Erik

Is there a way to set English (United Kingdom) as the Region Language / Locale ? I tried changing (United States) in the smartdeploy.xml (as UK is not an option when running through the wizard) however that doesn't seem to work.

Cheers,

Daniel.

Hello Daniel,

Currently SmartDeploy only has support for the specific language packs that are included with Windows 7, XP etc... That list should be what is defined at this site: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744369(WS.10).aspx. The UK localization settings are not included, but they can be set when deploying your image. If you are deploying Windows 7 you can copy the code from below add it to a vbs file and then set it to run as a post image task from the advanced options of the Deploy Wizard. If you are deploying a different operating system or run into any problems please shoot support an email at support@smartdeploy.com and we can answer your questions.

UpdateXML "T:\windows\system32\sysprep\unattend.xml"
UpdateXML "T:\windows\panther\unattend.xml"

Sub UpdateXML(StrFileName)

        Set xmlDoc = CreateObject("Msxml2.DOMDocument.6.0")

        xmlDoc.Async = "False"
        xmlDoc.Load(strFileName)

        xmldoc.setProperty "SelectionNamespaces", "xmlns:bk='urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend'"
        set objnode = xmlDoc.selectsingleNode("//bk:InputLocale")

                        objnode.text = "en-GB"

        xmldoc.setProperty "SelectionNamespaces", "xmlns:bk='urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend'"
	set objnode = xmlDoc.selectsingleNode("//bk:SystemLocale")

			objnode.text = "en-GB"

        xmldoc.setProperty "SelectionNamespaces", "xmlns:bk='urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend'"
	set objnode = xmlDoc.selectsingleNode("//bk:UILanguage")

			objnode.text = "en-GB"

        xmldoc.setProperty "SelectionNamespaces", "xmlns:bk='urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend'"
	set objnode = xmlDoc.selectsingleNode("//bk:UserLocale")

			objnode.text = "en-GB"

        xmlDoc.Save(strfilename)

End Sub

Thanks,

Erik

Hi Wally,

I been using smart deploy for a while to re-image desktops that are already in production and using our standard naming scheme WSDELL+Dell service tag. It works great. Here is my problem. I haven't had to reimage one out of the box. Now that we are getting all new Optiplex 380's, I am trying to use my image with the new PPK for the 380. Everything loads fine but smartdeploy won't name the desktop WSDELL+service tag. It grabs the service tag and puts a d in front. EX.. D62RCDX1. It should be WSDELL62RCDX1. I don't see anything in my answer file that would do it. I guess work on the old PCs because it pulls the existing name from the PC I am reimaging. It won't auto generate in the right format on the new pcs. I have no idea where it is pulling the D from on the new PCs. Any ideas?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have 200 new ones to deploy shortly.

Thanks.

DPS

Hello,

SmartDeploy does naming in one of three fashions. First it will reuse the existing name, if the machine does not have an existing name it will use a WMI query to name. The third option is to randomly generate a name. These settings can be adjusted from the Deploy Wizard's Advanced options.

1. Boot machine to SmartPE
   
2. Click Deploy an Image
   
3. Click Advanced
   
4. Navigate to the Identification tab
   

From here you can change the order of precedence in which the naming is done. You would want to move Read from WMI property to the top of the list, ensure that the query is correct for your naming scheme and set the Prefix. The Prefix is limited to 5 characters so you will only be able to use WSDEL.

To enter all six letters as the prefix (WSDELL) you would need to run a post-image task to update the computer name in the answer file. The following code is an example of this for Windows 7 deployments. Task can be configured from the Advanced options as well, on the tasks tab.

