Mass deploy ChromeOS Flex—SCCM

These instructions assume that you already have a fully functional Microsoft Windows System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) infrastructure at your site.

While we try to give you as much background information as possible, these instructions assume that you have a high level of technical aptitude with SCCM and experience with a pre-existing operating system deployment in their respective infrastructures.

Note: Due to the variety of permutations and the availability of different configurations of SCCM, the detail in these instructions has been purposely kept light.

What you need

• SCCM Access: Administrative access to the SCCM console to set up the OS deployment, boot images, associated task sequences,and so on.
• Mass deployment image: A special Chrome OS Flex disk image for your organization, designed for SCCM deployment. The standard installation files do not work for mass deployment.
  Note: Currently, the ChromeOS Flex mass deployment disk image is only compatible with devices that use modern UEFI boot architecture. Older machines that use BIOS or Legacy boot architecture are not supported.
• Network file share:
  • Approximately 40 GB of storage. The network share will host the imaging scripts, ChromeOS Flex image file, and associated tools.
  • A specific network account with proper read access to the network share.
• Chrome OS Flex Task Sequence: A copy of the ChromeOSFlex-SCCM-Task-Sequence.zip file in a location that you can access for import into the SCCM console.

Chrome OS Flex SCCM Utility Files: A copy of the ChromeOSFlex-SCCM-Utilities.zip file, ready to be extracted to your network file share. The file contains the utilities that you’ll need for the imaging process in the Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) environment.

Step 1: Set up network share and permission

1. Create network share: Using an account with proper administrative access, create a shared folder on your network. Download and unzip the contents of ChromeOSFlex-SCCM-Utilities-Files.zip to it.

2. Set up share and NTFS permissions: For the shared folder, assign the proper read permissions for share permissions and NT file system (NTFS) security.
   1. Share permissions—Allow Read.
   2. NTFS permissions—Allow Read & execute, List folder contents, and Read.
3. Download ChromeOS Flex mass deployment image:Download the mass deployment image.
4. Unzip Chrome OSFlex mass deployment image: Unzip the large .bin file, at least 10 GB, to your shared network folder.

Step 2: Download, unzip, and import SCCM task sequence

1. Download the Chrome OS Flex deployment task sequence.
2. Unzip the task sequence to a location that can be accessed by the account and device that you’ll use for the SCCM administration process.
3. In the SCCM console, import the task sequence.
   1. Go to Software LibraryOperating Systems.
   2. Right-click Task Sequences.
   3. Click Import Task Sequence.
   4. Using the Import Task Sequence Wizard, import the task sequence. You’ll see the ChromeOS Flex installation task sequence in your task sequence list.

Step 3: Configure SCCM task sequence

1. In the task sequence editor, customize the Connect to Network Folder task with your environment’s configuration and click OK to save:
   • Path: Enter the path to the Chrome OS Flex deployment share, \\username\sharename.
   • Drive: Choose a drive letter that will be used within the WinPE session only.
   • Account: Enter the username and password of the account. This account connects to the Chrome OS Flex deployment share, runs the tools, and writes your organization’s Chrome OS Flex image to the disk on devices.
2. Still in the task sequence editor, customize the Deploy ChromeOS Flex Image task.
   1. In the Command line, edit the filename to match the name of the .bin file that you downloaded and unzipped.
   2. Click OK to save.
3. Assign boot image to ChromeOS Flex installation task sequence.
   Note: This step assumes that you have a tested and working boot image that contains the drivers needed for your targeted hardware for network, disk, and basic operation in the WinPE environment.
   1. In the SCCM console, go to Software Library>Task Sequences.
   2. Right-click the ChromeOS Flex installation task sequence.
   3. Click Properties.
   4. On the Advanced tab, check the Use a boot image box and browse to choose your boot image.

Step 4: Deploy Chrome OS Flex

Follow your organization’s usual SCCM task deployment process. These steps typically include:

1. Distribute your finalized task sequence: Update your distribution points so that they contain your ChromeOS Flex installation task sequence.
2. Create a device collection: Create a device collection for the target devices that you want to deploy Chrome OS Flex to.
3. Deploy your task sequence to the target device collection.

When the task sequence is made available, reboot devices using the network or PXE option, and boot to the ChromeOS Flex installation task sequence.

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