Specops Deploy Change Log

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Version 4.6.20410.1

Released April 2nd, 2012

New Features

• New PowerShell Cmdlets
  Two new PowerShell Cmdlets for initializing OS capture and Importing captured images has been added. It is now possible to fully automate an OS capture and import.
• Enhanced support for user initiated OS installations
  It is now enough that a computer has a MAC or GUID registered in ad in the property netBootGuid to allow installations with F12, this means that for example if a computer is previously installed with WDS or RIS the user can simply press F12 and the computer will be managed by F12 (If allowed by policy).
  It is also possible for an user with local admin privileges to start an installation by running the LiteTouch.vbs script directly from a Specops Deploy Deployment Server as long as the affecting policy is set to store user data for user initiated installations.
• HP UEFI support for Specops Deploy BIOS config.
  New HP computers with UEFI can now be set to boot on PWX and enable WOL with the Specops Deploy BIOS Config tool that ships with the Specops Deploy /OS admin tools.

Bug Fixes in Specops Deploy

• Specops Deploy /App and /OS Guids has been separated
  Depending on how link order was set and settings separated in different GPOs for /App and /OS there the PXE filter could select the wrong GPO. These settings are now filtered separately
• CSE based upgrades from x86 to x64 could select a x86 OS if available
  The CSE now always uses the physical processor architecture and not that of the current operating system
• CSE based installations failed when no subnet was available in any site in AD
  The call to the underlying Site API is no modified to fall back to the default site if no subnets are defined.
• PXE installations randomly fails to force x86
  Due to the way WDS can use another DC than the computer it is installed to the PXE filter has been updated to account for replication latency.
• The Specops Deploy Configuration Tool does not remove all items
  When selecting computers to remove reported heartbeats, computers that are selected and not on-screen is not removed. This is now fixed so that all items are removed, regardless if they are on screen or not
• App-v Applications that are not specifically designed for Global publishing does not appear when deploying to users.
  The Specops Deploy CSE now manages App-V applications regardless of targeted to user or computers.
   

Version 4.5.11118.2

Released November 22nd, 2011.

New Features

• Specops Deploy Group Policy Extension initiated Operating System reinstallation 
  Specops Deploy now supports installation from both PXE boot and initiation from the Specops Deploy Group Policy Client Side Extension. This makes it possible to start an installation of an Operating System without Pre-staging or having a Specops Deploy Deployment Server at the same site as the computer being reinstalled.
  Any computer with the Specops Deploy 4.5 Group Policy CSE can now reinstall the operating system if the admin selects the computer for reinstallation. The new CSE based installation feature  still rely on the fully Active Directory  integrated security model and the Specops Software and does not change the way the administrator will work with Specops Deploy during Operating System installations.
• Greatly Enhanced Driver Management model
  Specops Deploy 4.5 introduces a new way of managing drivers where it possible to customize the make, model, operating systems in any order. Every node also supports the notion of Alias, meaning that any number of models or makes can be added to a single driver’s node, e.g. Dell Laptops, by adding them using either a wild card match or the direct name.
  Specops Deploy 4.5 also supports more than just the standard make and model properties when determining the computer manufacturer and model, thus adding out-of-the box support for all types of computers regardless of standard used to identify them.
  Specops Deploy now also supports driver installation of drivers regardless of if the actual device that is attached to the computer during installation.
  Upgrading from previous versions of Specops Deploy simply requires the admin to tag the upgraded folders as operating systems versions, make or models and everything will work after that with the new model
• Deployment Feedback UI improvements
  All options available in the Live View are now also available in the grid view.  A new option to remove all deployment information is added.  Active Directory Site awareness has been greatly improved and now the feedback is retrieved from the Domain Controller that the Specops Deploy Deployment Server handling the installation is communicating with to minimize latency due to Active Directory replication.
• Advanced Image Management
  It is now possible to work with images in a brand new way. When an image is imported into the system, it can be any *.WIM file, not only images captured by Specops Deploy. Also during import it is now possible to upgrade existing images, this will in fact replace the upgraded image with the new one in all GPOs and the Default Deployment Policy where it is used as soon as the Deployment Repository is published. Any changes to the underlying MDT Task Sequences will also be preserved during upgrade. It is also possible to base the new imported image on a previous one, resulting in the new image getting the same MDT Task Sequence as the on it is based on, but a manual switch is needed in any policy that uses the images before they will be used.
  The naming of the Images is now also reflected more clearly in the underlying MDT Deployment Shares, making it easier for customers that perform custom editing of the task sequences to determine the correct Task Sequence/Image.
  Underlying MDT folder structure is now preserved, the images still being presented in the simple to use list in Specops Deploy but as a structure of the MDT workbench is used to view the content.

