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| | Author | Messages | |
FarmerPete
Posts:168
 | | 01/02/2008 4:25 PM |
| I have been toying around with BDD 2007 and now the Deployment Tool 4 for a bit. I have Vista working very well and every thing was happy and nice. I had a little downtime a few weeks ago, so I started testing out adding Windows XP into the mix. We've been using an imaging process for XP that worked okay, but due to our images being constantly out of date, doing thin images with automated software installs seemed like a good idea. I've toyed with using 3rd party tools (WPIW or XPLoad) but since we were headed towards Deployment 4 with Vista, it seemed like a better choice. I've got Deployment 4 setup with WDS loading it. We do not have SMS or SCCM. Now here is the problem....Vista and XP drivers don't seem to mix very well in Deployment 4. I've been testing Vista deployment on Lenovo T61 laptops and many of the drivers just aren't compatible, but the Vista drivers have a newer version and thus get plopped on to the XP install. It's really started to aggrevate me. I've got my drivers split off in to groups, but how do I assign a specific group to a task sequence and/or OS version? If possible, I would prefer to assign driver groups to models as well. That would make maintaining the database easier as it could have 5-6 versions of the same driver, but each version assigned to different model. Every thing I've looked at that appears it might be able to do the task seems to revolve around using the Deployment 4 database. I currently have not used this feature as I don't have a MS SQL server handy, and I don't believe Deployment 4 will use a MYSQL database (or some thing free). I also need to make deployment as streamlined as possible, so anything thats really manual isn't going to work that well. | | | |
| Mike Dzikowski
Deployment Forum MVP
Posts:122
| | 01/02/2008 10:39 PM |
| I was looking around for an answer for you...here is a great script found on Ben Hunter's page:
http://blogs.technet.com/benhunter/archive/2007/05/12/bdd-2007-tips-and-tricks-managing-driver-groups-with-powershell.aspx
That should help you a lot.
Personally, I like to stay away from the Out of Box drivers in the Workbench. I think its a bit difficult to manage. But with that script that should help create groups. But here is how I currently have drivers loaded with an image:
Create a Drivers$ share on your DP
Create directories for each model of hardware under a Drivers$ share on your distribution point
For instance: D:\Drivers\Latitude D410
Create a folder for each type of driver (audio, network, etc) and add the drivers to the folder
In the Deployment Workbench add to your rules section
Under [Default] DriverPaths1=\\YOURSERVER\Drivers$\%Model%
Under [Settings] Priority = Model, Default (default must come after Model)
The drivers will now load based on Model during the deployment
Note - Only add NIC drivers to the workbench that are needed by WinPE
If drivers needs to be removed, updated, deleted simply remove the directory and make your changes.
Mike Dzikowski | |
Mike Dzikowski, MCP | |
| FarmerPete
Posts:168
| | 01/03/2008 9:12 AM |
| | I had seen that post by Ben, but it never explained HOW to use those groups, just how to make them easily (which can be done fairly easy with Deployment 4 when you import the drivers). I've thought of using the models, and I think that would be fairly easy, but the trick is using models AND OS version. Honestly, I think that you should be able to select the group to add for drivers from the task sequence list for "Inject Drivers", but thats just a small dream of mine. | | | |
| FarmerPete
Posts:168
| | 01/03/2008 10:32 AM |
| | I guess another possible question that I have is, is there a way to setup the database in Deployment 4 without using a MS SQL server? I just know that the network staff here would have a field day if I tried to get them to give me rights to one of our servers with all of the extra stuff that is needed to get it working from WinPE. It would be even worse to try and get my own SQL server to try this on. I guess I could get a "trial" of SQL server going for testing, but I just don't see it ever working in my situation in production. I guess some thing like SQL Express would be awesome if it could work for this. | | | |
| Mike Dzikowski
Deployment Forum MVP
Posts:122
| | 01/03/2008 1:55 PM |
| Yea, just setup SQL Server Express locally.
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/editions/express/default.mspx That's all you need. I have my db local. One thing to note is you'll have to enable Named Pipes. Here is a great troubleshooting article by Ben Hunter http://blogs.technet.com/benhunter/archive/2007/07/10/bdd-2007-troubleshooting-database-issues.aspx Let me know if you get stuck at any point, Mike Dzikowski
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Mike Dzikowski, MCP | |
| Mike Dzikowski
Deployment Forum MVP
Posts:122
| | 01/03/2008 2:03 PM |
| Also, once you get your driver groups setup. In the Database you could set the group for that particular Computer.For instance, you have computers named computer1 and computer2 and both are Dell Latitude 620's. In the database details section for computer1 you could set the build and driver group as XPBUILD and XPDRIVERS (whatever you choose to name them) and for computer2 you could set the build and driver group as VISTABUILD and VISTADRIVERS. Make sense? Mike Dzikowski
| |
Mike Dzikowski, MCP | |
| whhjr7
Posts:2
| | 10/09/2008 9:22 AM |
| Hey Mike Dzikowski
I was interested in knowing why you pointed this out
Note - Only add NIC drivers to the workbench that are needed by WinPE
If drivers needs to be removed, updated, deleted simply remove the directory and make your changes.
Thanks, whhjr7 | | | |
| kingskawn
Posts:1
| | 11/14/2008 3:04 AM |
| Posted By Mike Dzikowski on 01/02/2008 10:39 PM
I was looking around for an answer for you...here is a great script found on Ben Hunter's page:
http://blogs.technet.com/benhunter/archive/2007/05/12/bdd-2007-tips-and-tricks-managing-driver-groups-with-powershell.aspx
That should help you a lot.
Personally, I like to stay away from the Out of Box drivers in the Workbench. I think its a bit difficult to manage. But with that script that should help create groups. But here is how I currently have drivers loaded with an image:
Create a Drivers$ share on your DP
Create directories for each model of hardware under a Drivers$ share on your distribution point
For instance: D:\Drivers\Latitude D410
Create a folder for each type of driver (audio, network, etc) and add the drivers to the folder
In the Deployment Workbench add to your rules section
Under [Default] DriverPaths1=\\YOURSERVER\Drivers$\%Model%
Under [Settings] Priority = Model, Default (default must come after Model)
The drivers will now load based on Model during the deployment
Note - Only add NIC drivers to the workbench that are needed by WinPE
If drivers needs to be removed, updated, deleted simply remove the directory and make your changes.
Mike Dzikowski Can you tell me if this could be integrated into SCCM. I want something where the machine can see by itself which drivers he needs and installs it.
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| Paul
Posts:7
| | 12/01/2008 5:18 PM |
| I did it in a similar way, but instead of modifying the rules section and doing all of that. I just created a custom "Set Task Sequence Variable" before the built-in "Inject Drivers" task sequence. I just set the Task Sequnce varible "DriverPaths1" to the value of my directory. For example: %DEPLOYROOT%\Drivers\XPX86\%Model% Credits to Johan Arwidmark for the idea. Hope this helps, Paul Goodson |
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| Maik Koster
Posts:8
| | 12/30/2008 5:33 AM |
| kingskawn, there is a similar and more powerfull way in SCCM posted by Johan Arwidmark - The Driver Saga continues ... Regards Maik | | | |
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