About Operating System Deployment Driver Management

Article
05/03/2011

Applies To: System Center Configuration Manager 2007, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2

In Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, the driver catalog helps manage the cost and complexity of deploying an operating system in an environment that contains different types of computers and devices. By storing device drivers in the driver catalog and not with each individual operating system image, the number of operating system images that is needed is greatly reduced. For more information about the driver catalog, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=110504.

Note

Before a driver can be used, it must be added to a driver package. For more information, see How to Create a Driver Package for a Windows Driver in Configuration Manager.

Driver Catalog Management

With the Configuration Manager Operating System Deployment server Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) classes you can manage the following:

Driver import
Driver packages
Boot images
Supported platforms

Driver Import

Using the SMS_Driver import methods, you can import the Windows drivers described by .inf and Txtsetup.oem files into the driver catalog. For more information, see How to Import a Windows Driver Described by an INF File into Configuration Manager and How to Import a Windows Driver Described by a Txtsetup.oem File into Configuration Manager.

Before a driver can be used, it must be enabled. For more information, see How to Enable or Disable a Windows Driver in Configuration Manager.

Driver Packages

Driver packages contain one or more Windows drivers. A driver package is an SMS_DriverPackage object and is distributed in the same way as an SMS_Package package. They both derive from SMS_PackageBaseClass.

For more information about creating a driver package, see How to Create a Driver Package for a Windows Driver in Configuration Manager.

Boot Images

Windows device drivers that have been imported into the driver catalog can be added to one or more boot images. Boot images are stored in SMS_BootImagePackage objects. In an SMS_BootImagePackage object, Windows drivers are kept in an array of referenced drivers. For more information, see How to Add a Windows Driver to a Configuration Manager Boot Image Package

Supported Platforms

Windows drivers can be configured to support specific platforms. The supported platforms are stored in the driver package XML. For more information, see How to Specify the Supported Platforms for a Driver.

Driver Categories

You can associate categories with Windows device drivers. For more information, see How to Add a Category to a Windows Driver