Scenario: In our enviornment we resuse hostnames even when a user gets a new PC. We have come up with a process that will allow us to do a lot of automation for replacement devices in which the new PC has a name that is only temporary so that we can utilize Computer Assocation. What we would like to do though is after the new replacement machine is imaged and the files/folders/settings have been copied over is to set up a task to rename the hostname and add a description to Active Directory. Problem: I already have the scripts and/or HTA's that will allow us to solict user input in order to change the hostname back to the assigned name and for us to be able to put a description into Active Directory. But I am unable to run these as tasks because (from the way I understand it) these tasks for scripts and HTA's are ran under the system account and thus do not show up for interaction for the user. If I try to run them in the PE environment I get the "MINNT-*" name that the PE environment assignts and it will not allow me to change the HostName. Question: My question "Is there anyway to change the hostname with these scripts/HTA?" I know that through OSD I have it setup to pass a variable for the HostName and an HTA I have at the end actually shows the HostName of the PC and not the "MINNT-*" name. Is it possible to use the OSD variable if a machine is already imaged to change the HostName (because that would allow me to run an HTA in a PE enviornment) or can I run these HTA's as Software Distributions programs with another account (because everyone doesnt have access to write to AD) or is there some other way i can do this that will reach the goal? Goal: Have a regular user (regular domain user but they are local Administrators on their machines) change the HostName and add a description to Active Directory. Like I said I already have an HTA that will do both of the goals I just can get it to run in an automated fashion. Comments: It could be that I just have the user go to My Computer Properties and change the hostname or have a directory they can browse to which would have the HTA's where they could run the program but I'm trying my best to get as much automation as possible so that I can have little instructions for any user with a high success rate. Any help that anyone can provide is appreciated.

Use MDT integrated task sequences and start off with a standard client replace task sequence which will run USMT gather your data and store it on the SMP the computer association will be created for you then you a client deployment task seqeunce and install your WIM during the state restore phase the computer association will be found and the data will be restored... Thanks, BrandonBrandon Linton |http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/brandonlinton/default.aspx | MCTS - SCCM, MDT, AD

Hello - In my personal opinion it is not a good idea to reuse the hostnames. The better way is to have new unique hostnames for each new machine (may be, you can include serial number of the machine and that serial number as part of hostname). BTW, what is the advantage of reusing the hostnames from your perspective?Anoop C Nair

Hello - In my personal opinion it is not a good idea to reuse the hostnames. The better way is to have new unique hostnames for each new machine (may be, you can include serial number of the machine and that serial number as part of hostname). BTW, what is the advantage of reusing the hostnames from your perspective?Anoop C Nair

Hello - In my personal opinion it is not a good idea to reuse the hostnames. The better way is to have new unique hostnames for each new machine (may be, you can include serial number of the machine and that serial number as part of hostname). BTW, what is the advantage of reusing the hostnames from your perspective? Anoop C Nair It would be a lot easier if we could use unique names however in our enviornment we have emulators that assocatie with virtual ports based on hostname so to change a hostname requires a lot more work than just reusing a hostname. So the reason we do it is for simplicty as a whole rather than just for desktop deployment.

Use MDT integrated task sequences and start off with a standard client replace task sequence which will run USMT gather your data and store it on the SMP the computer association will be created for you then you a client deployment task seqeunce and install your WIM during the state restore phase the computer association will be found and the data will be restored... Thanks, Brandon Brandon Linton |http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/brandonlinton/default.aspx | MCTS - SCCM, MDT, AD We attempted to use the MDT with SCCM/OSD but it seemed that it was lacking some things. I have never used the MDT before but from what I seen after the implementation I didnt see where we could gain ground because we had already customized a lot of OSD to meet our needs. It appeared that a lot more work needed to go into configuring SCCM/OSD with MDT in which case at the moment I do not have but I will admit I need to get more familiar with MDT in SCCM/OSD to see how it can be useful.

I'm actually just going to close this post becuase it seems we have found a way just the other day to do this and meet our needs. But please feel free to post any other alternative that may be open and to those who posted something thanks for the input especially with the MDT perspective because after we get finished with this time-sensative project I will be looking into utilizing MDT with OSD. Resolution: What we ended up doing is creating a Computer Assocation with the source being the original hostname and the destination using some fake name. We captured the data using USMT off of the old machine and then had SCCM/OSD unjoin it from the domain along with a script that deleted the account in Active Directory. We then deployed the new OS to the new machine and used the origanl hostname that the old machine had even though we named it something different in the Computer Assocation. At the end of the deployment we restored the user profiles using USMT and SCCM realized that the name was different and made the change itself to the correct name withing the Computer Assocation (I'm guessing the MAC address plays a huge role in all this). The downside of this is that now we have two clients with the same name but with our maintenance rules for clean-up we are expecting the old client record for the old machine to drop off. At the very worst we will have to manually delete the old record. So if anybody has any better ideas like Brandon or An00p please feel free to still post so that we can test them out later. Thanks!