and that is the fact that you can run the LiteTouch script directly from with in the OS and there seems to be only a handful of people that knows you can use command line parameters using that LiteTouch.vbs script file. So in reality, what does this really mean. Well.

So the feature is not “hidden”, its just so common for people to use it for some reason, I think that in refresh/upgrade scenarios its perfect. That way I can have one settings in customsettings.ini that works nice with “Baremetal Install” and then have command lines for doing refresh/upgrade’s. So if you look in the help file for MDT you can search for settings that you can do to make the install silent and automatic, lets say that you want to use skip the task sequence page, in that case it will be similar to this in customsettings.ini:

SkipTaskSequence=YES
TaskSequenceID=TS01

and similar to this in a command line form:

\\server\deploymentshare$\scripts\litetouch.vbs /SkipTaskSequence:YES /TaskSequenceID:TS01

As you can see, we need to add a slash before every variable and replace the equal sign with a colon

So, as an example, here is how to publish an icon to the desktop for the user to click on and it will then install Windows 7. First we need to create a CMD file, the file will then be published using a GPO: The file content is listed below, but you need to modify parameters or add/remove stuff that you do not need for your environment. For example, it is unlikely that your Task Sequence for Windows 7 Enterprise has an unique ID of WC001 :-)

Creating a CMD file on the deployment server

1. Log on to the deployment server
2. Create a new share \\SERVERNAME\Public
3. Create “WindowsXP2Windows7.cmd” in that share, it should look like this:
   
   @Echo off
   CLS
   REM Let's delete the old shortcut on the desktop first so that we do not keep it after the refresh/upgrade
   del "%allusersprofile%\desktop\Upgrade this computer to windows 7.lnk"
   REM Let's deploy the OS now
   REM Note, this should all be in the same row, but i need to “bend” it so you can see
   \\SERVERNAME\deploymentshare$\Scripts\LiteTouch.vbs /SkipTaskSequence:YES
   /TaskSequenceID:WC001 /SkipDeploymentType:Yes
   /DeploymentType:REFRESH /SkipComputerName:YES
   /SkipDomainMembership:YES /UserDataLocation:AUTO
   /SkipUserData:YES /SkipComputerBackup:YES /ComputerBackupLocation:NONE
   /SkipLocaleSelection:YES /SkipApplications:YES /SkipAdminPassword:YES
   /AdminPassword:TheLocalPassword1
   /SkipBitLocker:YES /SkipSummary:YES /FinishAction:REBOOT
   

Using Group Policy to publish the CMD file to the users desktop

1. Logon on to the DC
2. Start Group Policy Management Console
3. Create a new Policy Called “Upgrade to Windows 7”
4. Open Computer / Preferences / Shortcuts
   
5. Create a new Shortcut using the following settings under the General TAB
1. Name: Upgrade this Computer to  Windows 7
2. Target type: File System Object
3. Location : All Users Desktop
4. Target Path: \\SERVER\Public\WindowsXP2Windows7.cmd
5. Run: minimized
6. Icon file path: %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll
7. Icon Index : 137
   
6. Modify the new shortcut under the Common TAB according to the following:
1. Remove this item when it is no longer applied
2. Item-Level Targeting
   
   Under targeting you can set your conditions for computers to receive this shortcut, this for example is my settings:
   

Now, on the Windows XP test box that you have, run GPupdate /force and verify that the Shortcut is popping up, and then run it. If you get questions you would like to avoid, set the parameters in customsettings.ini/MDT database or add them to the command line.

So, that's it. Only thing you need to do now is to relax and let the users refresh their own boxes…

/mike

MDT2010 – Things you should know – Part III

So, you are about to deploy Windows 7, yes perfect. So you have set up your deployment solution, done the apps job and everything is perfect !!!, or…

For some reason when you open up System in the control panel it says:

Rating : Unrated

And that is not good, so you want to rate the system during the deployment phase, so do I

How-to:

Add a “Run a command” in the end of the Task Sequence that runs the following command

“winsat formal”

and you are done.

btw, it is kind of fun to read inside the VBscript’s:, Check this out :-) (line 1208 in LiteTouch.wsf)

   ' Are you kidding me? THis is the 21st century, what kind of computer doesn't have a networking adatper?
   GetNetworkingErrorHint = "No networking devices were found on this machine!"

