Setting Broadcom NICs to 100/FULL during an OSD Task Sequence

In our environment we require all our workstation NICs to be set to 100/FULL. Currently this is a manual step at the time of deployment and from time to time it can be missed. As I was migrating all of our images to Config Manager my goal was to automate as much as possible - such as NIC speed and duplex. Hard coding a NIC for a Windows PE boot image is pretty straight forward – extract the driver, open up the INF file, locate the section were the default speed is listed, set it to whatever value you require and then inject the driver into your boot image. However if you use the same approach when installing drivers during an OS deployment task sequence and you are using a Broadcom NIC your NIC driver will fail to load correctly causing the task sequence to error out. Once you edit the INF file you break WHQL driver signing therefore Windows XP will not install the driver. A quick way around this is to leave the INF file untouched and set it 100/FULL by calling the following script during your task sequence.

Dim WSHShell, RegLocate, RegLocate1
Set WSHShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
On Error Resume Next

'Locate registry setting for media type
RegLocate = "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002bE10318}\0001\RequestedMediaType"

'Change media type to 100/Full Duplex
WSHShell.RegWrite RegLocate,"6","REG_SZ"

'Exit
WScript.Quit 

1. Create a package in Config Mgr containing your script - no program necessary
2. In your task sequence add a command line step after your driver installs
3. Name this step something like "Set Broadcom NIC to 100/FULL" (helps for future reference) 
4. Add the following command line - cscript.exe script name.vbs
5. Enable the package check box and browse for the package containing your script

Add a condition to this step and enter the following WMI query to ensure that your script only runs on Broadcom based NICs.

SELECT * FROM Win32_NetworkAdapter WHERE Manufacturer LIKE 'Broadcom%'

Configuration Manager PXE Cache Behaviour

If you’ve spent any time dealing with Config Mgr OS deployments using PXE you’ve probably had machines fail to connect to PXE service point with errors such as “TFTP download failed” or “unable to connect to PXE server “. Believe it or not this is by design – especially if you are using unknown computer support. This is most likely due to a previous task sequence being advertised to that machine. By default Config Mgr will cache the PXE advertisement for 60 minutes (Default setting) and then it will expire. Most of the time you can right click the collection the collection that the machine sits in and select “Clear last PXE advertisement” but sometimes you have to go as far as restarting the WDS services. Microsoft published a hotfix under KB969113 for Config Mgr SP1 that will reduce the interval from 60 minutes to 2 minutes and in SP2 the cache expiry can be set in the registry.


On an x86 machine the located under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMS\PXE

On an x64 machine the registry key is under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\SMS\PXE

Create a new DWORD value CacheExpire and set the desired value in seconds. Be careful if you have R2 installed and unknown computer support enabled because if you set the cache expire value too low and you are using a mandatory task sequence your machine will continuously start the same task sequence every time it reboots. There is a good post on the System Center Configuration Team blog that details PXE cache expire behaviour - http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrteam/archive/2010/05/27/pxe-cache-expire-behavior-in-configuration-manager-2007-sp1-and-sp2.aspx

Configuration Manager v.Next Beta 1 Released

On Monday Microsoft released the beta of the next iteration of Configuration Manager… v.Next. With Config Mgr v.Next there is shift towards user centric client management. It will be like going from Windows XP to Windows 7 as this release is going to have the longest development cycle since SMS 2.0. Since moving to v.Next is such a big step the only migration plan available is a side by side upgrade. Config Mgr v.Next will be fully 64-bit and include a completely new application delivery engine, a new UI (good-bye MMC console) based on the SCOM code base, SQL Reporting Services will replace SMS / SCCM reporting, and much more importance will be placed on the DCM engine. I was able to test drive v.Next at MMS and I was really impressed with what I saw. The v.Next beta is public so download it from Microsoft’s Connect site and get it into a lab.

Configuration Manager Dashboard

A great new addition to SCCM is the Config Mgr dashboard. The dashboard addition integrates with your SharePoint infrastructure so installation and configuration can be done in minutes. This highly flexible tool will allow you to customize near real-time information and display it in an interactive format. Access is all role based so it allows administrators to really tailor the information to their audience. There is a huge difference in the information required by a senior manager compared to someone on the Service Desk. Out of the box the dashboard is ready to display the top five day-to-day metrics:

• Software deployment metrics
• OS deployment metrics
• Software Update Management
• Asset Inventory Information
• Client & Server activity Information

You can download the dashboard add-on from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=187322. Pre-requisites are a Configuration Manager 2007 site, SQL Server 2005 or above, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2, .NET 3.5 and Internet Explorer 7.0. For more information check out http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff369719.aspx

MMS 2010 - Viva Las Vegas

This post is long overdue – I’ve been back from MMS for a couple of weeks and feel that I’m still playing catch up at work. My first MMS was a great experience and I can’t for next year’s event. (Mandalay Bay March 21 – 25 2011) I attended every session that I could possibly fit into my schedule and brought back some fantastic information. Another bonus was a chance to meet other IT professionals that are either facing the same challenges that I am or have already worked through them.


Probably one of the most popular topics was Config Mgr v.Next. This is the next version of Config Mgr that is tentatively going to drop in 2011. Watch for a complete change in software distribution as we know it. It will be a user centric shift for Config Mgr.

One of my favourite types of session were the Birds-of-a-Feather sessions. These small loosely organized sessions that are really more about being interactive than anything. I was able to end are really good session with Dell IT and their use of SCUP and a Q&A session with Microsoft’s Config Mgr development team.

Overall I was able bring back some incredible knowledge from MMS and I will be posting more details here in the upcoming days. Also, kudos to the Microsoft event staff as they did a fantastic job.