SCCM: drivers and meta data backup
What is the SCCM driver ?
SCCM driver is a critical part of operating system deployment. They are also integrated in driver package. Driver packages are logical group where it contains the drivers which may be logically aligned to specific group, class or model. Some of the important attributes of drivers are CI_ID, name, class , version , INF file name. In these attributes , CI_ID is an important attribute. This is a unique ID which is assigned to each and every driver when it is imported in SCCM.
What if you delete the driver ?
Each driver have specific record in database. They are also associated with driver packages. So if we delete any driver they are are deleted from database and driver package also. So its important to check drivers association before deletion.However if someone deletes the driver unintentionally or intentionally without informing , then its a big risk for deployment process by effecting the driver packages. So its important to take the backup of driver information so if they are deleted , can be recovered by just re-importing that specific driver.
What if you delete the driver package?
As mentioned earlier , the driver packages contains drivers with specific model , class etc. If these driver packages are deleted accidentally or intentionally , then its going to effect the deployment process as it will not be able to find that specific driver package. So in this case , you need to recreate the driver package by searching those drivers from driver catalog. But it would be very easy if we have the information of those drivers which were part of that deleted driver package.
How to take back up driver information ?
From above two cases , its clear that we need to take back up of meta data of each driver which are part of specific driver package.
https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Powershell-to-Export-SCCM-1177a622
Script will take each driver package id and search in SCCM. Following information from the SCCM will be exported in text file.
- CI_ID
- Driver Date
- Driver Inf File
- Driver Version
- Localized Display Name
There is one more script which will restore and recreate the driver package if deleted by human error or accidentally.
https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Restore-DRIVER-PACKAGES-if-da9e282c