Major Changes in Specops Deploy / App

• Export of Feedback in the Specops Deploy / App admin tools
  It is now possible to export both the overview of all Deployments in a GPO as well as the drill down of a single Deployment to files.
• Specops Deploy License Management
  The Specops Deploy Group Policy Client Side Extension will now send a heartbeat to the Specops Deploy Server, by default every 7 days, this heartbeat makes it possible to both see that the computers are running the latest version of the Specops Deploy Client Side Extension as well as count the number of licenses actually used. The result can be monitored in the new Specops Deploy Configuration Tool, from this tool it is also possible to import, change and export the license key.  Even if the number of Specops Deploy Client Side Extensions deployed exceeds the number of licenses purchased, there is no effect on the features in any way. The only effect this will have is that it will inform the administrator that he/she needs to check the amount of licenses purchased.
  The license key will also permit trial keys that can be extended for longer time then the previous hard coded 20days.
  A new updated license key is needed to install Specops Deploy 4.5
• Microsoft App-V 4.6 support
  Microsoft App-V 4.6, both x86 and x64, is now fully supported.

Fixed Bugs in Specops Deploy / OS

•  Recreate the Multicast Stream
  In case the Deployment Server Multicast stream is removed, it can now be recreated using a new PowerShell Cmdlet Add-SDMulticastStream
• Allow user to initiate reinstallation using F12 during boot
  Due to a bug, this feature was not working properly consistently
• Lock screen during installation
  A new option in the Group Policy Objects now allow for the screen to be locked during the last phase of the operating system installation. This will keep the screen locked when the computer is rebooting the last time with the operating system installed to prevent tampering.
• Multiple languages supported on the operating system of the Specops Deploy Deployment Server
  It is now possible to install the Deployment Servers on computers running operating system with languages other than English.
• Pre-staging of computers with names longer than 15 chars prevented
  Only computer names that are shorter are maximum 15 chars will be allowed, this include presaging from a file.
• Pre-staging and reinstalling will add permission to join the computer to the domain if not already granted.
  A check will be performed to see if the install account has permissions to join the computer to the domain and if it does not if will try to add these permissions automatically.
• The DoNotCreateExtraPartition variable can now be overridden
  The variable is no longer prevented from being overwritten so that it is possible to prepare for BitLocker already during installation.
• Windows Update Configuration improvements
  The Group Policy Settings are now improved with an option to either turn off patching during installation download the patches from Windows Update or a specific internal WSUS server.

Fixed Bugs in Specops Deploy / App

• Specops Deploy / App service account get proper permissions for SCP during installation
  The account selected to be used as the service account for Specops Deploy will now automatically get the proper permission in AD to manage its own Service Connection Point sub-object. If this was not properly configured the service would not start.
• The SpecopsSoft folder in the root of C: is now longer created when Tracing is enabled
  All logging is now either to %windir%\debug\usermode or the users profile depending on the component.
• Max log size for the Specops Deploy trace file
  Tracing can now be enabled without the trace file ever becoming larger than 10 MB with a rotating backup file of the same size.
• Environment variable Targets Fail Group Policy processing when the variable does not exist
  Testing for system variables that do not exist will now return false and not stop deployment.

Version 4.2.1217.1

Released December 15th, 2010.