/mike

MDT 2010 – USMT Bug

So, this one is nasty, the problem will be that when doing a refresh from Windows XP to Windows 7 the USMT will not apply all settings, due to a small issue. The result will be that some settings are lost, it captures some setting but not all. If you read the USMTcapture.log you will see “Downlevel Manifests folder is not present. System component settings will not be gathered.”

and here is one solution

http://systemcenterideas.com/2009/09/usmt-issues-with-mdt-2010/

And no, there are no official fix for this at the moment…

/mike

TechEd Europe 2009 – TechEd Online (The free stuff)

So You did not go to TechEd, and you don't want to buy the TechEd Online ticket to see all the sessions, in that case let me show this:

Of course, there are others to, also you will see TechTalks from other TechEd’s around the globe, check this out:

http://www.msteched.com/online/channels.aspx?cname=track&channel=Windows+Client%2c+Server+%26+Management

/Mike

Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V – 10 things to remember

1. Storage, store the .VHD file and the settings file at the same location and if possible format the hard drive using 64k blocks instead of using standard, that will increase speed and lower impact on the parent partition
   
   
   
2. The Time Synchronization service should ONLY be enabled when the child OS does not have any other way of getting the correct time, that means that member servers, domain controllers, workstations in a domain should NOT get the time from the parent partition. Also it is important the the parent partition get’s the correct time, if the parent partition is part of a domain then it should sync from that of course.
   
   
3. When upgrading from Hyper-V RTM to Hyper-V R2 you need to turn of all running machines and you need to remove all snapshots. BEFORE you start them up please modify the following:
   1. Add a SCSI interface and move all disk’s to the SCSI disk instead of having them on the IDE interface, that makes it possible to de-attach them if needed whiteout turning of the machine later on (It has NOTHING to do with performance, just management)
      
   2. Check the CPU Setting, there is a new feature that enables you to migrate between machines that NOT have the same CPU, you wnat to have that checked before you want to move it, otherwise you will have to turn it off before moving it, kind of boring
      
4. Use separate NIC’s, the minimum of NIC’s is TWO, one for management, and one for the child partitions. I recommend 4 NIC’s if you use iSCSI or have a decent load on the server. In the case of using iSCSI as storage for the parent partition use one NIC for management (that should have the highest order in the binings list)
   
   (this is NOT my hyper-V server, ok, just want you to understand what I mean with “Binding Order”
   Also on the Network adapters that you use for iSCSI, DO NOT USE any kind of loadbalancing stuff from the vendor, iSCSI it self is redundant when you add MPIO and configurea that for iSCSI use (Go into control panel and check the “Support for iSCSI”, wait two seconds and reboot)
   Also, use Jumbo Frames if possible on the iSCSI network, it does require that all network devices on that network can handle Jumbo Frames
5. Will contione later on, need to back to work now.
   

TechEd Europe 2009 – Berlin – Day 2

Next up, day number two. Worked at TLC all day long, the TLC stands for Technical Learning Center. Worked in the EBS Booth. At lunch I meet with people from the Setup and Deployment team, for some reason the where missing staff over at the Windows 7 Deployment boot, and since I’m a very nice guy I helped out the rest of the day in that boot answering question in a steady flow, most people have seen Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 in some demo and then they wanted ask more question and I was happy to help them out. Fun day at work :-)

Cluster Shared Volumes and iSCSI could be a problem

So you have decided to run Windows Server 2008 R2, using the new Clustered Shared Volumes features and you are going to have a SAN based on iSCSI. Good for you, then you will properly also want to set it up according to best practices, hmm lets see…

Two physical servers, with 4 NIC’s that is perfect. I use one NIC for management, one NIC as the Hyper-V network switch and the other two NIC’s as iSCSI NIC’s and as a best practices you bind off everything except for IP on the iSCSI NIC’s

THAT WILL MAKE Cluster Shared Volumes to FAIL !!!

Microsoft require you to enable the “Microsoft Network Client” and “File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks” on all network that takes part of the cluster, in other words you have two choices here.

1. Do not use the iSCSI NIC’s as “cluster NIC’s”, in other word make sure that they are listed as disabled for cluster use (You cannot use them for Internal or Client use). Bad thing about this is that in that case they cannot be used as heartbeat either.

2. Enable “Microsoft Network Client” and “File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks” on the iSCSI NIC’s, (All NIC’s) bad thing about that is that you will have some traffic on the iSCSI network that is “unwanted”.

