ConfigMgr Task Sequence OSD Multiple Physical Drives | SCCM

This post teaches about ConfigMgr Task Sequence OSD Multiple Physical Drives. Let’s try to understand how we can use conditions in the Task sequence to install operating systems via the SCCM Task Sequence on a machine having dual drives.

SCCM OSD, which stands for Operating System Deployment, is a crucial management solution within the SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager) family. This feature allows the concurrent deployment of operating systems to many systems within an organization’s network.

It streamlines the provisioning of new or updated operating systems across the network, providing IT administrators with significant time and resource savings.

The articles below will give you an idea of the scenario I faced when installing a Windows OS on a machine with two physical Hard drives. The conditions can be customized according to the environment and requirements.

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ConfigMgr Task Sequence OSD Multiple Physical Drives

We are taking an example of a system with a dual drive (or more) configuration, an NVMe drive, and a SATA mechanical disk or SATA SSD. Sometimes, the SATA disk may be enumerated as Disk 0, and the NVMe drive as Disk 1 or vice versa. 

This can be confirmed by booting to WinPE, executing the DiskPart utility, and selecting disk 0 and/or disk 1, followed by the command detail disk.  Note that the type of disk displayed will be either SATA or NVMe.

In a default standard SCCM OSD task sequence, disk 0 will be formatted and partitioned depending on the partition scheme assigned (MBR or GPT). As newer models are released, SATA mechanical disks or even SATA SSD disks are replaced with NVMe.

Info on Dual Drives

To check your machine’s drives, use the PowerShell command below.

wmic diskdrive get index,model

You can also check the information on the dual drive using disk management and open diskmgmt.MSC right-click on the disk on which you want information. In my case, I want information on disk 1; you can get info in the General tab.

Similarly, it will show accordingly if you have a dual drive, one with NVMe and another with SATA mechanical or SATA SDD.

Solution

Ideally, the Windows OS should be installed on the NVMe disk for better performance (why it should be installed on the NVMe disk is a different topic ). There are many ways to achieve this, such as adding dynamic variables inside the OSD task sequence or using scripts.

If you know your environment and the hardware being used with their configurations, then it can be achieved by a WMI condition. Below are the steps which you can add to your task sequence to achieve it:

I created two groups with Format and Partition conditions as below; I am aware of the models that are procured in my environment, but to detect if the NVMe disk is at 0 or 1, the two groups are created

If NVMe is on disk 0, the first group will format and partition it, making it an OS disk and the other a data disk. In the second group, if NVMe is found on disk 1, it will be configured as an OS disk and the other as a data disk.

You can add two conditions: the first to get information on disk drive details and the second to provide the models on which you want to perform this step.

WMI Conditions

Let’s check the WMI conditions to check the disk types and avoid issues with the SCCM task Sequence.

Select * from Win32_DiskDrive where Model like "%NVMe%" and Index=0

Select * from Win32_ComputerSystem where Model like "%Model%"

Verification

You can review the smsts.log during the Image build to determine whether your configured conditions meet your requirements.

• Location of smsts.log before the hard drive is formatted

x:\windows\temp\smstslog\smsts.log

The location of smsts.log after the hard drive is formatted and partitioned.

x:\smstslog\smsts.log

Let’s look into the results now.

Result

You can customize the condition according to your environment and requirements.

References

• https://www.anoopcnair.com/sccm-osd-task-sequence-ultimate-guide/

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Author

Ankit Shukla, an IT professional with over seven years of experience, has worked on SCCM/MECM since 2012. During this time, he has extensively dealt with various aspects of the tool, such as migration, infrastructure designing, OSD, custom SQL reporting, and client-side troubleshooting. Ankit’s blog posts reflect his hands-on experience addressing issues and providing practical solutions. The primary aim of his posts is to cater to the audience, which is comprised of support team members and SCCM admins in organizations.