In this post, we will deploy the recently released Windows 2019 with SCCM 1810. We will describe how to create a SCCM Windows 2019 deployment task sequence and deploy it to your servers. If you are already deploying Windows 10 in your environment, or even Windows Server 2016, chances are that you won’t need to change anything in your environment.

This task sequence will help you deploy a “vanilla” Windows Server 2019 Standard edition using the default Install.wim from the Windows 2019 media. This means that you’ll end up with a basic Windows 2019 with the SCCM client and nothing else.

You will be able to edit this task sequence later to customize it to your environment.

PREPARE YOUR Windows 2019 OPERATING SYSTEMS

We will now import the Windows Server 2019 WIM file before deployment.

Important

You’ll see both Operating System Images and Operating System Upgrade Packages. One is to import .WIM files and the other one is for Full Media.

We will need both for different scenarios.

In the case of a vanilla deployment or after a build and capture, you use Operating System Images to import the WIM files. In an Upgrade task Sequence, you will need to have the Full media imported in Operating System Upgrade Packages.

We will start by importing the default Install.Wim from the Windows Server 2019 media. You could also import a WIM file that you’ve created through a build and capture process.

  • Mount the Windows 2019 ISO file
  • Go to the Sources folder
  • Copy the Install.Wim file to your SCCM repository. You can rename the Wim file if needed
  • Open the SCCM Console
  • Go to Software Library / Operating Systems / Operating System Images
  • Right click Operating System Images and select Add Operating System Image
  • On the Data Source tab, browse to the WIM file you just imported. The path must be in UNC format
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • In the General tab, enter the Name, Version and Comment, click Next
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • On the Summary tab, review your information and click Next
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • Complete the wizard and close this window
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence

DISTRIBUTE YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM IMAGE

We now need to send the Operating System Image (WIM file) to our distribution points.

  • Right click your Operating System Image, select Distribute Content and complete the Distribute Content wizard
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence

CREATE SCCM WINDOWS SERVER 2019 DEPLOYMENT TASK SEQUENCE

  • Open the SCCM Console
  • Go to Software Library \ Operating Systems \ Task Sequences
  • Right-click Task Sequences and select Create Task Sequence
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • On the Task Sequence wizard, select Install an existing image package
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • On the Task Sequence Information pane, enter the desired Name, Description and Boot Image
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • On the Install Windows pane, select the Image package and Image index. We will select the second index which is Windows Server 2019 Standard edition.
  • Leave the check box beside Partition and Format the target computer before installing the operating system
  • Uncheck Configure task sequence for use with Bitlocker
  • Leave the Product key blank, if you are using MAK keys, read this post on how to handle that in your Task Sequence. (TL;DR: Even with MAK key, you need to leave the Product key blank)
  • Enter an Administrator password if needed
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • In the Configure Network pane, you can select to Join a workgroup or domain. If you select Join a domain, enter your domain information, OU and credentials
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • On the Install Configuration Manager Client pane, select your Configuration Manager Client Package and enter your installation properties
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • On the State Migration pane, we will remove all checkbox as we don’t want to use User State Migration at this time
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence

On the Include Updates pane, select the desired Software Update task

  • Required for installation will install the updates regardless of whether there is a deadline set on the deployment (on your OSD collection)
  • Available for installation will only install updates from deployments that have a scheduled deadline (on your OSD collection)
  • Do not install any software updates will not install any software update during the Task Sequence
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • On the Install Applications tab, click on the Star Icon to add any application that you want to be installed during your deployment. Only applications will be listed. If you need to add packages, you can add it by editing the task sequence later. Theses applications will be deployed each time the task sequence is executed.
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • On the Summary tab, review your settings and click Next
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • On the Completion tab, click Close
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence

DEPLOY WINDOWS SERVER 2019 TASK SEQUENCE

Now that your Task Sequence is created, we will deploy it to a collection and start a Windows Server 2019 deployment.

Be careful

Be careful when targeting the deployment. This task sequence will format and install a new OS to targeted devices. You don't want to be *that* admin that wipes and formats all devices in your company!

