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Re-imaging/Re-install the existing Computer using SCCM

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Saturday, May 10, 2014 6:34 AM

Were are using SCCM 2012.  we reimage every as per requirement.  One major issue we have with SCCM is reimaging computers after they have had a OSD successfully completed.  the conclusion that if the computer is new the installation get smoothly completes, but it we are going to again re-image same computer that exists in SCCM it fails 

When the machine would PXE boot and say "device is in the database" then follow with "no advertisement found" after we deleted the client from SCCM.  But now we get " device is not in the database"  

Can we have solution for re-installation of existing SCCM-2012 clients.

thanks,

All replies (10)

Sunday, May 11, 2014 2:55 PM âś…Answered | 1 vote

Let's assume that you have a task sequence called "Windows 7 Enterprise - Install", and you have deployed that to the "All Unknown Computers" collection. In this scenario, when you PXE boot a never before deployed system (that's what you refer to as bare-metal) the system will be treated as Unknown to ConfigMgr (assuming that you've enabled Unknown Computer support on the Distribution Point). From what you've described earlier, this is already in place in your environment and that's how you do OSD.

Now to the re-image part (Refresh scenario). The easiest way to refresh a machine is to just re-install the operating system completely, do a total wipe on the drive and begin from scratch (keep in mind that this is absolutely not the best way to do it). Since your system (a client computer in this case) has already been deployed before, ConfigMgr already knows about it and therefor the Unknown Computer support will not pick it up.

What you need to do in that case, to enable the system to be refreshed, is to follow the instructions below:

1. Create a new collection, call it "OSD - Windows 7 Enterprise - Refresh".
2. Add the client computer (a workstation, laptop etc) as a Direct membership to this collection.
3. Locate your task sequence called "Windows 7 Enterprise - Install" and deploy that to your newly created collection called "OSD - Windows 7 Enterprise - Refresh".
4. Now PXE boot the client that is supposed to be refreshed, and you should be able to once again apply the OS of your choice.

Keep in mind though, that refreshing a computer involves many tricky steps. What I described here now is only the very basic way to accomplish this. I hope it gave you a bit more insight.

Regards,

Nickolaj Andersen | www.scconfigmgr.com | @Nickolaja

Saturday, May 10, 2014 6:41 AM

How are you targeting the deployment to the computers (required/available, specific collection)?

If it's an existing computer, the computer object should be in a collection targeted with the deployment.

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Saturday, May 10, 2014 12:33 PM

HI,

I found the logs in "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\Logs\SMSPXE.log". I found the following error for each computer that exists in SCCM and going to be re-install OS/re-image OS.

The Device collection is "All unknown Computer"

Client lookup reply: <ClientIDReply><Identification Unknown="0" ItemKey="16778532" ServerName="" ServerRemoteName=""><Machine><ClientID/><NetbiosName/></Machine></Identification></ClientIDReply>

00:0F:FE:87:CB:EC, BE840E1A-C285-11DC-BBDA-FE87CBEC000F: device is in the database.

00:0F:FE:87:CB:EC, BE840E1A-C285-11DC-BBDA-FE87CBEC000F: no advertisements found SMSPXE 5/10/2014 9:04:43 AM 3588 (0x0E04)

Regards,

Saturday, May 10, 2014 3:18 PM

If you already have the device in ConfigMgr, and it's in a collection where you've deployed your task sequence to, make sure that you clear 'Required PXE Deployments' on the device.

Here's one way to do get the expected behavior your looking for:

1. Deploy your task sequence to the 'All Unknown Computers' (I guess you already have this in place). This is to support bare-metal devices.
2. Create a collection that should be used for re-imaging devices.
3. Deploy your task sequence to the newly created collection.

Now when you want to re-image a device, simply just add the device to the re-image collection.

Regards,

Nickolaj Andersen | www.scconfigmgr.com | @Nickolaja

Sunday, May 11, 2014 11:25 AM

Hello Nickolaj,

Thanks for your reply, I am bit confuse on above configuration. could you please help me further step by step. I would be very thank full to you.

Best Regards,

Tuesday, June 9, 2015 10:43 AM

I know i'm very late to the party, however,

lets say a particular scenario,

  • Being local IT guy, I get a laptop which is dead - corrupted OS. 
  • I'm not aware of the Hostname.
  • I cannot do "Unknown" device image deployment as it is already there in database, I cant add it to collection as i dont have the hostname details in hand.

In this case, is there a way to enable Pure PXE base direct Image deployment even for the devices which are already part of SCCM database.?

Thanks in advance. 

$Bug

Friday, August 7, 2015 8:20 PM

In this case you could simply make a deployment available via PXE to All Systems.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015 7:57 PM

Just make sure you choose Available and not Required, if you want to keep your job :P  I wish there were a better way to accomplish this in the refresh-unknown-hostname scenario, but I have not found one to date.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015 8:35 PM

Just make sure you choose Available and not Required, if you want to keep your job :P  I wish there were a better way to accomplish this in the refresh-unknown-hostname scenario, but I have not found one to date.

Thanks for the reply, yes i have set it as Available :)

Also I improvised, i have made this adv valid only for Network boot, this adv wont work for media or machine with client installed. 

$Bug

Monday, November 21, 2016 3:44 PM

would this be affected in any way by devices that are retained and have a large amount of updates deployed to them? like software updates, application updates, secondary software installs (licensed and free, i.e. Visio or Adobe Acrobat)?