Introduction
OSDCloud is the most hyped tool I have yet seen in the community. Now does it live up to it.? YES indeed. We needed this kind of solution to simplify daily operations where we want a device fast up and running e.g., after repair of a broken hardware component. Now OSDCloud is not THE solution but PART of the solution.
This is a complete guide on how you can run OSD over WIFI and at the same time automate the whole process once it has been started.
IT TAKES 15 minutes to reinstall to a fully functional device
Requirements
- Blog post part 1
- Internet
- Github account
Table of Content
- Get newest OSDCloud
- Get WinRE and inject your custom language
- Create Github ZTI file
- Inject drivers to WinRE
Get newest OSDCloud
Start powershell as elevated
Install-Module -Name OSD -force
Just making sure I am on the right version to continue with this post. You need at least this version or higher.
Get WinRE
New-OSDCloud.template -WinRE -Language da-dk -SetAllIntl da-dk -SetInputLocale da-dk -verbose
TIP: you can add more languages here by typing e.g. -Language da-dk,es-es,fr-fr
It really takes no time at all to create the workspace, it is just a copy of the Template from above.
New-OSDCloud.workspace -workspacepath C:OSDCloud -Verbose
Create GitHub ZTI file
Now we would like to automate the whole process, so we don’t have to type anything once WIFI has been connected. For us not to rebuild the ISO or USB stick every time we want to change a simple thing in our Zero touch deployment file, we simply put the configuration online.
Go to your GitHub repository, dropbox or whatever online storage you have with access directly to your file.
Mine is here
This sample has been borrowed from David’s demo script
Copy these lines
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green “Starting OSDCloud ZTI” Start-Sleep -Seconds 5 #Change Display Resolution for Virtual Machine if ((Get-MyComputerModel) -match ‘Virtual’) { Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green “Setting Display Resolution to 1600x” Set-DisRes 1600 } #Make sure I have the latest OSD Content Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green “Updating OSD PowerShell Module” Install-Module OSD -Force Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green “Importing OSD PowerShell Module” Import-Module OSD -Force #Start OSDCloud ZTI the RIGHT way Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green “Start OSDCloud” Start-OSDCloud -OSLanguage da-dk -OSBuild 20H2 -OSEdition Enterprise -ZTI #Restart from WinPE Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green “Restarting in 20 seconds!” Start-Sleep -Seconds 20 wpeutil reboot |
Add file
Create new file
Paste in the code you copied from this blog
Give the file a name like Win10-Enterprise-20H2-DA-DK.ps1 as this is what the configuration will deploy for you.
Commit the file
Enter the file
Click RAW
Copy the URL
Inject drivers, ZTI and custom wallpaper to WinRE
Now we need to make the changes to support both hardware WIFI and customizations like wallpaper and WebPSScript parameter.
Open elevated powershell
I have downloaded a wallpaper and added it to the workspace C:OSDCloud. Created a folder called Wallpaper and placed it there.
In this line we will use the RAW URL copied earlier.
Edit-OSDCloud.winpe -workspacepath C:OSDCloud -CloudDriver Dell,Wifi -WebPSScript https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mmelkersen/OSDCloud/main/Win10-Enterprise-21H2-DA-DK.ps1 -wallpaper “C:OSDCloudWallpaperwallpaper.jpg” -Verbose
Tip: you can also get more drivers into your WinRE image by typing -CloudDriver Dell,Nutanix,VMware,HP,Wifi and if you need custom that can be done too -DriverPath T:TempWinPEDrivers. The more you put into it the bigger file you get.
Now it is time for us to test it. If you have a fairly new USB you can then run
New-OSDBoot.usb -workspacepath C:OSDCloud
save-OSDCloud.usb
But I am not that lucky to possess such a thing
Instead, I will do this
New-OSDCloud.iso -workspacepath C:OSDCloud
2 nicely build ISO files for us to use
To build my USB I use Rufus
Start Rufus
Make sure you have your USB attached in the device
Press Select
Choose OSDCloud.iso
Press Start
Press Ok
Once it is successfully, eject the USB and insert it into the device you need to image.
Booting your device
See a video of the process once in WinRE
Summary
No infrastructure. No cost. Evergreen all the way as:
- The image is taken directly from Microsoft
- The drivers are taken directly from vendor HP/Dell/Lenovo
- The configuration is loaded from a cloud storage.
Use it together with Autopilot and you will have a nice clean environment with very little cost.
Happy Cloud OSD!
Mattias Melkersen is a community driven and passionate modern workplace consultant with 20 years’ experience in automating software, driving adoption and technology change within the Enterprise. He lives in Denmark and works at Mindcore.
He is an Enterprise Mobility Intune MVP, Official Contributor in a LinkedIn group with 41.000 members and Microsoft 365 Enterprise Administrator Expert.
Mattias blogs, gives interview and creates a YouTube content on the channel "MSEndpointMgr" where he creates helpful content in the MEM area and interview MVP’s who showcase certain technology or topic.
Official Contributor here "Modern Endpoint Management":
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8761296/