UpdateXML "T:\windows\system32\sysprep\unattend.xml"
UpdateXML "T:\windows\panther\unattend.xml"

Sub UpdateXML(StrFileName)


strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
    & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" _
    & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colSMBIOS = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
    ("Select * from Win32_SystemEnclosure")
For Each objSMBIOS in colSMBIOS
	AssetTag = ("WSDELL" + objSMBIOS.SMBIOSAssetTag)
Next

        Set xmlDoc = CreateObject("Msxml2.DOMDocument.6.0")

        xmlDoc.Async = "False"
        xmlDoc.Load(strFileName)

        xmldoc.setProperty "SelectionNamespaces", "xmlns:bk='urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend'"
        set objnode = xmlDoc.selectsingleNode("//bk:ComputerName")


                       objnode.text = (AssetTag) 

        xmlDoc.Save(strfilename)

End Sub

Thanks,

Erik

Thanks Erik! The devices we use are USB RFID proximity readers. I think we've found a work around but it remains to be tested. What we're going to try is use our VMWare environment to P2V a physical box which will generate a .vmdk file. We'll then use Smart Deploy to capture that file and generate the WIM. If that doesn't work we'll try the SmartWIM route.

You can still run into issues with a P2V conversion as well. It is essentially the same as taking an image of the physical machine. If you need to add drivers/software for the USB RFID readers adding those packages to a Platform Pack or running the installation as a task during deployment may be the best route.

If you would like you can shoot an email to support@smartdeploy.com and we can setup a call or gotomeeting to discuss how to setup the deployment to add the drivers/software after the image has been deployed.

Thanks!

We're currently evaluating the Smart Deploy suite and one thing of interest is SmartWIM. I've been asked to find a way to image a laptop hard drive that has been encrypted using McAfee's Endpoint Encryption software and doing research it appears to be possible. If I boot the laptop using McAfee's BartPE environment, apply the decryption key, and build in network access, in theory I should be able to start up SmartWIM and capture the C: drive and dump the resulting WIM to the network. Does that sound plausible? Will SmartWIM function within a BartPE environment? Thanks!

Assuming the boot environment will unlock the encrypted drive you should be able to use the SmartWIM components to capture it. You will need to add SmartWIM.dll to your boot media and register it. Once you register it you can use the SmartWIM.vbs that is provided in the SmartDeploy programs to specify commands such as capture and apply.

Currently evaluating the product and working through the tutorials it seems that Smart Deploy can only capture a master PC generated within a VM environment? I have the need to create a master image buit on a physical box due to software and peripherals that do not work well inside VM. Is it possilbe to capture a physical reference machine? Thanks!

Hello,

SmartDeploy Enterprise only supports capturing of virtual hard disks for use with the Deploy Wizard. We do this to ensure the operation of the hardware independent imaging process we have in place. The VM gives us a know starting point. When capturing from a physical machine driver conflicts can occur with the drivers that are in the Platform Packs.

What are the specific applications and peripherals that are giving you a problem? We could probably help you figure out a solution for using them in a VM or installing them after the image has been deployed by using a task.

If you would like to capture a physical machine you can do so using SmartWIM /capture from the command prompt of the SmartDeploy boot media (SmartPE). To open a command prompt simply press shift + F10 form the main screen. To apply this image to a machine you can use SmartWIM /apply, please note that this method does not do all of the service work that is done in SmartDeploy Enterprise, i.e. injecting drivers, fixing the BCD, running sysprep, etc... This image should only be applied to like hardware.

Thanks,

Erik

Hello Erik,

Thanks for your reply.

Can i force (unattended) in any way that when i deploy a system, SmartDeploy asks me for a name even when there is a existing name present?

Kind regards,

Dewin

Hello Dewin,

Out of the box SmartDeploy will fail back to defaults if the naming is missing from the answer file. To get this to work you could run a script to delete the computer name section from the answer file that is passed to sysprep by SmartDeploy. This would then prompt the user or administrator setting up the machine for a computer name during Windows Welcome. All other screens of Windows Welcome would still be skipped and filled with the information you provided during the Deploy Wizard or in the answer file.

The code below can delete the computer name form the answer file passed to sysprep. You will need to setup a post image task from the advanced options of Deploy Wizard. This is found by selecting Advanced on the welcome screen for Deploy Wizard. You can then create a task to call the VBScript which will delete the computer name. The script will need to be available to Deploy Wizard during deployment (either on the boot media, in the image or in the same directory as you image if deploying over the network).

