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Forums > Deployment Solutions > MDT 2008
Subject: Custom Partition
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donnieUser is Offline

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08/06/2008 1:23 PM  

Good day all! Wondering if anyone has ever tried to do anything with custom partitions using LTI? (I'll preface this by saying I'm not use the MDT DB or have SMS\SCCM) I planned on creating an additional pane in the LTI wizard that would ask the operator if they would like to customize partitions rather then use whatever is defined by default in my "Format Drives..." Task Sequence. As I've gotten farther along with this task, its becoming more and more diffucult to make available all the different variables that go into this like quick format? hard drive size? multiple hard drives? how many partitions? NTFS\FAT? etc... I can easily use the OSDPartitionsxxx variables that are available via the ZTIGather.xml to store this information but I'm never able to completely reach my end goal of asking all the required questions.

So instead, I'm looking into the availability of the [RemoteInstall] section that was available with RIS .sif files but does not look to be available when using unattend.txt files unless I am mistaken?

So I'm back to square one again trying to figure out the best (and easiest) approach. Anyone else try anything similar? I should also mention this would be for 2003 server, not for Vista\2008 which I know has a nice little hta pane that asks you if you want to customize partitions

Thanks!


DavidUser is Offline

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08/28/2008 1:25 PM  
I'm looking to add this functionality also, what did you wind up doing?
donnieUser is Offline

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08/28/2008 2:22 PM  
Not ideal but...

I created another pane in the LTI wizard which asks the operator if they need a custom partition. If you click yes, I have a script that runs and returns the size of the current hard drive and asks you to select the desired size of the C: parition. I then take the value entered and pass it to an automated diskpart script which partitions and quick formats the drive. Also, I created my own CustomPartition variable that when set to YES, the Partition And Format task would not run in my Task Sequence. Creating the new variable entailed editing the ZTIGather.xml file as well.

I wanted to do more with this, like allow for more then 1 partition to be created but all I was really worried about it getting the C: drive partitioned if it needed to be custom. Then once the OS is installed, additional partitions can be configured manually. The amount of times this scenario takes place for me is minimal so I didn't take this any farther.

Hope that helps...
DavidUser is Offline

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08/28/2008 4:15 PM  

thanks for the update. I appreciate it.

1) you mentioned the OSDPartitionxxx variables in your original post but that you had issues setting them all? I was thinking of doing this same thing (have not started yet). What issues did you have? I was wondering if all the necessary variables/properties exist at deployment wizard time or if some may be dynamically created at some other point based on the task sequence config...

2) I found this (copy/paste below):

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Q:  In BDD 2007 I modified ztidiskpart.txt to create partitions.  How do I do this in Microsoft Deployment?

A:  Microsoft deployment does not use the ztidiskpart.txt file to create the partitions.  Now, this disks are configured run time based on the task sequence parameters in the Format and Partition Disk step.  This step allows you to create multiple partitions across several disks.  If you do not want a partition formatted you can create your own custom script that calls diskpart /s and provide your own diskpart.xt file

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so right now I'm not sure if I just create my own pane that basically mimics the 'format and partition' task sequence options (specifing disk, partition type, size, filesystem etc..) and use this to create my own diskpart.txt like the above suggests OR just set all the right variables and let zitdiskpart.wsf handle the heavy lifting?

my end goal *is* to provide all the same options that are in the task sequence GUI for partitioning and formating drives at run time *in* the deployment wizard. I need to do this in a way that supports both server 2003 and 2008 deployments... you mentioned something different about 2008 that I was not aware of yet?

So I either need to know all the variables that get set when using the task sequence gui (need to support multiple partitions on multiple disks) or I just need to get started looking at the syntax for diskpart.exe /s diskpart.txt.... in either case I need to create my new pane to collect the info so I will start that now. Hopefully someone here knows what I need to know and will be kind enough to share. :)

thanks.

donnieUser is Offline

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09/15/2008 9:30 AM  
David, sorry just getting back to you now. I put off completing this task of custom partitioning for a while but I need to get it going again. I'm successfully doing what i mentioned above, kicking off a custom diskpart script during the LTI wizard however by me doing that looks to me throwing off the sequence of events because LTI either bombs out after the diskpart is done or once the Task Sequence itself starts. I tried moving the diskpart script to the task sequence itself and again it runs fine, but the task sequence will not go any further once I do the custom partition. I spent time looking through the ztidiskpart.wsf and I couldn't figure out how exactly LTI is doing the formating. The ztidiskpart.wsf to me looks more useful for a ZTI\SMS\SCCM installation. Have you had any luck? Thanks!
DavidUser is Offline

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09/15/2008 10:25 AM  
I will know in the next day or 2 and post back here. I'm working on it now.
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Forums > Deployment Solutions > MDT 2008 > Custom Partition



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