The WinOps Blog

Hardware Independent Imaging is a new process that LANDesk Management Suite version 9. This process allows you to use one image across all hardware platforms for a single Operating System image. This process requires certain steps for it to work correctly. This quick start guide is designed to graphically assist you in the set up process.

A simplified description of the HII process is as follows. Details about the specific steps you'll need to follow and considerations for different types of images are found in the LDMS90Users guide.

• When you deploy an image created using HII, the imaging script boots the device to the Windows preboot environment. In the preboot environment, the HII tool will select the appropriate HAL .dll file and load it.
• The OS is installed on the device, but before the OS boots, the HII imaging script determines which drivers are required by the device and copies the driver files to the device's hard disk.
• The drivers are added to the device's registry, so that when the OS boots the Windows setup detects the new drivers, installs them, and configures the device with the drivers.
• Windows then restarts with the drivers running, and the Management Suite agent is installed.

Getting Started With HII Set-up

1. Attain the needed drivers (Audio, Video, Network, Mass Storage Devices, and other drivers) for the Hardware that you will be deploying to and the correct OS. Drivers can be attained by whatever means you see fit, ie. Driver capture tool, vendor, or manufacturer. We strongly recommend getting the drivers from the manufacturer or the vendor, as driver capture tools may not grab all the files needed, thus causing failures. Always verify that the drivers you are going to use are tested and validated prior to using them with HII.

2. In the LANDesk Management Suite console, go to the tool bar and click on “Tools > Distribution > OS Deployment”.

3. Select the “Manage driver library for hardware-independent imaging” as shown above. This will allow you to load the proper drivers for each of the specific hardware types you will be working with.

4. Select the “Add” button

Create a library of drivers that will be available to the imaging tool. These drivers are used on the hardware you want to image, and are divided into several categories.

The “Hardware-independent driver library” allows you to add Audio, Video, Network, Mass Storage Devices, and Other drivers that will be needed on the different hardware platforms. You will need to set up specific drivers for each hardware type. If you highlight the different categories you will be able to see what drivers have already been added.

Associate specific device models with drivers in your library. When the hardware-independent imaging tool runs it will detect the device manufacturer and model, and then download the associated drivers and install them on the device during the imaging process.

5. Select the type of driver you want to add, then give the driver a unique name, as each hardware platform will require a unique driver name

6. Next, select the OS platform(s) that the driver is designed to work with. (Driver details are optional.)

7. Browse to the location where the drivers are located. By default, when the driver is loaded into the HII setup, it will copy those files into a repository on the core server in C:\Program Files (x86)\LANDesk\ManagementSuite\landesk\files\drivers\<driver type>.

8. Select Next

· If the driver files are valid, you will see a success message. Click Finish to close the dialog box.

· If you see an error icon, you'll need to find the correct driver files for the driver you have named.

TIP: Remove any large files not needed for the driver installation from the folder such as self-extracting exe files used to obtain the drivers.

9. Select “Finish”, to complete the driver upload process.

Once the different drivers packages have been created, we need to set up the Manufacturer types of systems that you will be imaging, ie. Dell D600, HP DX2400, etc… This information will be pulled from the LANDesk database for devices that have sent in inventory scans.

10. In the Operating System Deployment select the “Manage manufacturer and model for hardware-independent imaging”.

11. Now you will have the opportunity to add the Manufacturer and Model of the systems that you will be imaging.

12. First click on Manufacturer drop down and select the one you want to work with.

13. Next, under “Model”, use the drop down list to select the Model you are wanting to add drivers to. Make sure that you know the model number (i.e. 23738CU etc…), as it will most likely not be listed as with the normal (i.e. Latitude D600, Lenovo T40 etc…).

Note: The LDMS inventory will populate the dropdowns based on the machine records in the database.

14. Next select the driver type you want to add

15. Next place the check box for the correct driver

16. Once all the drivers are added, you will see the list of assigned drivers for that device.

NOTE. With this solution, there is no need to create a driver store for each Make and Model as long as the driver is the same. When you get the drivers for you device, you can use a single driver across multible platforms as long as the drivers are the same. So when you are creating driver stores and you are going to share drivers, make sure you are use a more generic driver name when creating the driver store.

Using Hardware-Independent Imaging With OS Deployment Scripts

You can incorporate hardware-independent imaging into an OS deployment script for Windows devices, if the script meets these requirements:

• It must be based on the Windows PE boot environment

• It must use Windows Sysprep to configure the OS image

To incorporate hardware-independent imaging, you need to select the HII option in the script wizard so the HII tool runs after the operating system is installed. Also, you need to select one of the following options:

• You can have the HII tool automatically select the manufacturer and model of the device you are imaging, based on the strings in the device's BIOS. Select this option if you want to use the script for devices from multiple manufacturers.

• You can specify one manufacturer and model. Select this option only if you will use the script on the same device model every time.

To include hardware-independent imaging in an OS deployment script, set up your script as you would normally for an OS Deployment, but for HII you need the following settings checked in the script.

1. Click Tools > Distribution > OS Deployment.

2. Under OS images, select a script. Right-click the script and select Edit, or to create a new script, right-click All OSD Scripts and select New Windows PE configuration.

3. Click Methods and credentials. Select the “Images uses Sysprep” and “Use Hardware-independent imaging” check boxes.

4. Click “Sysprep options” > “Hardware-independent imaging”.

• To have the HII tool automatically select the manufacturer and model of the device to be imaged, click Auto detect. The tool will read the settings in the device BIOS to find strings that match the manufacturer and model strings you have defined when you associated device models with drivers.
• If you want to specify a manufacturer and model for the script, click Select manufacturer and model. Select a manufacturer and then a model from the lists. The device drivers associated with that model are listed for your reference.
• Define all other script options you want, and click Save to save the script.