For Windows 7

UpdateXML "T:\windows\system32\sysprep\unattend.xml"
UpdateXML "T:\windows\panther\unattend.xml"

Sub UpdateXML(StrFileName)

	Set xmlDoc = CreateObject("Msxml2.DOMDocument.6.0")

	xmlDoc.Async = "False"
	xmlDoc.Load(strFileName)

	xmldoc.setProperty "SelectionNamespaces", "xmlns:bk='urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend'"
	set objnode = xmlDoc.selectsingleNode("//bk:ComputerName")


			objnode.parentnode.removechild(objnode)

	xmlDoc.Save(strfilename)

End Sub

For Windows XP

UpdateINI "C:\Sysprep\Sysprep.inf", "UserData", "ComputerName", ""

Sub UpdateINI(strFilename, strSection, strKey, strValue)

	If Not blnDebug Then On Error Resume Next
	Dim fso, f1, strINIContents, strOldSectionContent, strNewSectionContent, intSectionStart, intSectionEnd, blnKeyFound
	Const ForReading = 1
	Const ForWriting = 2
	blnKeyFound = False
	Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
	If fso.FileExists(strFilename) Then
		Set f1 = fso.OpenTextFile(strFilename, ForReading, , -2)
		strINIContents = f1.ReadAll
		f1.Close
	End If
	intSectionStart = InStr(1, strINIContents, "[" & strSection & "]", vbTextCompare)
	If (intSectionStart) Then
		intSectionEnd = InStr(intSectionStart, strINIContents, vbCrLf & "[")
		If intSectionEnd < 1 Then intSectionEnd = Len(strINIContents) + 1
		strOldSectionContent = Mid(strINIContents, intSectionStart, intSectionEnd - intSectionStart)
		strOldSectionContent = Split(strOldSectionContent, vbCrLf)
		For Each Line In strOldSectionContent
			If UCase(Left(Trim(Line), Len(strKey))) = UCase(strKey) Then
				blnKeyFound = True
				Line = Left(Line, InStr(1, Line, "=", vbTextCompare) - 1) & "=" & strValue
			End If
			strNewSectionContent = strNewSectionContent & Line & vbCrLf
		Next
		If (blnKeyFound) Then
			strNewSectionContent = Left(strNewSectionContent, Len(strNewSectionContent) - 2)
		Else
			strNewSectionContent = strNewSectionContent & strKey & "=" & strValue
		End If
		strINIContents = Left(strINIContents, intSectionStart - 1) & strNewSectionContent & Mid(strINIContents, intSectionEnd)
	Else
	    If Right(strINIContents, 1) <> vbCrLf And Len(strINIContents) > 0 Then 
	    	strINIContents = strINIContents & vbCrLf 
    	End If
    	strINIContents = strINIContents & "[" & strSection & "]" & vbCrLf & strKey & "=" & strValue
	End If
	Set f1 = fso.OpenTextFile(strFilename, ForWriting, True)
	f1.Write strINIContents
	f1.Close

End Sub

Let me know if you have any problems with this,

Erik

Hello Dewin,

SmartDeploy offers a number of ways to name target devices during deployment. The default way is to use the existing name from the current OS on the device. If the existing name cannot be found it defaults to a randomly generated name. The other options you have are to name based on a WMI query on the local machine, or to use a prefix with randomly generated characters. These options can be accessed by clicking Advanced on the welcome page of the Deploy Wizard.

Thanks,

Erik

Hi Dewin

Try using [AnswerFolder]\z\xp.wim this is what Media Wizard will automatically update the path to when specifying an answer file during the creation of boot media. This assumes that the SmartDeploy.xml is on the root of the USB drive. You will still want to use %SmartDeploy_Media% to specify the VBS task.

