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Depth Analysis Of Provisioning Pack Testing

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In Depth Analysis of Provisioning Pack testing By: Edward Selgas, Nick Milian, Chris Jenson and Joshua Koplin Contents Background 3 Hypothesis 3 Challenges 3 Base Applications 3 Naming 4 Reduce Time 4 Drivers 4 Windows Updates 4 Background Microsoft has begun offering a new tool with Windows 10 called “Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer”, also referred to as WICD. This tool generates what is commonly referred to as a Windows provisioning or a provisioning pack. According to Microsoft, Windows provisioning makes it easy for IT administrators to configure end-user devices without imaging. Using Windows provisioning, an IT administrator can easily specify desired configuration and settings required …show more content…

Challenges Base Applications In our base image we currently include into the image several base applications, these are both baked into the actual image file and installed after the OS utilizing a Task Sequence. With WICD we found it difficult and time consuming to utilize this toolset to try and include all of our base applications into the provisioning pack process, due the nature of the wrapper, applications having prompts that cannot be answered, and the nature of these applications frequently changing a different solution is needed. What we found was that instead of trying to include all of the base applications in the provisioning pack in and of itself we only include the SCCM client and then we created an SCCM Task Sequence that can be executed after the other tasks of the provisioning packs are completed and a Tech signs into the device. If we wish to try and approach this by making the provisioning pack further inclusive it will take a large time investment, both upfront and continually as the version of these applications change every 3-6 months. Naming One of the steps in our imaging process today is to apply a standard naming convention based on the chassis, OS, OS architecture, site code, and the last X of the serial for randomization. Due to the complex nature of this convention it is not compatible with the provisioning pack process. The naming convention was put into place to allow IT resources to quickly discern relevant information around an

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