_________________SCRIPT BEGINS_________________

‘on error resume next

strComputer = “.”
Set oSMSClient = CreateObject (“Microsoft.SMS.Client”)
Set WSHShell = CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”)

‘Check the site code of SMS 2003 client
If Err.Number 0 Then
‘wscript.echo “Could not create SMS Client Object – quitting”
wscript.quit
End If
mySiteCode= oSMSClient.GetAssignedSite
‘wscript.echo “Assigned Site Code is : ” & mySiteCode
‘Set oSMSClient=Nothing

‘Determine if the site code for SMS 2003 client is ABC, DEF or XYZ

If mySiteCode=”ABC” Then
SCCMcmd = “”"C:\Program Files\IT\SccmClientSP2ICP1\ccmsetup.exe”"” & ” /noservice SMSSITECODE=ABC SMSSLP=sccm.hega.com FSP=sccm.hega.com SMSCACHESIZE=5000 CCMENABLELOGGING=TRUE CCMLOGLEVEL=0 CCMLOGMAXHISTORY=5″
Set SCCMin = WSHShell.Exec(SCCMcmd)
Else
If mySiteCode=”DEF” Then
SCCMcmd = “”"C:\Program Files\IT\SccmClientSP2ICP1\ccmsetup.exe”"” & ” /noservice SMSSITECODE=DEF SMSSLP=sccm.hega.com FSP=sccm.hega.com SMSCACHESIZE=5000 CCMENABLELOGGING=TRUE CCMLOGLEVEL=0 CCMLOGMAXHISTORY=5″
Set SCCMin = WSHShell.Exec(SCCMcmd)
Else
If mySiteCode=”XYZ” Then
SCCMcmd = “”"C:\Program Files\IT\SccmClientSP2ICP1\ccmsetup.exe”"” & ” /noservice SMSSITECODE=XYZ SMSSLP=sccm.hega.com FSP=sccm.hega.com SMSCACHESIZE=5000 CCMENABLELOGGING=TRUE CCMLOGLEVEL=0 CCMLOGMAXHISTORY=5″
Set SCCMin = WSHShell.Exec(SCCMcmd)
End If
End If
End If
_________________SCRIPT ENDS_________________

Note – Change the site codes to the ones in your environment, add “if” statements for more than three site codes, change the path of the sccm client installation files and other command line arguments.

When using MDT 2010 Update 1, a computer is refreshed from Windows XP to Windows 7 by running the LiteTouch.vbs. This script does some tasks and reboots the computer to Windows PE. The Windows PE used by the Litetouch method does not support the “VMware Accelerated AMD PCNet Adapter” network card. Windows PE stops with an error that it cannot connect to the deployment share.

On checking the bdd.log in C:\Minint\SMSOSD\OSDlogs, it clearly infered the network adapter was not found and drivers couldn’t be loaded. To read the log, hit F8 in Windows PE to get a command prompt window, go to minint\smsosd\osdlogs and type bdd.log to open the log file in notepad. I checked if an IP address was assigned using the ipconfig in command prompt, no IP was assigned.

Workaround

Remove the default network card in the virtual machine. Add a new network card whose adapter type is E1000, it shows up as “Intel(R) PRO 100/1000 MT Network Connection” in device manager. The Windows PE used by the LiteTouch.vbs script supports this card and the refresh will proceed smoothly. The driver for E1000 is available at www.intel.com



fix – enable the legacy usb emulation for keyboard in bios.

old setup logic

A wise-script wrapper was used to install Catia/Delmia. The script called the native setup program of catia with some command line parameters. After Catia installation, the script installed Delmia by calling the native setup program pass some command line parameters. After Delmia was installed it installed the service pack for catia/delmia the same way. After service pack installation it installed the latest hotfix. This script took 45-60 minutes to deploy in our environment. During the dicussion, a co-worker informed that only one registry key was needed for Catia/Delmia to work.

