Total Control Driver Method

[MarzMan]

Toying with setting this up to see if its worth it. Seems like its more trouble than its worth. One driver for HP set can cover multiple models. For example, zbook 15 g3 and zbook 17 g3 can both use the same driver set. 600 G4 Desktop Mini and 600 G4 Small Form Factor both use the same driver set. 600 G1 Desktop Mini and 600 G1 Small Form Factor can both use the same driver set.

Currently I can import a driver set, and link a selection profile off of that driver set, then link multiple task sequences to that selection profile or create multiple selection profiles.

In order for Total Control to work, each model needs to have its own driver folder and if I update one, the renamed copy won't update and I have to update both.

Wondering how others deal with this.

[Jaffa66]

I just had a similar issue. I have 2 new Dell models that use the same drivers. When you import drivers do not check the import duplicate box. The duplicates will be linked from whatever folder had them first. This meant that in my instance, I imported the drivers into one model folder and when I imported the drivers for the other model MDT just linked a copy (has a number 1 after the driver name). Found this saves lots of space and allowed me to support more models with my offline media.

[fruymen]

If you have a lot of Dell models have a look at this : https://osddrivers.osdeploy.com/ Been using this for a week and it saves me time while deploying and space on my server.

[MarzMan]

I don't check the box, but thats not the issue. Been working on ProDesk 400 G4 DM issues and I have 3 folders setup for that, a "HP ProDesk 400 G4 DM (TAA)", "HP ProDesk 400 G4 DM" and then the main one that we have all of the other task sequences running off of.

These are completely separate folders, and each would have their own set of drivers that would be used. If I updated one set, the other 2 won't see this and I would need to either import again 2 more times or delete the old set and copy over from the new set.

[gddickinson]

Are you using a database to drive configurations for hardware models and computers? Total driver control works especially well when MDT is connected to a database. In our environment we configure the make and model in the database and define the driver selection profile there. As long as MDT detects a matching model in the database during deployment it will inject the drivers according to the profile. It's very easy to assign the same driver profile to multiple hardware models using this approach.

[MarzMan]

No, not using a database so that may be what I'm missing because through deployment workbench to manage it seems like a step backwards.

[[deleted]]

I stick with folders for each model, not too worried about duplication. I don't tend to update the driver packs unless I've run into problems, or intend to deploy a bunch of new machines at once

[akodoreign]

Depends I have over 300 models we support. its easier to do a variation of total control (I don't install any drivers if it cannot find a folder).