Importing Computer Information (Manual Machine Entries)

Manual machine entries are used to manage new, bare metal systems with Configuration Manager 2007 and are created using the Import Computer

Information Wizard. As you may recall from previous chapters, a computer object does not get created until a discovery method is used. Unfortunately, new systems aren't easily discovered because they typically have no operating systems installed. This is where manual machine entries come into play. To manage new systems, you must manually create machine entries that represent them within the Configuration Manager 2007 database. These entries must contain the computer name and either the MAC address or SMBIOS GUID of the new machine. Once these machines have been added to a collection, you can then advertise operating systems to that collection, allowing you to PXE the new systems and start an OSD task sequence. This is fairly easy to manage when you have a handful of new systems, but what if you have thousands of new systems?

To help with this, there is an option to import multiple systems using a CSV file

containing this information. In some situations, it's possible to get a list of this information from your system manufacturer to help out with this but it can still be difficult if dealing with a large number of systems.

To create a new manual machine entry, complete the following steps:

1. Right-click on the Computer Association node located under Computer Management > Operating System Deployment and choose Import Computer Information (Figure 13.78).

2. The Import Computer Information Wizard is displayed. You can choose to import computers using a file or import a single computer. In our example, we'll choose the Import a Single Computer option and click Next to continue (Figure 13.79).

3. The single computer information section of the wizard is displayed. In this section, you can enter a computer name, MAC address, and SMBIOS GUID. You also have the ability to create a computer association by choosing a source computer if this system will be used to hold user state data as we described in the last section. In our example, we'll enter CHI-WIN7-03 as the computer name and the MAC address of







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