Thanks,

Erik

Hello Dewin,

You cannot assign a specific drive letter to the USB drive. It will vary with every machine that is booted due to different drive configurations. The easiest thing would be to use the %SmartDeploy_Media% environment variable to address the USB drive. This variable is assigned the drive letter in which SmartPE was booted from. You can then change the image and task path to %SmartDeploy_Media%\z\XP.wim and %SmartDeploy_Media%\z\Part.vbs.

Hope this helps,

Erik

Hi Stevie,

Glad to hear that fixed it! No need to feel bad, we have all done it If anything the error reporting in this particular case can be improved. Our dev team is working on adding a more descriptive error message to reduce confusion.

Thanks,

Erik

Hello Dewin,

There are a couple of ways to accomplish this. The easiest is to setup the virtual reference machine with the same partitioning that you would like on the target machine. For example if you are installing Windows XP and would like to have a second partition for data you can create your VM in this manner and then capture the image. The other option would be to use a pre-image task to run a script to automate the creation of the 2nd partition.To run a task you simply boot the target machine to SmartPE, then select advanced from the Deployment Wizard. From here you will see the tasks tab which allows you to call the script and select a phase of deployment for it to run.

Below is an example VBScript that will create a two partition drive, the first partition will be 80GB and the second will be the remainder of the drive. You will need to make the script available in the boot media by using Media Wizard. Then you will need to create a task to run the script in the pre-image phase. Also be sure to select Wipe & Load drives in the Deploy Wizard or the entire disk will be cleaned and re-partitioned.

OPTION EXPLICIT

Dim oShell, Instance, oExec, intPhysicalDiskSize : intPhysicalDiskSize = 0
Dim blnFormatD : blnFormatD = True
Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
For Each Instance In GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\cimv2").ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_DiskDrive WHERE DeviceID = '\\\\.\\PHYSICALDRIVE0'")
	intPhysicalDiskSize = Instance.Size
Next
If intPhysicalDiskSize > 1 Then
	Set oExec = oShell.Exec("diskpart.exe")
	oExec.StdIn.WriteLine "select disk 0"
	oExec.StdIn.WriteLine "clean"
	oExec.StdIn.WriteLine "create partition primary size=80000"
	oExec.StdIn.WriteLine "select partition 1"
	oExec.StdIn.WriteLine "active"
	oExec.StdIn.WriteLine "assign letter=c"
	oExec.StdIn.WriteLine "create partition primary"
	oExec.StdIn.WriteLine "assign letter=w"
	oExec.StdIn.WriteLine "exit"
	Do While Not oExec.StdOut.AtEndOfStream
		If InStr(oExec.StdOut.ReadLine, "could not assign") Then blnFormatD = False
	Loop
	Set oExec = Nothing
	oShell.Run "cmd.exe /c format c: /fs:ntfs /q /y", 0, True
	If blnFormatD Then oShell.Run "cmd.exe /c format w: /fs:ntfs /q /y", 0, True
End If
Set oShell = Nothing

Thanks,

Erik

Hi Stevie,

Based on the file name of the BIOS it looks like this pack is for the OptiPlex 780? The BIOS install task may be mistyped which is why removing it fixes the problem. The OpitPlex BIOS files start with the letter O for OptiPlex, from the log it looks like the file that is being called is 0780-A07.EXE starting with a zero. Could you please double check the BIOS file and insure that the file name in the task is correct.

Thanks,

Erik

Hi Wally,

Sorry for the delay in response, I just wanted to let you know that this has been addressed in version 1910 of SmartDeploy. Please download the update from here. This update can simply be installed over the current version. Please see this forum post for additional info on 1910.

Thanks,

Erik

The newest version of SmartDeploy Enterprise is now available!

In this version we have updated the boot environment from Windows PE 2.1 to Windows PE 3.0. For more info about the affect this will have please visit this post. There have also been many bug fixes, you can find more info about them here.

You can download the new release from here.

Thanks!

SmartDeploy Team

Hi All,

Is it possible to add dns suffix addresses to the xml file. ?

I have them in my base vhd but they appear to be getting removed during the sysprep process.

