@theopenem_admin Apologies for not being clear. I wasn't aware of the feature where we can image without touching the computer. What is that option called?

Because of the IT security restrictions we cannot enable PXE boot in our classrooms. Currently we boot these devices from USB and image them. It takes a lot of time and effort for this repetitive process.

Thank you for looking into this.

Just an idea! Not sure if this could be done.

Is it possible to image automatically without using a USB or PXE?

For example select a group (for example a lab) and push a new image to them. It can avoid manual work of going to individual devices to boot from a USB to re-image.

1. Copy the boot file to a folder in C:\ drive
2. Boot into windows PE using ramdisk

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/563319/setup-bcd-to-boot-pe-from-ram.html

@theopenem_admin Thank you.

@theopenem_admin my bad! I made a mistake in the IP. Modified it the correct ip now. Do I need to do anything on the server side for it to take effect?

@theopenem_admin I am unable to upload files for any other modules. I checked logs and couldn't find any.

@theopenem_admin how to use this feature? I tried to upload the PXE files and the upload fails.

@theopenem_admin Thank you

If the image storage location is set to SMB share, how can I make sure the imaging is done directly from the SMB drive instead of the local storage location? (like clonedeploy)

Also what ports needs to be open on the server side?

@theopenem_admin That worked. Thank you for your help

@theopenem_admin Thank you for your reply.

How can I create a webtask for a non registered computer? Considering this computer is fresh out of box and PXE booted.

We are still using the old Clonedeploy!!! We still love that product.

On Clonedeploy there is a clobber mode option available. Once turned on, the machines will get imaged when boot from Linux PE (no need to manually touch the machine).

Since the Linux PE is old, we only use windows PE for now (we can inject drivers etc to the boot.wim file).

Is clobber mode option available in TheopenEM? Specifically if using Windows PE. or is it possible to Assign an image to a set of computers so that they will not prompt for any confirmation in Windows PE? (means manually selecting Theopenem, Ondemand, deploy, image etc).

If somebody is looking at a similar solution, you can use PowerShell to do this. This is not my script, but it works perfectly.

<#

.Synopsis
    This script will create a ramdisk containing the boot.wim which the computer will boot to on restart. This script will work only on Windows Imaging environment.

.Prerequisites
    - From the Windows PE boot USB, copy boot.wim in the Sources folder to C:\Sources on the target
    - From the Windows PE boot USB, copy the Boot folder to C:\ on the target

.Notes
    Because "bcdedit /bootsequence" is used, the computer should boot back into Windows when restarted if imaging is cancelled.

#>

# Checks that Disk 0 is the boot disk.
$DISKZERO = Get-Disk 0
If ($DISKZERO.IsBoot -ne $true) {
Write-Host "Disk 0 is not the boot disk. Exiting..."
Exit 999
}
else {
Write-Host "Disk 0 is the boot disk. Proceeding..."
}

# Create {ramdiskoptions} and configure
bcdedit -create "{ramdiskoptions}"
bcdedit /set "{ramdiskoptions}" ramdisksdidevice partition=C:
bcdedit /set "{ramdiskoptions}" ramdisksdipath \boot\boot.sdi

# Add LiteTouch boot device to OSLOADER
$Output = bcdedit -create /d "LiteTouch MDT" /application OSLOADER

# Obtain LiteTouch boot device GUID
$LTGUID = $Output | %{ $_.split(' ')[2] }

# Configure LiteTouch to ramdisk boot
bcdedit /set $LTGUID device "ramdisk=[C:]\sources\boot.wim,{ramdiskoptions}"
bcdedit /set $LTGUID osdevice "ramdisk=[C:]\sources\boot.wim,{ramdiskoptions}"
bcdedit /set $LTGUID systemroot \windows
bcdedit /set $LTGUID detecthal yes
bcdedit /set $LTGUID winpe yes

# Adjust for UEFI vs Legacy BIOS types
if ($env:firmware_type -eq 'UEFI'){
Write-Host "UEFI boot confirmed."
bcdedit /set $LTGUID path \windows\system32\boot\winload.efi
}
Else {
Write-Host "Legacy boot confirmed."
bcdedit /set $LTGUID path \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe
}

# Force LiteTouch ramdisk on next boot and restart
bcdedit /bootsequence $LTGUID
shutdown /r /f /t 0