Deployment Solution

So I've had a working HII script in production for some time. It has worked very well for our environment with just a single .inf file. Last week I was given some Tablets and asked to add them to the HII process. I managed to get them to work great after some tinkering but I found that I HAVE to use a separate .inf for these because of the need for the TabletXP product key. No big deal right? I just added a couple lines to that model's driver injection and voila. Worked perfect. But, after a few days I started noticing some issues with standard models as they were getting deployed. They were running GUIRunOnce commands that were only present in the .inf file for the tablets! During my troubleshooting for this I actually found 2 bugs. Here is a condensed version of my HII script btw:

REM Copy Driver and HAL files to the production before the REM operating system starts. REM This section is used to locate and use specific drivers based on the REM model of computer running the job REM ReplaceTokens .\Sysprep\HIIProd.inf .\Temp\%COMPNAME%.inf Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe copy Y:\Temp\%COMPNAME%.inf PROD:\Sysprep\sysprep.inf Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe delete Y:\Temp\%COMPNAME%.inf echo Your hardware Model number is %#!computer@model_num% and Product ID is %#!computer@prod_name% if "%#!computer@model_num%"=="D865GLC" goto e4100 if "%#!computer@model_num%"=="D845GRG" goto e4000 if "%#!computer@model_num%"=="0DR845" goto d755 if "%#!computer@model_num%"=="0HX555" goto d755 if "%#!computer@model_num%"=="0UY141" goto d830 if "%#!computer@model_num%"=="0HN341" goto d830 if "%#!computer@model_num%"=="0GM819" goto d755 if "%#!computer@model_num%"=="0TP412" goto t3400 if "%#!computer@prod_name%"=="M685-E" goto m685 if "%#!computer@prod_name%"=="M465-E" goto m465 if "%#!computer@prod_name%"=="Gateway M465" goto m465 if "%#!computer@prod_name%"=="Gateway M460" goto m460 if "%#!computer@prod_name%"=="E-475M" goto e475 if "%#!computer@prod_name%"=="Gateway M680" goto m680 if "%#!computer@prod_name%"=="Latititude XT" goto LatitudeXT if "%#!computer@prod_name%"=="VMware Virtual Platform" goto VMware if "%#!computer@prod_name%"=="M285-E" goto m285 REM if no match is found, exit the script goto Exit :e4000 Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe -recurse copy Y:\Sysprep\Models\e4000 prod:\ goto Exit :e4100 Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe -recurse copy Y:\Sysprep\Models\e4100 prod:\ goto Exit [... content abbreviated .. ] :VMware REM ReplaceTokens .\Sysprep\vmwaret.inf .\Temp\%COMPNAME%.inf Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe copy Y:\Temp\%COMPNAME%.inf PROD:\Sysprep\sysprep.inf Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe delete Y:\Temp\%COMPNAME%.inf Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe -recurse copy Y:\Sysprep\Models\e4100 prod:\ goto Exit :LatitudeXT REM ReplaceTokens .\Sysprep\Tablet.inf .\Temp\%COMPNAME%.inf Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe copy Y:\Temp\%COMPNAME%.inf PROD:\Sysprep\sysprep.inf Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe delete Y:\Temp\%COMPNAME%.inf Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe -recurse copy Y:\Sysprep\Models\e4100 prod:\ goto Exit :m285 REM ReplaceTokens .\Sysprep\Tablet.inf .\Temp\%COMPNAME%.inf Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe copy Y:\Temp\%COMPNAME%.inf PROD:\Sysprep\sysprep.inf Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe delete Y:\Temp\%COMPNAME%.inf Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe -recurse copy Y:\Sysprep\Models\e4100 prod:\ goto Exit :Exit exit

