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How to Manage Operating System Images and Installers in Configuration Manager

 

Updated: May 14, 2015

Applies To: System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1, System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP2, System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager, System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager SP1

Use the procedure in this topic to add an operating system image or an operating system install package to a System Center 2012 Configuration Manager site. The operating system images and install packages can then be distributed to distribution points where they can be used to deploy operating systems to destination computers.

How to Add an Operating System Image or Operating System Installer

Use the following procedures to add an operating system image or an operating system installer to a site.

To add an operating system image

  1. In the Configuration Manager console, click Software Library.

  2. In the Software Library workspace, expand Operating Systems, and then click Operating System Images.

  3. On the Home tab, in the Create group, click Add Operating System Image to start the Add Operating System Image Wizard.

  4. On the Data Source page, specify the network path to the operating system image. For example, specify \\server\path\OS.WIM for the operating system image WIM file.

  5. On the General page, specify the following information, and then click Next. This information is useful for identification purposes when you add multiple operating system images to the same site.

    - **Name**: Specify the name of the image. By default, the name of the image is taken from the WIM file.

- **Version**: Specify the version of the image.

- **Comment**: Specify a brief description of the image.

  6. Complete the wizard.

You can now distribute the operating system image to the distribution points that are accessed by your deployment task sequences.

To add an operating system installer

  1. In the Configuration Manager console, click Software Library.

  2. In the Software Library workspace, expand Operating Systems, and then click Operating System Installers.

  3. On the Home tab, in the Create group, click Add Operating System Installer to start the Add Operating System Wizard.

  4. On the Data Source page, specify the network path to the installation source files of the operating system installer. For example, specify the UNC \\server\path to where the installation source files are located.

  5. On the General page, specify the following information, and then click Next. This information is useful for identification purposes when you have multiple operating system installers.

    - **Name**: Specify the name of the operating system installer.

- **Version**: Specify the version of the operating system installer.

- **Comment**: Specify a brief description of the operating system installer.

  6. Complete the wizard.

You can now distribute the operating system installer to the distribution points that are accessed by your deployment task sequences.

Apply Software Updates to an Operating System Image

Periodically, new software updates are released that are applicable to the operating system in your operating system image. You can apply applicable software updates to an image on a specified schedule. On the schedule that you specify, Configuration Manager applies the software updates that you select to the operating system image, and then optionally distributes the updated image to distribution points.

Information about the operating system image is stored in the site database, including the software updates that were applied at the time of the import. Software updates that have been applied to the image since it was initially added are also stored in the site database. When you start the wizard to apply software updates to the operating system image, the wizard retrieves a list of applicable software updates that have not yet been applied to the image for you to select.

For System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 and later:

In Configuration Manager with no service pack, when Configuration Manager failed to apply a software update, it would stop the process and not apply any additional software updates. Starting in Configuration Manager SP1, you can select the Continue on error setting for Configuration Manager to continue to apply software updates even when there is an error applying one or more of the software updates that you selected.

Note

In Configuration Manager with no service pack, the software updates are copied from the source location for each software update. Starting in Configuration Manager SP1, the software updates are copied from the content library on the site server.

Use the following procedure to apply software updates to an operating system image.

To apply software updates to an operating system image

  1. In the Configuration Manager console, click Software Library.

  2. In the Software Library workspace, expand Operating Systems, and then click Operating System Images.

  3. Select the operating system image to which to apply software updates.

  4. On the Home tab, in the Operating System Image group, click Schedule Updates to start the wizard.

  5. On the Choose Updates page, select the software updates to apply to the operating system image, and then click Next.

  6. On the Set Schedule page, specify the following settings, and then click Next.

    1. Schedule: Specify the schedule for when the software updates are applied to the operating system image.

    2. Continue on error: For System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 and later: Select this option to continue to apply software updates to the image even when there is an error.

    3. Distribute the image to distribution points: Select this option to update the operating system image on distribution points after the software updates are applied.

  7. On the Summary page, verify the information, and then click Next.

  8. On the Completion page, verify that the software updates were successfully applied to the operating system image.

Additional Actions to Manage Operating System Images or Operating System Installers

After operating system images and operating system installers are added to a site, you can perform additional actions by selecting an object in the Operating System Images or Operating System Installers list. These actions include the following:

Action

Description

Distribute Content

Starts the Distribute Content Wizard to distribute the selected object to specific distribution points.

Update Distribution Points

Starts the Update Distribution Points Wizard to update the content on the distribution points where the selected object is distributed. The package version is incremented and the distribution points are updated with only the files that have changed in the package.

Create Prestaged Content File

Starts the Create Prestaged Content File Wizard. For information about how to create a prestaged content file, see Prestage Content.

Manage Access Accounts

Opens the Manage Access Accounts dialog box where you can add an access account to the selected object, edit the access rights for an account, or remove an access account from the selected object.

For more information about Package Access Accounts, see Technical Reference for Accounts Used in Configuration Manager

Move

Moves the selected object to another folder.