I have a batch file that i want to run at first logon that maps a drive to a network share and runs some automated installs that i don't want to in the vhd but the machine cannot see the network server unless i re-enter the suffix address.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks

Stevie

Hi Stevie,

The reason for the behavior you are seeing, is that when syspreping the network card is removed, along with all specific settings. In your scenario the DNS suffix is probably set to the specific connection thus removed during sysprep. If you set the DNS suffix global to all connections you should be able to retain the setting through sysprep. To do this open the network properties for the NIC on your virtual reference machine and select IPv4 (or IP on XP). From the properties sheet click advanced then DNS. Click the "Append these DNS suffixes (in order):" radial and add your DNS suffix. This will set the DNS suffix for all network connections on the machine. I have tested this process with Windows 7 and it will survive the sysprep, it should work in XP as well.

If you do not want to set the suffix for all connections you still have options. I assume you are using DHCP? If so you could set the DNS suffix through the DHCP server and it will then be added to the connection. Here is a link to an article stating how to add the DNS suffix as a DHCP optoin. If you are on an Active Directory domain you could also use Group Policy to configure this option. Here is some info on how to accomplish that.

Hope this helps and let me know if you have any issues.

Thanks,

Erik

Any news on the New version guys.?

It was said above that a new version to support hyphens in domain names would be released middle of September and we haven't heard anything since.

Thanks

Stevie

Hi Stevie,

Unfortunately development of the next release has taken longer than expected. We are currently in the final testing phases and hope to release it in the coming weeks. We will keep you updated with a release date.

Thanks!

Yes, We have tested the copy profile settings on Windows 7 as well. You are correct in the running of sysprep with /oobe /generalize /unattend:(path to unattend.xml with copy profile set to true). It is recommended to make changes that you wish to be part of the default profile in Audit Mode. To do this, install Windows 7 from the Microsoft media, then press Shift + CTRL + F3 at the Windows Welcome screen. Here are the steps to complete the copy profile process.

1. Enter audit mode: You can either start from a fresh Windows 7 install and at the screen where it asks for user information (the OOBE Windows Welcome screen) press Shift + CTRL + F3, alternately if you already have the OS installed run “sysprep /audit /reboot” to enter audit mode.
   
2. Once the machine reboots you should be auto logged into the Administrator account. Make any changes that you would like to become part of the default user profile.
   
3. Once you have completed your changes run the “sysprep /generalize /OOBE /reboot /unattend:[path to the unattend file]” the machine will reboot and you can now create new profiles that will use the same settings you edited while in audit mode.
   
4. To test, it may be a good idea to login to the VM and create a new user profile. Login to the new profile and make sure all settings are as copied as desired.
   
5. The next step would be to capture an image from your VHD. To do this run through the normal steps using Capture Wizard.
   
6. Once you have captured your image create your deployment media using Media Wizard as normal and boot your target machine to the SmartPE environment.
   
7. Deploy Your image as normal. On boot all of your settings should be maintained when creating new users.
   

Below are examples of answer files with copy profile setting. One is for Windows 7 x86 and the second for Windows 7 x64.

Windows 7 x86

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="generalize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <SkipRearm>1</SkipRearm>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="specialize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="catalog:d:/os media/en_windows_7_enterprise_with_sp1_x86_dvd_620186/sources/install_windows 7 enterprise.clg" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

Windows 7 x64

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="generalize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <SkipRearm>1</SkipRearm>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="specialize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="catalog:d:/smartdeploy/tools/install_windows 7 ultimate.clg" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

Hi Wally,

It looks like the Deploy Wizard is having an issue reading the WDS Multicast credentials that are saved in the answer file. We are looking into the issue and will let you know when we have a work around or an update to fix it.

Thanks,

Erik

Hi Wally,

Are you using the latest version of SmartDeploy 1900? You can check this by opening Platform Manager and clicking Help-->About. If you are on a version other than 1900 please update and rebuild your boot media. You will need to add this new boot media to WDS. None of your operating system images will be effected, nor will licensing as an update will install over the top of old versions. If this doesn't solve your problem please let me know and we can dive deeper.

