Jeff Harris

It indicates that the console has not heard from the client for a number of heartbeat intervals. You can still create deployment jobs for these clients, but it will remain in the "scheduled" state until the client checks back in. 

Sometimes cloud-connected clients can incorrectly appear faded, which we're looking into addressing in the next major release. 

Yes, you'd have your image built on the VL media, and the 1 VL key. As long as your image matches the SKU that your OEM license is for, you don't need to re-purchase a license for that machine and it counts as a valid license. Your the vendor for your volume license should be able to square this all up for you. 

Technically, Microsoft does require you to be using an image created with VL media, with a VL key to deploy Windows. We don't enforce this, as we simply pass the key that you specify (or no key) to Windows. Many customers rely on the OEM/sigital license with success, and others find that is doesn't work, depending on the installation media used. This particular issue seems to be more common looking at past couple of months. 

Did you create your Windows installation ISO using this tool?: Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com)

We have a KB article that explains reimaging rights in better detail here: What SmartDeploy Users Should Know About Microsoft Reimaging Rights : Support Center

That is strange, and not a common issue. If you deploy again and see it happen, we'd be interested to see the C:\Windows\SysWOW64\SmartDeploy\ClientService.Console.log file if you could email that into support. 

Following a deployment, the SmartDeploy service should be disabled. This service is used to do a few functions post deployment only, and should disable itself. The SmartDeploy Enterprise Client is a separate service that should be set to Automatic (Delayed) - but will only be there if the client installation was enabled in the Answer File. 

I've never seen any instances where one affected the other, but if you contact support we can take a look at your image for you and investigate.

This is probably a limitation of the method of installation, being silent command-line as system. 

Since it's installing in a pack, it's doing so as System and may not create shortcuts. Are you able to find the exe in the program files dir?

When you create your SDClientSetup.msi package, make sure that you're using the non-FQDN hostname of your console host, and not an IP, or otherwise any other externally resolvable name/IP. The client needs to fail to reach your console host on the network, so that it switches to connect to our cloud broker service.

Cloud clients should appear in the console 10 minutes after starting, however sometimes there can be delays upwards of about 25 minutes. Sometimes restarting the console host can force a 'nudge' of the agent that monitors your cloud clients table and get it to refresh faster. 

If you're still having trouble, reach out to support@ and we can look up your account and see what's happening. 

When you choose 'Platform Pack Request' on our form, instructions will appear for you to download a VBS script from us. This will gather the hardware information we need, saved as wmi.txt in the same folder that the script is run from. 

We typically do not build Platform Packs for new models as they release, unless it happens to be a model/device that we use in house. We rely on customers to request new Platform Packs, and providing us with WMI information. 

If you need a Platform Pack for the 440 G8 to be created, please submit a Platform Pack request on our support portal: Submit a ticket : Support Center (smartdeploy.com)  

We officially state 5-10 business days from receiving the request before a pack is created, however depending on the current queue, it is much faster than that.  

Copying form the other thread, you will want to get Win 10 v2004 installation media and install to a new virtual machine, add your software as needed and capture a new VM. Updating Reference Virtual Machines to new major Windows 10 versions often leads to problems in deployment, and/or performance afterwards. 

You will want to get Win 10 v2004 installation media and install to a new virtual machine, add your software as needed and capture a new VM. Updating Reference Virtual Machines to new major Windows 10 versions often leads to problems in deployment, and/or performance afterwards. 

If it's doing it after you log back in, I would guess that there were multiple deployments send to your clients. Each time you click through the steps to deploy an image or application, it creates a message for the client to do so. You can have multiple deploy messages queued and the client will continue to process them one after the other if there. 

You can email support@smartdeploy.com and we can confirm if this is what's happening.  

It will fit, being automatically split by SmartDeploy unless you have an individual file in your image that's over 4GB.

If you're using NTFS booted media, SmartDeploy is going to boot into Legacy BIOS mode and configure the image as such, even if the system is actually set to UEFI Mode. This would explain why the deployment completes, restarts, and then can't find the disk to boot. 

You should be using the SmartDeploy Console to create your boot media in FAT32 mode, and deploy to your system set to UEFI, with Secure Boot enabled. The Media Wizard will split your image for you. 

If you're still having issues then you'll need to submit a support request. 

This isn't supported in SmartDeploy. Creating a virtual machine and using that for your image is going to give you a much "cleaner" hardware-independent image.

Here's a link for an Application Pack that I made for another customer to install the Dell Command Update util. Reported back and said it works, so hopefully it does the trick for you as well!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zXTNqB3DcYIMsKAxfLRmcmt64Qj52ka7/view?usp=sharing

1 hour ago, Ian Zavardino said:

Hey All,

 

We've had similar issues and this is what we found.  So lets you have a Golden Image with V1903.  And you update it to V2004.  It will not join the domain.  From what I've learned is that you cannot do a Feature update to your Golden Image.   Essentially Every time there is a Feature update to Windows. You'll have to re-create your Golden Image.  This is what I've been told by Smart Deploy. 

Correct; there is a specific bug in Windows/Sysprep following an in-place upgrade to v2004. You always want to create a new VM, installing the new version of Windows you want to deploy from ISO. 

The name is generated/specified during the deployment phase, before the restart occurs. It is set into the Answer File for Windows Sysprep that is created by the Deploy Wizard. 

Unfortunately, that is a current limitation of SmartDeploy; that you must be logged into the console host with local administrator rights, and only one instance of the console can be open at at a time. 

This is feedback that we've received from numerous customers, and it is on our roadmap. It does likely mean a substantial re-write of SmartDeploy, which I believe is underway. I don't have a timeline or expected ETA for this to share unfortunately. 

You can install VMware Tools to work on the VM, but you do want to uninstall them before you capture. The problem is that sometimes VMware tools leaves things behind, and the Capture Wizard thinks they're still installed. I can put the RegKeys that we check for at the bottom of this post, but my recommendation would be to just leave them off, and RDP into your VM and perform your configurations that way. 

RegKeys;

Any common applications that will be going on the devices to deploy to would be worth installing on your Reference VM. You'll have fewer potential points of failure, and you'll reduce the deployment time. 

It's always been my recommendation to customize the Start Menu and Task bar layout, and leave those other apps hidden down in the app drawer rather than try to actually remove them. They're only going to be seen if someone scrolls down through the app drawer, which most people wont be doing. 

We have an article and video that explains how that's done, and it's far easier than trying to remove them and not break Windows sysprep.

https://support.smartdeploy.com/support/solutions/articles/48000967003-customize-the-start-menu-and-taskbar

Clients that check in with your console should receive a message to update themselves automatically if the console was updated. This process can break if the clients are connecting via VPN, or there is a problem uninstalling the current one. 

I'd first give one client a test by uninstalling/installing manually to see if there's any issues. Then on the next client, restart the client service, check the application log in Event Viewer for errors, and wait about 5-10 minutes to see if it updates itself. 

Following that, you'll want to reach out to Support to we can take a more in-depth look at what the client is doing. 

It is purposefully not set to be automatic, as we want to avoid any unintentional overwriting of files. I can share your post with our feedback team for evaluation.