Hi, in the past we tested imaging integration in the factory from one of the major hardware vendor. It was at the end of 2013 so things may have changed.
Basically you create a standalone task sequence / media with some steps that shutdown the machine at some point, and on the next reboot it will run some script or steps to join the domain. Good point were they managed the windows update and drivers, even for newer models. There was no additional time required for shipping For java / flash/ reader update etc... we were using ninite pro were you can just run the .exe in your TS and as long as there is an internet connection it was able to install the latest versions. We choose to no go this way because: - We were loosing the flexibility to modify the TS on the fly (you had to do some documentation / reviewing process and send them back the whole standalone image, wait for them to review / validate, then revalidate the result, which I guess is normal but still overwhelming) - We're using user driven installation from MDT to let the field techs select some software to install during the task sequence, as well as to name the computer, select domain and OU...all of that was to be done after the task sequence, meaning the computer couldn't go directly to the user (witch was also the goal) So if your process fits into their scheme it's a good option, but that was not the case for us at this point. Now we have a distribution point installed in our 3rd party vendor warehouse were they receive, unpack, install (using the same task sequence that we do in our network) and ship back to our multiple locations the computers (from the same major hardware manufacturer than before) It's working pretty good and save a lot of time, only thing is that it adds a delay in the delivery, but they could also do some manual steps (like bios config if not automated). Hope that helps, good luck in your project. -- Sébastien Chobeaux De : [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] De la part de Ross, Chris Envoyé : mercredi 05 avril 2017 09:39 À : [email protected] Objet : [MDT-OSD] Creating Windows Images for distributor install Hi, My company is looking at leveraging a service our hardware reseller offers which is to preload our OS to any hardware we purchase. Does anybody have any experience with this? Any pitfalls I should be aware of? Right now I have a lot of questions swirling in my head about how this would change what we do today and changes needed to support this going forward. Today we use Microsoft MDT/SCCM for our imaging and I think I'd still need to maintain all this infrastructure in the event a system OS is unrecoverable and would need to be reimaged. Or would my better option be to create an image file that also contains a recovery partition like OEMs do? My worry about that though is that the recovery image would become stale very quickly. The way I see it I'd need to support our current imaging strategy for reimaging, or modify it greatly to move to an image setup that mimics closely that of an OEM. Questions I have are about how to handle the domain join, Windows Updates, anti-virus updates, additional software updates like say Adobe Flash/Reader updates on the first time start-up of the system after it has been imaged? Is there a way to create a dynamic unattend.xml to handle domain join based on network location? Or would I be better off dumping everything to staging OU and then using say Maik Koster's web service (or similar) to handle this? I handle all that right now in a task sequence with the Microsoft tools and can get away with updating my gold image a few times a year; with preloading I think I'd need to keep updating my gold images at least every month to few months to keep on top of Windows Updates. What about additional application layering? We're doing some group based deployments and using the Application Catalog from SCCM. Would I really be saving a lot of time using distributor OS installs? Basically the ask of me is to our get a solution in place where we can order equipment, have our reseller apply our corporate image and once the system is received by us it is ready to go with as little downtime or human interaction from our support teams as possible. With the ultimate goal being we can ship direct to an employee in one of our branch offices from the reseller and all they need to do is turn the system on and away they go. Does anybody have any experience at this or can offer ideas on how best to approach this? Thanks, Chris ________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This communication, including any attached documentation, is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain confidential, personal, and/or privileged information. Any unauthorized disclosure, copying, or taking action on the contents is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please contact us immediately so we may correct our records. Please then delete or destroy the original transmission and any subsequent reply. Thank you. 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