Hey Everbody, im dealing with following issue: The Computerobjects are created manually and filled up with some machine variables. For instance: InputLocale, SystemLocale, OSVersion. When i boot up the machine with PXE the variables are read from the database and are available from the task sequence. Some steps (e.g Apply Operating System) have conditions (32 or 64) to evaluate if a variable is set to a specific value. During PXE this is no problem, everything is working fine. When i use the prestage media, the evaluation of those steps are all false. Is it possible that because during the boot process the computer does not connect the configmgr database and so doesnt get any variables that are stored there? Any information about that process is appreciated! best regards daniel

If there is no connection, how would it pick up anything?? Prestage is only PE and OS, so the TS is still needs to run from SCCM.. This means you can set/retrieve all the variables you need from the TS you run. At what point do you retrieve the variables from DB, running PXE? Here is some info you might find helpfull Michael Petersen | My blogs: blog.coretech.dk/author/mip/ and SCUG.dk/ | Twitter: @OSDeploy | Linkedin: Michael Petersen

Hey Micheal, but there is indeed a connection because the client has to pick up his advertisement from the MP. My question is, is it by design that machine variables and collection variables are not gathered during a task sequence that uses prestage media

The TS should pick up variables.. you can run this script to check that http://blogs.technet.com/b/deploymentguys/archive/2008/08/29/outputting-all-the-configuration-manager-task-sequence-variables.aspxMichael Petersen | My blogs: blog.coretech.dk/author/mip/ and SCUG.dk/ | Twitter: @OSDeploy | Linkedin: Michael Petersen

Update: I can confirm that in this environment the above mentioned behaviour is verified. Compare the two logfile screenshots: With the prestage media: With the PXE: Can someone confirm or deny this in his / her environment? Maybe a MVP or MSFT can enlighten me on this. cheers, Daniel

Hi Daniel, We use collection/machine variables extensively with our task sequence and can confirm that they work with prestaged media. It works in exactly the same way as it does for PXE or boot media deployments. Not quite sure why it doesn't work in your environment though... can you provide some more info on how your collections/TS adverts are defined. Is it possible you have unknown computer support enabled and the TS advertised to the unknown computers collection? Bit of a long shot but I am just wondering how the pre-staged clients could be picking up the advertisement but not the variables... Mark.

Hi Mark, unknown computer support is disabled at all. Advertisemt is adverted to a regular collection without any rules / variables on it. Siteserver is ConfigMgr R3 SP2. Some regular hotfixes installed, nothing fancy. I was wondering about the same thing. Why the client picks up the advertisment but not the variables? Sounds good that it works in your environment. Now its just the question why not in mine :( cheers, Daniel

Hi Daniel, From what you have said am I correct in that you only assign variables to the machine object and not the collection? If so can you just try and assign a variable to the collection and see if it picks that up? I don't see why it would make any difference but we primarly use collection variables in our envrionment and machine variables are only used in exceptions. In fact I cannot be completely sure I have tested machine variables with pre-staged media. If you could test a collection variable and check that it still fails then it least we are comparing the same process. Mark.

Hi Mark, i've tested it. Suprise, Suprise the Collection Variable is retrieved. The Machine Variable is still not retrieved. I dont believe this is working as designed. Someone from MSFT has some information about the "Retrieving machine variable policy" entry?

Hi Daniel, Wow... I have to be honest, I wasn't expecting that. If you have a support agreement with MS then I would raise a support case with them. It does appear to be a bug. I will test this out in my own environment and see. Just out of interest is there a reason why you are using machine variables? If you are deploying a consistent configuration to multiple machines then it is easier to define them once against the collection. We only use machine variables as an exception when we want to apply a specific setting to one system and don't want to have to create a specific collection for the deployment. Mark.

Hi Mark, same here, didnt expect that collection variables are retrieved. We are using machine variables because we use some kind of an admin tool for sccm. the technicians can add new computers with predefined settings and those settings are stored as machine variables. would be great if you contact MS. If its not possible my customer would try to get a support call. daniel

Hi again, after investigating this behaviour i found out what the problem is. Giving the fact that we use a three tier SCCM hierachy, we used the boot.wim from the central site and distributed it to the child sites. This central boot.wim is used for PXE and Prestage Media. For pxe this works, because the _SMSTSMP variable gets downloaded via variables.dat (at least i think this is what actually gonna happen) and has the value of the local MP that is also the PXE. A total different story happens what this central boot.wim is used for prestage media. The process of setting the _SMSTSMP variable is done while the creation of the Prestage Media. One approach could be to create a Prestage Media for every child primary site. Not that flexible... I will do some further testings with the pre hook and the TSEnv2.exe. With a nice script that asks the user for the _SMSTSMP BEFORE the policy download happens i would be very happy. As soon as i get some feedback, i'll let you know! cheers, Daniel

Hi Daniel, Yes this is true... all task sequence media in ConfigMgr 2007 is only site wide. It is the same for task sequence boot media and prestaged media. There is no issue using a boot image from the central site (we do the same) but all task sequence media must be created separately in each child primary, this is the only supported scenario. It is addressed in ConfigMgr 2012, task sequence media is hierarchy wide :-). Mark.

Hi Daniel, Yes this is true... all task sequence media in ConfigMgr 2007 is only site wide. It is the same for task sequence boot media and prestaged media. There is no issue using a boot image from the central site (we do the same) but all task sequence media must be created separately in each child primary, this is the only supported scenario. It is addressed in ConfigMgr 2012, task sequence media is hierarchy wide :-). Mark.

Hi Mark, i've successfully tested a solution where a script updates the _SMSTSMP Variable based on a user input during the pre hook execution via TS2ENV.exe. This works perfectly. Only one central Prestage Media Image is needed at all. http://myitforum.com/myitforumwp/2011/11/09/sccm-prestaged-media-and-dell-cfi-in-a-multi-site-environment/ cheers, Daniel

Yes I have heard of people using that tool before for other purposes. The only downside is that it is completely unsupported by Microsoft, it just depends on whether you are concerned about that or not! Mark.