PXE - Apply Image Downloading - Slow
Hello Everyone, I am trying to determine whether or not my start to finish process is accurate in it's total time. I have captured an image using the SCCM Capture Disk for a Windows 7 Ent machine w/ Office 2010 installed w/ all system drivers. The total size of the image is about 14GB. The PXE boot/imaging process takes about 57 minutes total. Now, it seems to me that this is way to long, however, I don't know what implications Office 2010 have on this image. Network is GB. Link to switch/server/client set to GB. One client is booting and imaging at a time. Fresh server build with total of 8 clients migrated over from old site, so traffic is minimal going to WDS/SCCM server. I notice that the Apply Image phase takes the longest and goes in two passes. One for the OSPART and OSBOOT. Now it seems to me like it is downloading the WIM file twice for each instance. If thats the case, then 28GB of downloading is a serious problem. Anyone have any thoughts in how I might speed the process up? Is the image just to large at 14GB? Windows 2008 Server R2 x64. SCCM with SP2 and R2 Installed. Regards, D
June 7th, 2010 11:07pm

14GB is pretty big for an image file. Why are you including all drivers in the image instead of dynamically injecting them using an Auto Apply Drivers or Apply Driver Package task? Also, what are your two partitions for? You should definitely separate them into two WIMs to prevent the double download that you are seeing.Jason | http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jsandys | http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/jsandys/default.aspx | Twitter @JasonSandys
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June 8th, 2010 12:43am

Hi Jason, 14GB is actually 12GB after looking at the file again. Essentially I built the base machine from an unused desktop. OS, Productivity Software, and Drivers. Ran the SCCM CD to capture the system to a WIM file. I figured by adding the drivers within the image itself, I could avoid having to create additional task sequences and driver packages back on SCCM. The partitions include the 100MB System Reserved (BitLocker and Boot Information) and the other being the OS/Data partition. Maybe the a rephrase is in order. The task sequence includes the "Apply Data Image 1" and "Apply Operating System". I am wondering if I can eliminate the DATA task without impacting the end result (Working OS and Applications). I don't suppose you know what is included in DATA sequence? From what I can tell, it simply houses the 1-1 part of the WIM file, which is the BOOT partition, which I read, is not required unless the need for BitLocker. I am going to disable the task to see what impact it has on the final boot, I know that it will cut down on downloading the WIM file again. Duplicated my task sequence (that way I don't overwrite my master). Deleted the BOOTPART during the Diskpart process. Set other partition task to Boot as Primary. Disabled the "Apply Data Image 1". I will let you know the results once it completes. Regards, D.
June 8th, 2010 2:12am

Quick update, Doing what I outlined above produced positive results with the final image. 57 minutes to 35 minutes. I wonder why it repulls the whole image down for the 1-1 part and the 2-2 part. One would think it that it could look at the WIM file that was first downloaded as it contains the data that the task needs. Anyway, I am going to see if I can condense the image. In comparison to a different program, Macrium Reflect (Full Version), the MR Image is 6 GB vs SCCM 12GB WIM file. The Macrium file type is different and captures differently in that it is not a sysprepped image, but a clone of the hard drive. I read that the WIM file sccm creates is of the highest compression available, so I am not sure that I can compress any more so. I guess I will need to look at the applications installed to see if it is quicker to have them install as tasks rather then being in the image. Regards. WK.
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June 8th, 2010 3:30am

Thanks for the update :) Having exactly the same issue. WTH, MS? Why not check if the WIM will be used again in a few seconds? No, let's pull the 2.5 GB image twice...Regards, Leonid
May 2nd, 2011 7:21pm

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