When you boot up a computer for an OSD task sequence, it will check for any applicable ones based on the computer name in configmgr. Question is, if there is no OS installed yet, where does it determine the computer name? I've had some that I formatted the OS on and the computer was still in the console and it found it and returned no TS. Help.

Hi, SCCM identifies the computer using the MAC address or GUID not the name when you PXE boot. If there is a match in the SCCM DB for the MAC/UUID it will use that name otherwise if it not in the DB it will generate a "minint-34234" automatically so it is unique on the network asuming you have advertised the TS to unknown computers.. regards, Jrgen-- My System Center blog ccmexec.com -- Twitter @ccmexec

as Jorgen says, plus if you want to set the computername you can do so as follows:- Step by Step ConfigMgr 2007 Guides | Step by Step ConfigMgr 2012 Guides | I'm on Twitter > ncbrady

Hi, you wrote that there is no TS for the computers. If you use PXE, right click on the computer and "clear last pxe advertisement" otherwise check, if the computer is still in the right collection for the TS advertisement regards, Stefan

I'm not PXE booting, I'm using boot media. So it gets the MAC or GUID then checks the SCCM DB. Does it get the MAC from the BIOS, in another words, what provides the MAC to SCCM when in Windows PE?

If you start with the boot media, you have an smsts.log file in x:\windows\temp\smstslog there you see what MAC and UUID (SMBIOSGUID) the computer presents. Also you can see, if the client is known by SCCM. regards, Stefan

I'm not disputing that it isn't working properly, I just want to find out how SCCM finds the MAC from the computer while in PE and not within the OS. It must use something in the BIOS to extract that right?

Hi, It uses WMI in WinPE to extract the MAC address, so it is extracted from the management layer. Regards, Jrgen-- My System Center blog ccmexec.com -- Twitter @ccmexec

Hi, It uses WMI in WinPE to extract the MAC address, so it is extracted from the management layer. Regards, Jrgen-- My System Center blog ccmexec.com -- Twitter @ccmexec

I imported a computer with name/mac. The netbios name is detected and the smsts.log displayed the machine as known. But the name is not automatically set and at the end the hostname is minint-xxx <![LOG[Client GUID = GUID:A4D7A7D4-1FA6-4EAA-979D-1377FA7D1A19, Netbios name = KIPTEST43, State = Known]LOG]! Are there any new variables which have to be set to get the old behaviour or what can be the cause for this behaviour. I found another log entry while writing this. <![LOG[Failed to retrieve the machine name from SMS database. Fall back to the current local computer name.]LOG]!><time="09:00:03.682-120" date="06-26-2012" component="TSMBootstrap" context="" type="2" thread="1152" file="tsmediawizardcontrol.cpp:1821"> UPDATE: I checked the network access acount assuming this account is used to connect to the database. Everything is in place. I crawled also through the whole log. On the SQL Server no logon failed entries logged. No more ideas...