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Showing posts from October, 2017

Faster PXE boot times in SCCM 1606 and later

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A new feature introduced with SCCM 1606 was being able to modify the boot times for PXE. This is done by modifying the TFTP block and window size of the boot image RamDisk. This was originally implemented to help a admin over come network requirement. This allows us to make the PXE boot times much faster for my self this meant taking a 10 minute boot time all the way down to 30 second boot time. In order to make this change you need to create 2 registry keys on your PXE enabled DP. Location : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMS\DP Name: RamDiskTFTPWindowSize Type : REG_DWORD Value : <customized window size> The default value is 1 (1 data block fills the window)  Location : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMS\DP Name: RamDiskTFTPBlockSize Type : REG_DWORD Value : <customized block size> The default value is 4096 (4k).  once you have added the registry keys you will need to restart  the Windows Deployment Service for the changes to take

SCCM Tools

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I have just completed a new tool to add to my tool box, SCCM Tools. SCCM Tools is a single executable that can help me to gather some information about a SCCM site or do some basic administration tasks. The tool is portable can be ran from a flash drive or a network location. To use the tool launch the exe file with an account that has access to the sit. Then you will be shown a page that where you can type the site information. If you have the SCCM console installed on the computer you are running the tool from you can check the box to the right of the Site Code. Other wise the tool will use the resources needed from the Site Server. Once you connect to a site you will be presented with the Read Me landing page. This page simply tells you what you can do with the tool. Notice the black bar at the bottom of the tool will tell you the status of the action you performed, letting you know when it is safe to perform your next task. You can get the PowerShell script that create