Wednesday 19 March 2014

Sysprep & Capture thick image

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In my experience it is best practice to capture your reference images using MDT build and capture task sequence. However, every now and then, you can be in a situation where a customer has provided a pre-built image (often using another deployment solution) and you have to capture this to a WIM file.

For this, you use a Sysprep & Capture task sequence. It's also an easy solution to implement.

Right click Task Sequences and choose to create one.


Enter a suitable ID and name.


Choose "Sysprep & Capture".


Choose the OS to match what you will be capturing.


No need to specify the product key.


Enter your details (you must enter details in each box to be able to continue).


No need to specify administrator password.


Review the summary and click Next.


Process has completed.


See the Scripts folder in the Deployment share. LiteTouch.wsf is available.


Now lets capture the thick image. Open a command prompt "As Administrator" on the reference computer. First, map a drive to the deployment share, so that we can enter credentials.

Then execute the following command:

cscript.exe \\UNC path\DeploymentShare$\Scripts\LiteTouch.wsf


Script runs.


We are presented with a menu of available task sequences. Choose "Systprep & Capture".


Enter local administrator password.


Choose to capture an image of the computer. Enter a location and file name.


Specify your network credentials.


Review the summary and click Begin.


The task sequence starts. Sysprep is executed. The computer then restarts and boots into Windows PE.


The image is being captured.


The task sequence has completed. You can now restart the computer - we do not need it any more.



Image file (.WIM) is now available to be imported into ConfigMgr.


10 comments:

  1. Gerry, I get an error when I tried to run the LiteTouch.wsf file from the reference machine.
    1. Reference machine is not joined to the domain yet
    2. I access the server from Run - \\Servername and access the C$ deployment share and selected the LiteTouch.wsf and I Get an error Unable to map a drive to the deployment share. Already connected to server as that is where this script is running from. Unable to connect to share, The network path was not found.

    Do I need to join the computer to the domain?

    Cheers,
    D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, you shouldn't join the computer to the domain. You need to use the FQDN of the server
      eg. server.contoso.com

      Delete
  2. Thanks Gerry, I was able to successfully capture the image using mdt. Many thanks for your help.
    Cheers
    D

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gerry, Can you please review the customsettings.ini file?
    We need to send a copy of the base image to the manufacturer and I'm trying to automate the deployment as much as I can. Since its an offline deployment, I want to keep the customsettings.ini as simple as possible.

    [Settings]
    Priority=Default
    Properties=MyCustomProperty

    [Default]
    DeployRoot=\\SERVERNAME\DeploymentShare$
    OSInstall=YES
    SkipCapture=YES
    UserDataLocation=AUTO
    TimeZone=255
    TimeZoneName=A.U.S. Eastern Standard Time
    AdminPassword=xxxxxxxx
    SkipAdminPassword=NO (for some reason it asks me to enter the admin password every time, how do I automate it)??
    SkipProductKey=YES
    SkipComputerName=NO
    SkipLocaleSelection=YES (What is this?)
    SkipTaskSequence=NO
    SkipTimeZone=NO
    SkipApplications=NO
    SkipLocaleSelection=YES (What is LocaleSelection)?
    UILanguage=en-AU
    UserLocale=en-AU
    KeyboardLocale=Not sure what to enter
    SkipTimeZone=YES
    SkipSummary=No
    SkipCapture=No
    SkipFinalSummary=NO

    Pls let me know if there are any changes required.

    Thanks
    D

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Gerry,

    Is there a method to inject Drivers into the thick image? We want to build a base image that we can build off of that has the basics of every users installed as well as as many updates installed as possible.

    I know how to generalize everything else (SEP, SCCM client, Office etc) but I want to be able to inject a driver store into - I know how to do it roughly externally using DISM, but is there a method to do it through MDT?

    Thanks

    Austin

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You really shouldn't add drivers to the image. Add the drivers while computers are being built using the Add Driver Package task sequence step.

      Delete
  5. Gerry I love your articles.... Thank you!

    When I try to capture a custom image, System Drive shows up and in few seconds computer restart and image get captured with system drive as separate drive in computer.

    How do I prevent this to happening?

    Thanks
    Farooq

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're welcome Farooq. I'm sorry though. I don't fully understand your question.

      Delete
  6. MDTK 2013 is incredibly difficult and buggy.
    Ver 8443 will not show the Sysprep & Capture task steps and now ver 8330 is doing the same thing.
    Frustrating and typical microsoft crap product.
    Better to find something more reliable....

    ReplyDelete