New features

• Specops Log Viewer – A new tool named Specops Log Viewer is now included with Specops Deploy. Specops Log Viewer can read log files from for example computers that are being installed by Specops Deploy /OS. Specops Log Viewer has a number of features such as the ability to read new lines as they are written to the log file live, filter out errors and warnings, a tab based interface to display multiple log files and much more.
• Combined Setup Assistant – Specops Deploy /Application, Specops Deploy /OS and Specops Log Viewer are now all part of the same Setup Assistant and download. Previously Specops Deploy /OS and Specops Deploy /Application were separate downloads.
• MDT 2010 Update 1 – Specops Deploy now has full support for Microsoft MDT 2010 Update 1 and the enhancements included. When installing or upgrading to Specops Deploy 4.2 or later the Setup Assistant will automatically detect if Update 1 is installed. If Update 1 is not installed, the Setup Assistant will assist in downloading Microsoft MDT 2010 Update 1.
• Pre-stage improvements – When pre-staging a computer, Specops Deploy now supports not only MAC address and Computer GUID, but also computer GUIDs that are in the reversed byte order. Computer GUIDs can be shown in two different formats, the actual bits are the same but sometimes the GUID is displayed with the first 12 characters reversed. Any system administrator that is familiar with pre-staging in AD for Windows Deployment Servers will recognize the so called Pretty Print Format, but when for example a computer is booted another format called the Wire Format is shown. Specops Deploy now handles both formats when pre-staging computers.
• Improved Error Reporting – Errors that occur during the installation of Operating systems will now be reported back to the administrator with the same detailed text that is shown in the error dialog on the computer.
• Upgrade Deployment Server Wizard – The Admin Tools now have a context menu that allows for a direct upgrade of a Deployment Server. The Admin Tools will also notify the administrator if there are Deployment Servers running an outdated version of Specops Deploy. The same context menu also allows for uninstallation of Deployment Servers.
• Pending Installations – Pending installations are now added directly when they are pre-staged to the Live and Grid view in the Admin Tools. They are represented by a grey computer icon that is not attached to any Deployment Server and when the installation starts they will automatically attach to the Deployment Server from where they are installed and progress will update accordingly.
• New configuration for Stale server and installation detection – Registry settings have been added that control the behavior for the Admin UI to allow for a longer latency when it determines if a Deployment Server or installation is stale. The main reason to change the behavior is in larger AD configurations with multiple sites that have slow replication.
• Persisted zoom level – The Live View and Server Management Tab now remembers changes to the zoom level even when the Admin Tools is closed and reopened.
• Improved notification for Windows XP Captures – The Capture Dialog will give the administrator a hint to make sure blank passwords are allowed when performing a capture on a Windows XP computer. When capturing Windows XP computers and the local Password Policy does not allow blank passwords the capture still succeeds but when the image is deployed the new password cannot be set. 
• Faster server boot – The Deployment Server Service is now configured to start with the Delayed option on Server 2008 R2 and later, thus the overall time to boot a server is decreased.
• Database Cleaner – The Admin Tools setup now also adds the Database Cleaner tool during installation. The Database Cleaner is a utility that that finds old computers etc. in the Specops3 database used by most Specops Products. The Database Cleaner can be found in the same directory as the Admin tools are installed to.
• Improved Operating System Target – The performance for evaluating targets with the Operating System criterion on client computers has been greatly improved.
• New look and feel – The new Specops color scheme and icons are now used for the Specops Deploy admin tools.

Fixed bugs

• Create Manufacturer dialog error – In the Create Manufacturer dialog for drivers, clicking the Cancel button will no longer show an error.
• Deployment Server upgrade problems with WDS – During upgrade of the Deployment Server a problem with locked files that prevented Windows Deployment Services from starting automatically is now fixed.
• Drivers are no longer duplicated during import – Changed the way Drivers are added and removed to not store the same drivers multiple times in the Repository when for example adding the same drivers for different models or operating systems.
• Configurations preserved during upgrade – During upgrade the settings in the Registry that have been changed are preserved instead of replaced with the ones in the setup package.
• Windows XP installations failing due to missing settings – Windows XP installations will no longer fail when no settings have been configured in the Environment Settings Tab in the policy that affects the computer.
• Deployment Server not booting properly on Server 2008 R2 – In Server 2008 R2 the Deployment Server could fail to start during boot if the Server Service was not completely started. The Deployment Server now has a dependency on the Server Service to make sure that the Server Service is always is available when the Deployment Server is started.

Version 3.6.9142.20231

Released May 27th, 2009.

Changes

• The Specops Database Installer is bundled with the Specops Deploy Admin tools. The Specops Database Installer can be used if the database needs to be reinstalled or reset, it also contains functionality to run custom SQL queries against the database.
• .Net remoting is now used to read information from the Specops Deploy database. This removes the need for the old COM+ components on the server since that functionality is now built into the Specops Deploy Server service.
• You can now use the the Specops Deploy Setup Assistant to set a service account for the Specops Deploy Server Service.
• Access to the detailed feedback is now managed through a group called “Specops Deploy Feedback Users”. Members of this group will have access to detailed feedback.
• The Specops Deploy Control Center is now UAC aware and will prompt for credentials or consent on any computer configured to use UAC.

Page last modified on December 15, 2010, at 11:32 AM

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