i have created my pre-staged media and wish to have the vendor duplicate the contents of the hdd i give onto our new machines. i have used the following guide to actually prepare a reference machine by applying the pre-staged wim file and applying the other settings:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/system_center_configuration_manager_operating_system_deployment_support_blog/archive/2014/04/02/how-to-apply-task-sequence-prestaged-media-on-multi-partitioned-disks-for-bios-or-uefi-pcs-in-system-center-configuration-manager.aspx

when i start up the reference machine to test it out all seems fine until i enter the password of the pre-staged media. after this sccm simply says there is no task sequence to run. now usuallt this comes up if your machine is not in a collection with an associated task sequence deployed to it. do i have to deploy the task sequence (that i selected when i created the pre-staged media) to a specific collection before the wizard will continue? after all i selected enable unknown computer support?

Well the way pre-staged work is that the first part  that apply the WIM does require any SCCM infrastructure. When you boot up the machine the second time it will look for the MP to see if the computer as any task sequence deploy to it. So from that point you need to have a task sequence deploy to the unknown computer.

Prestaged media contains the boot image used to start the destination computer and the operating system image that is applied to the destination computer. The task sequence that deploys the operating system is not included in the media. Prestaged media is applied to the hard drive of a new computer before the computer is sent to the end user. When the computer starts for the first time after the prestaged media has been applied, the computer starts Windows PE and connects to a management point to locate the task sequence that completes the operating system deployment process.

The info here:https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8e86f738-8248-4908-b169-2de884babf0d?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396#BKMK_PlanBootableMedia

i understand that concept, but what i fail to understand is where the task sequence is used that i selected when i created the pre-staged media? in my case this task sequence contains all the steps to deploy the os and not just all the steps post applying the wim image. what i'm trying to say is that if i deploy this task sequence to my deployment collection containing the test system i will inadvertently reapply the wim again from the network, since this is just a normal mdt integrated task sequence, which does not assume that the wim has already been applied. is my thinking correct here?

if it is, what should a typical task sequence look like that takes into consideration that your wim file has already been applied? from what i can see i have all the steps except knowing how to continue the deployment once the new machine arrives on site.

The task sequence that you specify during the wizard is only to simplify adding the content to the media. The Prestaged media is not tied to this task sequence.

In order to complete the remainder of the deployment process you need to advertise your normal deployment TS to the client just make sure you have a rule in place for the format section something like _SMSTSMediaType not equals "OEMMedia" so that way will not format.

For the OS part it will only doe the configuration part and no reapply the wim

ok that make sense, but other than the "Format" section what condition do i put in the "install" section under "apply operating system"? i would need it to skip this section aswell. should i just use the same task sequence variable?

Nothing else to change since 2007 sp2/r3 the The Apply OS Image step so that when a system is booted with pre-staged media it will just configure the pre-staged OS image. and from that part it will continue the TS the normal way like it`s set up.

ok let me try that. i also quickly looked at the "format and partition disk 6.1" (under format section) which is usually executed on these machines and it already contains three conditions. One of them is to:

_SMSTSMediaType not equals "OEMMedia"

so there is actually no need to change anything on these default mdt integrated task sequences. well at least from what i can see. let me test though.

Yes by default they have those but i was not sure you where using the default one or if you made your`s up.

But this computer should be unknown to SCCM normaly unless the computer is already imported (but in real life situation they will be unknown) so you might need to deploy the TS to the unknown computer.

for interest sake, if i import all the new machines' MAC addresses (i usually get a spreadsheet) could i untick the box "enable unknown computer support" ?

Yes you could import all the computer give them name and place them in the proper collection that you have your deployment set to.

Yes. 

last question: can i deploy multiple task sequences to my deployment collection? reason for this is simply so that i can select a specific task sequence based on the department that staff member is a member of. for example, one TS will add the machine to the domain and put the computer account in the sales OU whilst another TS will add the computer account to the HR OU. i know i could pre-create collections, but then i would also have to pre-allocate machines. this way either the user or a tech will be able to select the correct TS when the pre-staged machine starts for the first time.

Yes you can deploy many task sequence to the same collection.

Just make sure you gave them CLEAR name so people know what to pick.

• Marked as answer by Karl van der Schyff 18 hours 31 minutes ago

will do. thanks for the help.

last question: can i deploy multiple task sequences to my deployment collection? reason for this is simply so that i can select a specific task sequence based on the department that staff member is a member of. for example, one TS will add the machine to the domain and put the computer account in the sales OU whilst another TS will add the computer account to the HR OU. i know i could pre-create collections, but then i would also have to pre-allocate machines. this way either the user or a tech will be able to select the correct TS when the pre-staged machine starts for the first time.

If you want to have that kind of flexibility, you might want to consider integrating MDT with SCCM and creating a user driven installation (UDI) task sequence. In a UDI TS, you can use a wizard in which the user or technician can select all kinds of features, like language packs, applications, domain joining options etc. This way, you could have one single task sequence, and select the options during the TS.

• Edited by Tom_Floor 17 hours 59 minutes ago