You may want to capture an image of a manually installed computer and Configuration Manager 2012 provides a method of doing just that called Capture Media. This media is created as an ISO file which you burn directly to cd/DVD or mount in a virtual machine and use. But first you need to make sure that the image you want to capture is in the right state, listed below
- ConfigMgr Client Agent installed
- workgroup joined
You must have installed the Configuration Manager client on this computer before removing it from the domain. In order for the image to be captured the computer must be a member of a Workgroup, In other words, the machine you want to capture the image from must not be joined to a domain, if it is then remove it from the domain (join a workgroup) and it must have the ConfigMgr client agent installed.
Step 1. Join a Workgroup
Perform the following on the computer which you want to capture an image of as a local administrator.
Click on Start, Right click on Computer, choose properties, click on change settings to the right of the Computername
click on Change
type in the name of a workgroup to join and click ok
click ok to accept the computer name domain change
you'll be welcomed to the windows-noob workgroup, click ok
and you'll be told to restart, so restart..click ok to restart
Step 2. Create the Capture Media
Perform the following on the Configuration Manager server as a SMSadmin.
Open the ConfigMgr console, click on Software Library, Operating Systems, expand Task Sequences. In the ribbon click on Create Task Sequence Media
when the Create Task Sequence Media wizard appears click on Capture Media
click next and browse to the path of where you want to store the ISO file, give it a name like capture_media.iso
click next, then click on browse beside boot image
select your X86 boot image
click ok, then click on Browse beside Distribution Point
select your distribution point
now your selected boot image and distribution point are listed, click next to continue through the wizard
if you get a UAC prompt accept it
finally the media is done !
if you need to troubleshoot it's creation look at the CreateTSMedia.log file in your confmgr LOGS dir. (D:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\AdminUILog)
Step 3. While in Windows, start the ISO/CD/DVD on the Workgroup Computer
Perform the following on the computer which you want to capture an image of as a local administrator.
if you are using virtual hardware (hyperv or vmware) just mount the ISO on your workgroup computer (click on Media, Insert Disc, browse to the ISO location), otherwise burn the ISO to cd/dvd and insert that burned cd/dvd into the computer you need to capture.
While still in Windows (do not try to boot from this ISO/CD/DVD) you should see the following
click on Run TSMBAutorun.exe
Welcome to the Image Capture Wizard appears, click next..
Enter a path and name for the WIM file, I chose \\sccm\sources\os\captures\captured.wim and then enter the credentials of a user with permissions to write to that location
enter some Image Information
review the summary
and click finish to start the capture process, notice how it prepares the config manager client
and then it syspreps
before rebooting into Windows PE to capture the system
and the capture begins !
success !
all done, the image is captured.
Troubleshooting Tips:
If you see an error in SMSTS.log (probably in C:\Windows\CCM\Logs or C:\Windows\SysWow64\CCM\logs) which sates Waiting for CCMExec service to be fully available, locate the SMS Agent Host service in services.msc and start the service.