  • Open the SCCM Console
  • Go to Software Library \ Operating Systems \ Task Sequences
  • Right-click your Windows Server 2019 Task Sequence and select Deploy
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • On the General pane, select your collection. This is the collection that will receive the Windows Server 2019 installation. For testing purposes, we recommend putting only 1 computer to start
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • Select the Purpose of the deployment
    • Available will prompt the user to install at the desired time
    • Required will force the deployment at the deadline (see Scheduling)
  • In the Make available to the following drop down, select the Only media and PXE. This will ensure that you do not send the deployment on clients. This is also useful to avoid errors, using this options you *could* send the deployment to All Systems and no clients would be able to run the deployment from Windows
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • On the Scheduling tab, enter the desired available date and time. On the screenshot, we can’t create an Assignment schedule because we select Available in the previous screen
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • In the User Experience pane, select the desired options
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • In the Alerts tab, check Create a deployment alert when the threshold is higher than the following checkbox if you want to create an alert on the failures
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • On the Distribution Point pane, select the desired Deployment options. We will leave the default options
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • Review the selected options and complete the wizard
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence

PXE BOOT

Now that we’ve created our task sequence and that it’s deployed. We can start the deployment on the machine. Make sure that your system is a member of your deployment collection and start the device.

  • The machine is booting and waiting for the PXE to respond
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • Our SCCM distribution point is sending the boot image to our VM
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • The Welcome to the Task Sequence Wizard pops-up. This is because of the Available purpose in the Deployment Settings. If we had a Requireddeployment, the task sequence would start right away. Click Next
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • All the available task sequence are listed. In our example we have only 1 deployment on our collection so only 1 task sequence is available. Select the task sequence and click Next
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence
  • The Task Sequence starts
SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence

Completed ! Welcome to Windows Server 2019.

SCCM Windows 2019 Task Sequence

SCCM Windows server 2019 task sequence MONITORING

See our blog post on this topic which covers the various ways to monitor your Task Sequence progress.

Bonus things to do…

You will also need to cover a few things that we didn’t document on this article. Such as:

  • Add “Windows Server 2019” to your product classifications in Administration / Site Configuration / Sites / Configure Site Components / Software Update Point
  • Update your KMS if you use one to enable activations for Server 2019
  • Adjust your GPO filters if you use them to enable Server 2019
  • Validate if all your drivers are still 2019 compatible if you deploy on physical machines
Comments (8)

Fiya

03.10.2020 AT 01:40 PM
Is there in place upgrade steps for Server 2016 to Server 2016

SAI KRISHNA

01.23.2020 AT 04:51 AM
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Sinita Singh-Nelson

07.16.2019 AT 02:34 PM
Thank you!!!! very helpful.

George Anjorin

03.08.2019 AT 04:35 AM
Awesome, thanks!

Skylar

02.13.2019 AT 12:32 PM
Currently, any servers running W2k19 are being added to the operational collection for W2k16, because both show up as "Microsoft Windows NT Server 10.0" Any recommendations on how to both update the rule for the existing W2k16 collection as well as creating a new W2k19 collection to distinguish the two?

Brandon

10.02.2019 AT 02:10 AM
From the Discovery Data you could use Operating System Build, otherwise you have to use the Win32_Operating System class and use either the Caption or Version attributes to differentiate between the Server 2016+ builds. select SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceID,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceType,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Name,SMS_R_SYSTEM.SMSUniqueIdentifier,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Client from SMS_R_System inner join SMS_G_System_OPERATING_SYSTEM on SMS_G_System_OPERATING_SYSTEM.ResourceID = SMS_R_System.ResourceId where SMS_G_System_OPERATING_SYSTEM.Version = "10.0.17763" and SMS_G_System_OPERATING_SYSTEM.Caption LIKE "Microsoft Windows Server 2019%"

Lassaad2k

02.07.2019 AT 02:54 PM
Excellent ,Thank You

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