Hi All,
I am having some serious issues with trying to get the auto naming working. I am trying to pre-populate the computer name during a task sequence however the computer name will be built utilising variables added to the mdt database.
Naming Convention
The current naming convention for client devices is WXXYYYZZZZ as the client is in multiple countries and offices. This is as below
W = Hardware type - S = Server , V = VM , L = Laptop , D= Desktop etc
XX = Country code - AU = Australia , US = United states etc
YYY = Site Office - Syd = Sydney , AUC = Auckland etc
ZZZZ = numbering of device - 0001, 0020 etc
So a fully fomulated name will be something like LAUSYD009
MDT Database modifications
I have extended the MDT DB schema to include custom variables that can be entered in the Details tab. These variables are as below
LocationVarName - Updated in the locations part of the db and populated with the county code variables explained above in the naming convention
MakeAndModelVarName - Updated in the make and models part of the db and populated with the different hardware types expected
This was discovered and tweaked using the following link.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/deploymentguys/archive/2011/08/05/dynamic-computer-naming-in-zti-deployments-using-mdt-and-configmgr.aspx
By tweaking things in the above link i can effectively get the ZTIGather.log to create the OSD computername correctly according to its Make and model and Location Variables , i.e. LAUSYD or DNZAUC. I can also run a build of a machine and can create
unique computer names by also adding the the Serialnumber variable. Personally that is the way id prefer to name the new devices however the business is adamant that it wants to stick with the sequence numbering it is currently using (3k computers
already out there in the environment with that naming convention). So based on above i believe i have the prefix part of the computer name down packed.
The second part is the sequencing of the devices. I had a look at another link as below which advises how to auto name a computer with a defined prefix and a sequence number. This link will check the macaddress of the computer and if the name matches the
mac address it will re-issue the same name. If there is no link to the mac address it will generate a new name with a incremented sequence number.
http://www.deploymentresearch.com/Research/tabid/62/EntryId/103/Generate-computer-names-in-MDT-2012-2013-based-on-prefix-and-a-sequence-number.aspx
I have tweaked the above to use the serialnumber instead of the mac address as this is imported into AD currently. Again i have got this working and can effectively name comptuers PC-0001 etc and match against the MDT database for known computers. As Prepwork
i have run a couple powershell scripts and audited the AD and imported all known computers and associated serial numbers into the MDT DB already. So my MDT DB knows all devices has currently a range of 0001 to 0159 populated under the computer names tab in
the DB.
What i am trying to do is get these two solutions working in conjunction. I am trying to get the initial part of the name (LAUSYD) created from the first step and then assign a sequence number to it and check the mdt db for a connection to serial number.
This is where i am stuck. Can anyone advise how i can combine these two solutions or if there is a better way to resolve this dilemma i am currently facing.
Thanks in advance for any advice