For some reason there is no KB article that I have found on this little issue, the problem is that it works perfect as long as you do not use the clustered shared volumes and Live Migration, if you just use Quick Migration it works. It is easy to see if there is anything wrong with the configuration, just open c:\clusterstorage\volume1 on one of the nodes, then try to open the same path on the other node. If it freezes up, you know what the problem is. Option one or option two. I usually take option number two

There are two other articles about this issue, sorry to say, not in English.

Hungarian - http://www.microsoft.com/hun/technet/article/?id=a20a6494-645d-4ee6-993b-f0e341cfdffc 

German http://www.server-talk.eu/2009/07/10/error-cluster-shared-volume-is-no-longer-available-mit-hyper-v-failover-cluster/

If you open the event log, you will find this:

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-FailoverClustering
Event ID: 5120
Task Category: Cluster Shared Volume
Level: Error
Description: Cluster Shared Volume ‘Volume1′ (’Cluster Disk 1′) is no longer available on this node because of ‘STATUS_BAD_NETWORK_PATH(c00000be)’. All I/O will temporarily be queued until a path to the volume is reestablished.

TechEd EMEA – Berlin in November

Yes, I’ll be there, working in the “Ask The Experts” area, beside me at least five from my company is going to be there, if you have time or any kind of question, please stop by and say “Hi”

/mike

MDT 2010 – Things you should know - Part II

I missed this one!, shame on me and all credits goes to Björn Axell, P-O Axelsson and Bosse Törnqvist for letting me know (A beer sometime?)

Fixing the “Final Reboot in a LiteTouch scenario” Version II

This is the built in “Final reboot”, it does provide the basic need of rebooting. Using the “use shutdown in a TS” method gives you the option of adding a reason in the event log and to set the time before it reboots. This method just reboots (And that can be perfect in most scenarios)

so if your customsettings.ini looks like this:

[Settings]
Priority=Default

[Default]
FinishAction=RESTART

it will reboot after install

Have a nice Deployment day
/Mike

MDT 2010 – Things you should do – Part I

I have one problem (well there might be more than one problem, but that is beside the point here). Since I have been doing some OS deployment for the last 23 years or so, stuff that I do I take for granted, things that I know must be done, things that I normally never tell people about, I always assume that they know this.

Well, here is the truth, they do not… (some do, some don't…) so here it is:

Fixing the “Final Reboot in a LiteTouch scenario

So the machine is done and ready to be used, but hey it has some summary screen here and it is logged on as the local admin, that means that I need to press ok and then reboot and then let the user logon…

We fix this by modifying customsettings.ini and by adding a reboot command in the end of the task sequence

First step.

Using Deployment Workbench, modify the Task Sequence that you would like to fix.

• Add a Run Command Line
• Type in this as the command
• %systemroot%\system32\shutdown -r -t 20 –c “This box is done”

Second step.

Add the following to CustomSettings.ini

SkipFinalSummary=YES

NOTE: Do not add the “Restart computer” to your task sequence, that will reboot the machine, but it will not end the sequence. That's why we add a “Run a Command Line” task instead.

Have a nice Deployment day
/mike

Free P2V tool from SysInternals/Microsoft – Download and play with it today

Hey, sometimes it just happens and when it does it is normally simple, fun, small, cool and working. I’m talking about when Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell releases new a piece of software. This time they have done a P2V tool called “Disk2vhd v1.0” that is 673kb in a zip archive.

So I have just tested it and as expected, works like a charm :-) and it was so easy, just fire it away and select which disk(s) you want to convert to VHDs and you are done. Copy the file into a Virtual XP or Hyper-V, start it and add VMadditions or Integrated Components. Done, you have virtualized your machine.

*** snapshot from web ***

Runs on:

• Client: Windows XP SP2 and higher.
• Server: Windows Server 2003 and higher.

Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft’s Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). The difference between Disk2vhd and other physical-to-virtual tools is that you can run Disk2vhd on a system that’s online. Disk2vhd uses Windows’ Volume Snapshot capability, introduced in Windows XP, to create consistent point-in-time snapshots of the volumes you want to include in a conversion. You can even have Disk2vhd create the VHDs on local volumes, even ones being converted (though performance is better when the VHD is on a disk different than ones being converted).

Download Disk2vhd (673 KB)

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