new setup logic

After a little research, I decided to install Catia, Delmia, Enovia, the service packs and the hofixes using the native setup. I then created a 7-zip self-extractable of Catia’s installation directory (C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes). The new wise-script called the 7-zip self-extractable and passed some command-line parameters to extract the contents to the C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes. A .reg file was created to create the registry entry in 32-bit Windows. The wise script imported the registry file during the installation.

note – On x64-bit Windows, 64-bit edition of Catia needs to be installed to take advantage of the memory limit. Since wise-script exe is 32-bit, the registry key is re-directed to the Wow6432Node. But when Catia needs to refer the registry, it looks at the regular path and is not re-directed to the Wow6432Node. Example, when a new Catia hotfix is released, the native setup is used to install the hotfix to all machines that have Catia using a wise-script wrapper. The hotfix’s native setup looks for the registry key and will not install if the registry key is not found. Hence, a msi for x64-bit platform was created that put the key in its actual path, in other words, the registry key is not re-directed the Wow6432Node.

The new logic brought down the deployment time by 35-40%, depending on network traffic/speed. There were no failures during deployment when using the new logic. We had a few failures when we used the old logic. The new logic has been used for over three years now for a few upgrades of Catia without any issues.

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install dkms
sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

The second command installs DKMS, which takes care of co-ordinating upgrades of individual applications with upgrades of the linux kernel in future, so they always stay in sync. Reinstall virtual-box (third command) to fix the error this time.

I could ping the machine but could not connect to its registry. Using Computer Management console, connected to the remote machine and started the Remote Registry service (for some reason it was not started). I could connect to the registry of the remote machine now. Below are the steps to enable remote desktop through the registry

Start>Run>Regedit
File>Connect Remote Registry>enter the computer name or ip address
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server
On the right pane, double-click fDenyTSConnections
Change the value to 0, and then click OK

It is NOT necessary to reboot the machine. Check if you can remote desktop successfully. If you cannot, then reboot the machine and try again.

An answered and/or silent deployment may not be possible if the setup was launched from the archived file. To create answered/silent installation, delete ALL the contents of the %temp% folder before launching the setup. After launching the setup program, copy the extracted content in the %temp% folder to another location and cancel the installation. Depending upon the setup engine, a response file can be created by launching the setup from the extracted contents.

I have an application that is a legacy installshield setup archive. The setup was launched to copy all extracted contents from the temp folder to another location. When the setup was started from the extracted contents it threw an error that some source files were missing. The archive was 70MB, while the extracted contents was only 20MB. The installshield command-line switch was used on the archive file to extract its contents to a specified location without success. Filemon utility couldn’t capture all the files that were extracted. I’m not sure what I missed.

I found a utility called Universal Extractor. It extracts files from single .exe install archives and other type of archives. It extracted the archive (that was giving trouble) to location I specified. I could complete the installation successfully now from the extracted contents to create an answer file.

This is a very handy utility for software application repackagers.

There are articles that explain how to add the driver file(s) and create a new esxi cd with the updated drivers. I didn’t want to create a new cd.

Booted (esxi host) using a Ubuntu Desktop Edition Live CD. It mounted the esxi partitions on the esxi host. Renamed oem.tgz on the esxi partition (backup for DR purpose). Renamed the downloaded file to oem.tgz and copied it (copy-paste) to the esxi partition. Shutdown ubuntu and removed the cd. Restarted the esxi host to boot to esxi. It recognized my network card and I could configure the network settings in esxi.

The issue was resolved after usb emulation in bios was changed to emulate hard-drive. The default setting on the motherboard was “Auto”

Lets say, I am copying big file(s) at the end of the day and windows shows it will take an hour. Windows can be shutdown at a scheduled time. Go to Start>Run and type the command shutdown -s -t 7200, this command will shutdown windows in 2 hours (7200 seconds) from the time the shutdown command was given. Give 2-3 times the estimated time to be on the safer side. The machine runs for 2 hours instead of 15 hours (60 hours if it was on during the weekend). GO-GREEN!!!

Open a windows command prompt, type shutdown /? to learn more about the shutdown command