We are facing certain challenges, Kindly help me out to reach solution.
1.If we deploy OS through PXE boot via our IBM OS deployment server then automatically windows keys need to apply on all endpoints but we have different license keys of WIN7, Overall windows machines 2500 and we have different 2500 Windows keys too and we need apply key based on MAC ID or System serial no Basis For eg: ( Serial no = L440 , MAC= 55 oo cc … the OS key must be 1234-XYZI-…)
If any possibility to apply OS key through fixlet after OS deployment???
3.We need to create partition through bigfix OS deployment and need to format only C: drive only
Kindly share your experience based on this scenario , it will help me out to reach our expectations.
You can apply the serial number after deployment with a fixlet.
If any of these systems have OEM licenses for the edition of Windows 7 you are installing, you can actually switch them to OEM activation which does not use a key at all. This requires you install an OEM specific certificate in a special way.
@jgstew has the right idea for a technical solution.
However, something to keep in mind is this could be a great opportunity to move to volume licensing for your environment. Buying a single volume license should provide you re-image rights across all your OEM-purchased machines.
Not to party-poop but I believe it’s against Microsoft licensing terms to re-image OEM-licensed machines with anything other than a recovery/system-restore image. Using a single image across OEM machines requires re-imaging rights.
The trick is this:
Reimaging is the copying of software onto multiple devices from one standard image. Reimaging rights are granted to all Microsoft Volume Licensing customers. Under these rights, customers may reimage original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or full packaged product (FPP) licensed copies using media provided under their Volume Licensing agreement.
As a volume license customer you have reimage rights – even if you only have one license purchased under volume license – you may reimage systems and then use KMS for licensing.
This is of course a business solution and not a technical one so take it as far as you can throw it.
I do agree with @strawgate in general that volume licensing and KMS activation are your best bet for this and will save you a ton of work in the long run. I just didn’t know all of the details of how that worked.
I have mostly used the switch from KMS to OEM activation for the sake of endpoints that were not able to contact the KMS often enough.
In general, you can switch a copy of windows between Retail Activation, KMS Activation, and OEM activation after the fact. OEM Activation is by far the most difficult to do, but it is possible.
Previously I had thin imaged Dell computers with a recovery image, automatically installed BigFix, and then had BigFix handle the rest of the software and configuration deployment.
After we deploying OS through our IBM Bigfix and it automatically added into specific OU so please tell the procedure to activate the license keys through KMS (Key Management Server)? and also any modification on our bigfix side for set-up the KMS to contact for activation after bigfix OS deployment?
KMS activation is something through Microsoft. It sounds like @strawgate knows a lot more of the details than I do. It involves setting up a KMS server and pointing your endpoints to use that server for activation. It can be done very easily through a BigFix Task.
OEM activation is much more complicated. You need a system that has an OEM image on it. You need to backup the certificate on the machine and you need the serial number that is usually shared between all OEM activations for a particular version of Windows. You then need to install the certificate on all machines that should be OEM activated and then set the serial number and do the activation. This can all be done with a BigFix task, but it is definitely more complicated and there may be some legal issues around it depending on how you image that @strawgate mentioned.