Thanks,

Erik

Hi Wally,

Glad to hear that you like the product and it is working out for you so far.

It sounds like you have already implemented a lot of the time saving measures. At this point the area where you could realize the biggest time savings is network performance. The deployment time would be much faster if you had a gigabit connection back to the WDS server.

The other steps that you mention are per-design. Sysprep is run at deployment time, this is something that is rather unique to SmartDeploy. We do this for a number of reasons. It will allow you to keep your virtual reference machine in a usable state (sysprep can only be run three times on a machine with the default licensing reset option before sysprep will no longer work, and 9 times without the option.) Once you reach this limit you will need to rebuild your reference machine from scratch if you plan to update and recapture the image. We also use sysprep at deployment time to inject the drivers, add all options that were specified in the Deploy Wizard, and make each deployed machine unique. The time that it takes to complete the entire sysprep process, steps 3 - 7 that you have listed, is going to very based on each machine.

Changing the SID is not our main goal in running sysprep, and it's actually a common misconception that duplicate SID's on the network will cause problems, check out this post by Mark Russinovich for further details. It is obviously still recommended to run sysprep on all deployments as it does much more than update the SID. That being said using a utility to change the SID would not meet the goals that we have set in place for running sysprep at deployment time.

I also noticed that you said you are running sysprep before capturing you image. This is something that is not support and I would suggest not worrying about running sysprep at all as we will take care of that piece.

If there is anything else we can help you with please don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks,

Erik

Hi Wally,

Could you try switching the M in mode to lowercase. Would read mode="Unattended".

Thanks,

Erik

Hi Wally,

Sorry about that, I must have missed the attachments . Here is a sample of what an unattended answer file would look like. Note that the only change from the originally exported answer file is in the third line. It went from being <deploy_wizard> to <deploy_wizard mode="Unattended">. Hope this helps.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<smartdeploy version="1.1" version_debug="1.1.1900">
	<deploy_wizard mode="Unattended">
		<welcome>
			<hide_options_button>false</hide_options_button>
		</welcome>
		<select_image>
			<image_file>E:\z\Windows7FreshInstall.wim</image_file>
			<image_name>Windows 7</image_name>
		</select_image>
		<disk_options>
			<!-- 0 = Recreate drives, 1 = Wipe & load drives, 2 = SmartMigrate -->
			<disk_option>0</disk_option>
		</disk_options>
		<product_key>
			<product_key/>
		</product_key>
		<end_user_license_agreement>
			<accept_eula>false</accept_eula>
		</end_user_license_agreement>
		<user_information>
			<full_name>Test</full_name>
			<organization_name>SmartDeploy</organization_name>
		</user_information>
		<regional_settings>
			<time_zone>(GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US and Canada)</time_zone>
			<input_locale>English (United States)</input_locale>
		</regional_settings>
		<display_settings>
			<resolution>Auto Detect</resolution>
			<color_depth>Auto Detect</color_depth>
			<refresh_rate>Auto Detect</refresh_rate>
		</display_settings>
		<network_tcpip_settings>
			<ipv4>
				<!-- 0 = Obtain an IP address automatically, 1 = Use the following IP address -->
				<static>0</static>
				<ip_address/>
				<subnet_mask/>
				<default_gateway/>
				<preferred_dns_server/>
				<alternate_dns_server/>
				<preferred_wins_server/>
				<alternate_wins_server/>
			</ipv4>
		</network_tcpip_settings>
		<network_identification>
			<computer_name/>
			<!-- 0 = Domain, 1 = Workgroup -->
			<membership>1</membership>
			<domain/>
			<organizational_unit/>
			<workgroup>WORKGROUP</workgroup>
		</network_identification>
		<join_domain_credentials>
			<username/>
			<domain/>
			<password/>
		</join_domain_credentials>
		<wds_credentials>
			<server/>
			<username/>
			<domain/>
			<password/>
		</wds_credentials>
		<summary>
			<hide_export_button>false</hide_export_button>
		</summary>
		<completion/>
		<advanced_options>
			<general>
				<platform_pack>[ImageFolder]\Default.ppk</platform_pack>
				<system_properties/>
			</general>
			<identification>
				<!-- 0 = Assign a new computer name automatically, 1 = Use the following naming method -->
				<naming_mode>0</naming_mode>
				<naming_methods/>
				<custom_naming_scheme/>
				<prefix/>
				<wmi_query/>
			</identification>
			<migration>
				<protected_folder>Backup</protected_folder>
				<virtualization_platform>Microsoft Virtual PC 2007</virtualization_platform>
				<create_desktop_shortcut>true</create_desktop_shortcut>
				<files_to_exclude><exclude>[SystemRoot]\CSC</exclude><exclude>[SystemRoot]\Temp\*</exclude><exclude>RECYCLER</exclude><exclude>$Recycle.Bin\*</exclude><exclude>System Volume Information</exclude><exclude>pagefile.sys</exclude><exclude>hiberfil.sys</exclude><exclude>$ntfs.log</exclude></files_to_exclude>
			</migration>
			<tasks/>
		</advanced_options>
		<settings>
			<active_directory/>
			<network_shares></network_shares>
			<proxy_server>
				<proxy_server_url/>
				<username/>
				<password/>
			</proxy_server>
			<session_id/>
			<unattend_delay/>
		</settings>
	</deploy_wizard>
</smartdeploy>

