Applying the Properties to Individual Computers

After you determine the groupings of target computers and configuration settings to be applied to each group, you need to determine the method for identifying individual computers and the configuration settings to assign to each computer. The rules for target computers allow you to override or augment group-based processing rules based on the priority of the computer-based rules. For more information about determining the priority of processing rules, see “Priority Reserved Property" earlier in this guide.

Whenever possible, use group-based rules for most of your client computer configuration settings. Group-based rules allow you to apply the same configuration settings to a group of computers. After you apply group-based rules, you can apply computer-specific configuration settings through computer-based rules.

Figure 5 illustrates the steps in applying properties to individual computers.

Figure 5. Steps in applying the properties to individual computers

On This Page

Selecting the Methods for Identifying Computers
Applying the Properties to the Individual Computers

Selecting the Methods for Identifying Computers

Like grouping computers, there is more than one method for identifying individual computers. Once you select the method for identifying an individual target computer, then you can select the appropriate properties.

The processing rules in BDD 2007 allow you to group computers based on any property that might be applied to a group of computers (such as AssetTag, MACAddress, UUID, and so on). Table 6 lists the methods of identifying individual computers, a description of the method, and the properties that you can use to identify the individual computers.

Table 6. Methods for Identifying Individual Computers

Example: Computer Identification Method Selected by Woodgrove

Listing 5 shows an example of how Woodgrove National Bank identified computer-based configuration settings. In this instance, Woodgrove used the MAC address of the computer to identify the corresponding configuration settings for the computer (for example, 00:03:FF:CB:4E:C2 and 00:0F:20:35:DE:AC). The configuration settings for each computer are listed immediately after the section that corresponds to the computer's MAC address.

Listing 5. How Woodgrove identified client computers

[00:03:FF:CB:4E:C2]
ComputerName=WasW2K
OverRideProductKey= TTTTT-VVVVV-WWWWW-XXXXX-YYYYY
[00:0F:20:35:DE:AC]
ComputerName=HPD530-1
OverRideProductKey= AAAAA-BBBBB-CCCCC-DDDDD-EEEEE
[00:03:FF:FE:FF:FF]
ComputerName=BVMXP
OverRideProductKey= 11111-22222-33333-44444-55555

Applying the Properties to the Individual Computers

After you select the methods for identifying individual computers, you need to determine which properties and corresponding configuration settings you will apply to each target computer.

These configuration settings typically appear under only one computer, because the configuration settings are unique to that computer. In instances in which a configuration setting is being applied to several computers, use group-based processing rules.

Some examples of properties that are typically applied to individual computers include:

• AssetTag

• HostName

• IPAddress

• OSDNewMachineName

• SerialNumber

Unlike properties assigned to groups of computers (which were limited), you can assign any property that relates to configuration settings to an individual computer.

Remember that if a group-based setting has a higher priority and the configuration setting was found in that group, the computer-specific settings are ignored. For more information about deployment processing rule priority, see “Priority Reserved Property" earlier in this guide.

Example: Computer-Based Configuration Settings Selected by Woodgrove

Listing 5 also shows the computer-based configuration settings that Woodgrove National Bank selected. Table 7 lists the computer-specific configuration settings applied to each computer.

Table 7. Woodgrove Client Computers and the Corresponding Configuration Settings

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