The same planning steps that you would consider when setting up Configuration Manager 2007 site systems apply when configuring them for Operating System Deployment. For example, if you are planning to have more than one site system role on a server, you need to consider the aggregate affect of all the site system roles on the server's resources - network performance, memory, disk storage, and processor utilization. Operating System Deployment primarily affects resources for the state migration point and the distribution point.
Consider the following specific items when configuring the state migration point and distribution point for Operating System Deployment.
State Migration Point
The state migration point is used by Operating System Deployment when migrating user state and settings from one computer to another as part of the operating system image deployment. The state migration point requires Internet Information Services (IIS) to be installed.
As you plan for the state migration point, consider the following:
User State Size
The size of the user state directly affects disk storage on the state migration point and network performance during the migration. Consider the size of the user state and the number of computers that you are migrating. Consider also what settings you need to migrate from the computer. For example, if My Documents is already backed up to a server, then perhaps you don’t need to migrate it as part of the image deployment. This can keep the overall size of the user state smaller and decrease the effect it would otherwise have on network performance and disk storage on the state migration point.
User State Migration
Operating System Deployment relies on the User State Migration Tool (USMT) to migrate user state and settings.
USMT 3.0 supports the capture of user settings (known as scan state) from computers running the Windows 9x operating system or later, and the restore of user settings (known as load state) on computers running the Windows 2000 , service pack 4,Windows XP, Windows 2003, or Windows Vista operating systems.
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| Configuration Manager 2007 supports computers running the Windows 2000, service pack 4 operating system or later. For more information about the supported operating systems for operating system deployment see: Supported Operating Systems and Hard Disk Configurations for Operating System Deployment |
For more information about USMT see the Windows XP Professional Deployment Web page at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=88299. You can download USMT from the Microsoft Download Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=88300.
You can also find additional scripts to assist you with state migration from the Microsoft Business Desktop Deployment Web site http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=88302.
Retention Policy
When you configure the state migration point, you can specify how long to keep user state data that was stored on it. The length of time that you keep the data on the state migration point depends on two considerations: the effect that the stored data has on disk storage, and whether you need to keep the data for a time against the possibility of needing to migrate it again.
There are two phases to state migration: capture and restore.
During capture, the user state data is collected and saved to the state migration point. During restore, the data is located on the state migration point, written to the destination computer, and then released by the task sequence step Release State Store. When the data is released, the retention timer starts. If you chose to delete migrated data immediately when you configured the state migration point, the user state data is deleted as soon as it is released. If you configured the state migration point to keep the data for a certain period of time, the data will be deleted when that period of time elapses after the state data is released. The longer you set the retention period, the more disk space you are likely to need.
Selecting drives
When you configure the state migration point, you need to specify the drive on the server that should be used to store user state migration data. You select a drive from a fixed list of drives. However, the list of available drives shows all drive letters available, some of which may represent non-writable drives, such as the CD drive, or a non-network share drive. Some drive letters might not be mapped to any drives on the computer. It is important that you understand before configuring the state migration point which drives you should use for storing user state migration data.
Distribution Point
You must plan for the appropriate number and placement of distribution points. This kind of planning is basically the same as you would do for any other deployment of Configuration Manager 2007 packages. However, there are some considerations specific to Operating System Deployment.
Consider the number of computers that can be deployed at one time from a given distribution point. The processing speed and disk I/O of the distribution point must be considered along with the available bandwidth on the network, and the effect that the size of the image package will be on those resources.
For example, on a 100Mb Ethernet network, if no other server resource factors are considered, the maximum number of computers that can process a 2GB image package in one hour would be 23.
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1 Megabit transfers 8 Megabytes of data 100 Megabits/sec = 12.5 Megabytes/sec = 750 Megabytes/min = 45 Gigabytes/hour= 23 images @ 2GB per image. |
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In reality, the number might be far less. So if you need to be able to deploy a specific number of computers within a specific time frame, you will need to distribute the image package to an appropriate number of distribution points, and use Configuration Manager 2007 features such as protected distribution points and branch distribution points to ensure that the appropriate destination computers receive the image.
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| Operating System Deployment does not distinguish Configuration Manager 2007 site servers, in particular branch distribution points, from other destination computers in the collection. If you are advertising the task sequence to a collection that contains a Configuration Manager 2007 site server, the site server will run the task sequence like any other computer in the collection. It is recommended that you remove the site system role from the site server before deploying an operating system image to it, and then assign the site system role back to the site server. In addition, if you need to deploy an image to a distribution point or branch distribution point, be aware that the server needs to receive its image package from a different distribution point. It cannot receive the package from itself. |
PXE Service Point
The PXE service point site role is used to initiate the operating system deployment process. The PXE service point must be configured to respond to PXE boot requests made by Configuration Manager 2007 clients on the network and then interact with Configuration Manager 2007 infrastructure to determine the appropriate deployment actions to take.
Fore more information about deploying operating systems using PXE, use the following link: Planning for PXE Initiated Operating System Deployments