Thanks,

Erik

Hello Stevie,

Deploy Wizard creates a log in X:\Windows\Temp, could you run through the deployment again, when you get the error copy the deploy.log and post it, or send it to us at support@smartdeploy.com. To copy the log you will need to press Shift + F10 to open a command prompt. From there you can map a network drive and copy the deploy.log. If you need help with this process please let me know.

Could we also get some additional information about your setup.

• What are the computer specs.?
  
• What OS are you trying to deploy?
  
• What virtualization product did you use to create your reference VM?
  
• Are you specifying a Platform Pack on deploy?
  

Thanks,

Erik

Hello Stevie,

Unfortunately it looks like the hyphen is hard coded into the component as an invalid character. I have sent the issue over to our Dev team who will make the change to allow the hyphen, as it is a valid DNS character. This update will be added to the next release of SmartDeploy. We will be sure to let you know when it is available!

Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience,

Erik

Hello Stevie,

Glad to hear you are enjoying your product trial. If there is anything we can do to help please let us know!

It is possible to automate as much of the deployment process as you would like. We use unattended answer files that can be exported from the Deploy Wizard. With the answer files you can do everything from map a network share to zero touch deployment.

On the very last pane of the Deploy Wizard, there is an option to export an answer file. This will save an xml answer file based on all the selections you made in the Deploy Wizard. You can then use the Media Wizard to incorporate this answer file into your boot or offline media. Using an answer file in this way will pre-populate the Deploy Wizard, if you wish to fully automate the deployment you must take a few additional steps with your answer file.

Once you have thoroughly tested an answer file in attended mode, the following steps are required to enable full unattended mode:

1. Add mode=”Unattended” attribute to the <deploy_wizard> node.
   
   • i.e. <deploy_wizard mode=”Unattended”>
     

[*]Optional – Adjust the <unattend_delay> node to number of seconds to show warning message.

• i.e. <unattend_delay>120</unattend_delay>
  
• The default is 60 seconds if no value is present.
  

[*]Run the Media Wizard and include the updated answer file on boot or deployment media.

Note: The unattend delay serves two purposes; it provides a delay in order for the user to have the opportunity to cancel a deployment, and it provides a delay for required resources to become available such as networking. Setting the delay to only a few seconds is not recommended because it may cause inconsistent deployment behavior.

Again thanks for your interest in the product and if you need any additional support or information please feel free to contact us.

Thanks,

Erik