Basically it does the standard token replacement and .inf injection for all models Then it injects specific drivers based on a folder structure related to each model Pretty standard stuff Then the last few have custom .inf's (I added one for my VMs after I did one for the tablets) Here's where it gets wierd. I put a pause in at Exit to see what is going on: Problem 1 The script processes the first REM ReplaceTokens fine and firm copy completes. it goes down through the 'if then' until it reaches its correct host (in this case VMware) it skips to VMware Firm copy the .inf FAILS - The REM ReplaceTokens does not process, it never creates the temp file. Firm copies driver folders it skips to Exit and is done I tried everything to get that to work. cut and pasted the REM statement that worked from above, tried the exact same .inf, tried several versions of the statement with caps, etc. Nothing. As a second REM statement it simply will not process (Which I don't get because the tablets are obviously getting their proper .inf) Now if I remove the first REM ReplaceTokens statement, the second one in the VMware branch of the script runs fine! So the code is fine, for some reason DS just can't process two REM ReplaceToken scripts? (Again, how are the Tablets getting theirs?) Stumped on that one. My solution was to remove the default REM statement and add one to each model branch, something I was going to do anyway to add a little more customization to laptops, etc. That brought me to Problem 2 This one is even weirder. So I watched the script run again and it showed everything processing ok. But for some reason my VM was crashing on mini setup... After further investigating, while the script was paused at the end I used another command window to use firm type PROD:\sysprep\sysprep.inf to see what was actually on the box. To my surprise this .inf file exactly matches the Tablet.inf! ??? For whatever reason I have been able to conclude that DS is processing those other REM ReplaceToken statements AND the statements that follow them silently. They do not get echoed in the script window. They don't fail like in problem 1 I'm not sure why they don't fail, but what I theorize is happening is that DS still reads through the script line by line and when it sees that REM statement it starts processing it and the subsequent lines. Basically each branch with that REM ReplaceTokens in it gets processed silently. At least thats what I thought, but if that were true then my VM would have a bunch of extra driver folders. It doesn't... So somehow the REM ReplaceTokens statement gets process AND it gets firm copied to the sysprep folder but the firm driver copy DOES NOT GET PROCESSED. ??? I'm at a loss right now, I have a phantom in my DS :| My solution right now is I have removed all branches that need a custom .inf and placed them in their own job condition. I went back to the single default .inf at the top of the script for normal models. Separating these works perfect but its a little harder to maintain and more steps to adding new stuff. I am currently on DS 6.8 about a week away from moving to 6.9. I will test this on our 6.9 test box as soon as I get a chance.

First of all, I recommend you always use %ID% for a temporary file name instead of %COMPNAME% this way there is no possibility of two computers conflicting (two different computers can have the same name, but no two computers can have the same id) and you are ensured that the file name will always be supported because it will be a 7-digit number. The REM ReplaceTokens commands are actually run by axengine before the script is ever run on the client machine. So, all of your REM ReplaceTokens are being run at the same time. Therfore, the last REM ReplaceTokens command "REM ReplaceTokens .\Sysprep\Tablet.inf .\Temp\%COMPNAME%.inf" will overwrite all previous %COMPNAME%.inf files with one based on Tablen.inf. What you will want to do instead is have all the REM ReplaceTokens at the top of the script creating unique files and then inside the script, copy the appropriate one. For example, one of the REM ReplaceTokens commands will be "REM ReplaceTokens .\Sysprep\vmwaret.inf .\Temp\%ID%V.inf" then inside the IF statement, you will have "Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe copy Y:\Temp\%ID%V.inf PROD:\Sysprep\sysprep.inf"

Ah brilliant! It all makes sense now. I should have noticed that when I re-ran the temporary batch file that it creates for the script. When I did that even the first statement failed. Because I immediately delete the temp file the Firm copy statements will always fail. Thank you!

Here is how I updated the script. Works flawlessly! Thanks!

REM Copy Driver and HAL files and custom settings to machine pre-boot
.

REM These statements create the custom inf files for specific models

REM ReplaceTokens .\Sysprep\HIITest.inf .\Temp\%ID%.inf
REM ReplaceTokens .\Sysprep\VMware.inf .\Temp\%ID%V.inf
REM ReplaceTokens .\Sysprep\DellTablet.inf .\Temp\%ID%D.inf
REM ReplaceTokens .\Sysprep\GateTablet.inf .\Temp\%ID%G.inf
Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe  copy Y:\Temp\%ID%.inf PROD:\Sysprep\sysprep.inf
 

REM This section is used to locate and use specific drivers based on the model or product name

echo Your hardware Model number is %#!computer@model_num% and Product Name is %#!computer@prod_name%
if "%#!computer@model_num%"=="D865GLC" goto e4100
if "%#!computer@model_num%"=="D845GRG" goto e4000
if "%#!computer@model_num%"=="0DR845" goto d755
if "%#!computer@model_num%"=="0HX555" goto d755
if "%#!computer@model_num%"=="0UY141" goto d830

[ ... content abbreviated ... ]

:profile55
Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe -recurse copy Y:\Sysprep\Models\profile55 prod:\
goto Exit

:VMware
Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe -recurse copy Y:\Sysprep\Models\VMware prod:\
Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe  copy Y:\Temp\%ID%V.inf PROD:\Sysprep\sysprep.inf
goto Exit

:m285
Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe -recurse copy Y:\Sysprep\Models\m285 prod:\
Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe  copy Y:\Temp\%ID%G.inf PROD:\Sysprep\sysprep.inf
goto Exit

:LatitudeXT
Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe -recurse copy Y:\Sysprep\Models\LatitudeXT prod:\
Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe  copy Y:\Temp\%ID%D.inf PROD:\Sysprep\sysprep.inf
goto Exit


:Exit
Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe delete Y:\Temp\%ID%.inf
Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe delete Y:\Temp\%ID%V.inf
Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe delete Y:\Temp\%ID%D.inf
Y:\rdeploy\windows\firm.exe delete Y:\Temp\%ID%G.inf
pause
exit

seems nice and clean.