Wednesday, November 5, 2014

How to fix UEFI PXE boot Error

as shown in the screenshot below

0xc0000359.png
 Solution
There are a few solutions to this problem, but basically all involve the same thing, make sure that the task sequence that ‘answers’ your UEFI hardware, contains a 64 bit boot image as shown below

64-bit-boot-wim.png


In general, the task sequence that answers is the last task sequence deployed to the collection that your computer you are booting is a member of.

You can either add the computer in question (computer+mac address) to a collection that has a task sequence deployed to it with a 64bit boot image or re-deploy a task sequence with a 64 bit boot image to the collection that this computer is a member of, or change the current task sequence to use a 64 bit boot wim instead of a x86 bit boot wim.

TiP: If you cannot make a change to any of the UEFI Network deployments then another idea is to use usb or ISO based Standalone or boot media containing the 64bit boot image.

Be aware that changing the architecture of your boot wim may cause some executables to fail to run in Windows PE  as the ‘subsystem’ in WinPE will have changed architecture from 32bit to 64bit.  This also means that you can only install a 64 bit operating system using this boot image.

“To install Windows to an EFI-based computer, you must enable EFI mode in the computer’s firmware and boot with 64-bit pre-installation media. ” – source, Technet.

Once you’ve made the changes above, UEFI network boot a client computer again, and you should see it’s using the boot.wim file (package ID) that you attached to the task sequence, in this case it’s using a 64bit boot wim (P0100002.wim)

UEFI-network-boot.png

as you can see here…

P0100002.png

The end result, is a working UEFI network boot !

UEFI-network-boot-working.png

Monday, November 3, 2014

Create a "Build and Capture" Task Sequence for Windows 8.1

Extract ISO
Download and extract MS provided Windows 8.1 Professional ISO to a network share
P4-2

Add and distribute Install.wim
The only file that we really need from the extracted source above is Install.wim under Sources folder. We will need to add that wim file to ConfigMgr Operating System Images
In the Configuration Manager console, click Software Library. In the Software Library workspace, expand Operating Systems, and then expand Operating System Images . For my convenience, I have created a folder structure as below and you can define your own. After selecting your target folder, click Add Operating System Image on the ribbon.
P4-3
Specify the network UNC path to the extracted install.wim file and click Next.
P4-4
On the General page, add optional version and/or comments and click next
P4-5
On the Summary page, click Next
P4-6
Make sure there is no error on the Completion Page and click Close.
Now distribute this OS image to the DP associated with your target VM. You do not need to distribute it to all your DPs.
With the image selected, click on Distribute content on the ribbon
P4-7
On the General page, click Next
P4-8

On the Content Destination page, click Add and then click Distribution Point. Check the target DP and click OK. Then click Next
P4-9
On the Summary page, click Next and then click Close on the Completion page.

Step 3: Create & Deploy Build and Capture Task Sequence
In the Configuration Manager console, click Software Library. In the Software Libraryworkspace, expand Task Sequence. For my convenience, I have created a folder structure as below and you can define your own. After selecting your target folder, click Create Task Sequence on the ribbon.
P4-10
On the Create New Task Sequence page, select Build and capture a reference operating system image and click next
P4-11
On the Task Sequence information page, specify a Task sequence name and select a boot image.
P4-12
On the Install Windows page, click browse and select the Microsoft provided image that we imported and distributed in the previous step. There is only one image to choose. I have specified KMS key as my product key. You can look at KMS client setup keys at:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj612867.aspx
P4-13
On the Configure Network page, we will choose to add this machine to a workgroup (remember this is just a capture TS and not the one that will go on all our user machines). Click Next
P4-14
On the Install Configuration Manager Client page, click Next
P4-15
On the Include Updates page, we will stick with the default option to not install any.
P4-16
On the Install Applications page, add your Tier 0 apps and click Next. If you added your applications as packages you will have to add them to the task sequence later
P4-17

On the System Preparation page click next.
On the Image Properties page add optional image properties
P4-18
On the Capture Image page, specify the network UNC path of the file where the capture image will be saved. Click Set to specify a domain account which has access to write to that share. Click next.
P4-19
On the Summary page click next and then close the completion page.
Task sequences are deployed to collections, I have created a collection to target this TS with an Include Collections membership rule.
P4-20
Our new VM will not be in CM database and hence will see the TS advertised. To deploy the TS, select the TS and click Deploy on the ribbon.
P4-21
On the General page browse and select your target collection and click Next
P4-22
On the Deployment Settings page, select Available as the purpose and we will make this TS available to Only media and PXE. Click Next
P4-23
On the Scheduling page, select the deployment availability time appropriately. Deployment expiration is optional. Click Next
P4-24
On the User Experience ,Alerts  Distribution Points and Summary pages click next.
When you see the completion page, make sure there are no errors and click Close.
This will create a basic build of Windows 8.1 and will capture it with your settings, You can edit the task and add programs or updates