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Deployment Options for UEFI based Computers

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Today’s blog will discuss support for UEFI with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and other deployment tools. First we should discuss why this change is occurring. Today’s BIOS has been around for a long time. Some of the limitations include:

  • 16bit code
  • 1mb address space limitation
  • Slow option ROM initialization
  • MBR maximum bootable disk size is 2.2tb

 

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface spec replaces the existing BIOS with brand new scheme. More information on UEFI can be found at https://www.uefi.org/home/. One of the improvements will be that it will remove the limitation around disk sizes. It will support GUID Partition Table (GPT) which allows for max of 16.8 million TB. 

 

Windows only supports UEFI with 64bit Windows. There is no support for X86 OS (requires legacy BIOS fallback mode). Improvements with UEFI in Windows will allow for the following:

  • Faster initial booting(no need to use Int13 BIOS calls)
  • Faster resume from hibernate
  • Multicast PXE boot

Many machines such as IBM, HP, and Dell are shipping today with support for UEFI. The following summarizes the support for UEFI in Microsoft deployment tools:

 

Windows Deployment Services: UEFI is supported

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Update 1: Unsupported since it was not fully tested. At the time MDT was created there no production machines available for us to test.

System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr): UEFI is unsupported. 

 

If the computer emulates a “legacy” BIOS it should work fine. For example on some IBM servers they have instructions similar to this.

To install the operating system in legacy Mode, boot to the F1 menu options. Select Start Options and Legacy Only

You should contact the manufacturer of the computer to determine if it supports a legacy option and any additional steps to enable this.

 

Additional Information around manual installs to UEFI computers

Scott McArthur

Senior Support Escalation Engineer

Microsoft Enterprise Platforms Support

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Was that SCCM 2007 or 2012 beta? It it was v2007 do you have any idea if UEFI support is planned for v2012?
  • Anonymous
    October 21, 2011
    Can I create a single sysprepped Windows 7 64 image that can be loaded on both legacy BIOS machines and newer UEFI machines?  I do not want to have to maintain multiple images just to pick up the advantages of UEFI on my newer harder.Thanks,Chris
  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2012
    Bump on TT-ICCDS' question. Is UEFI supported in SCCM 2012?  Workarounds for UEFI w/ SCCM 2012?
  • Anonymous
    August 26, 2012
    here's how to deploy Windows 8 (or 7) in UEFI mode using Configuration Manager 2012 - www.niallbrady.com/.../how-can-i-deploy-windows-8-in-uefi-mode-using-configuration-manager-2012
  • Anonymous
    December 18, 2014
    I just wanted to update anyone who happens to read the comments. At the time of this posting I was able to use the same Image we have been using for years in legacy boot equipment on a UEFI image. The only catch was I had to enable the UEFI PXE boot and install it using that method. This image was built using MDT 2013 (upgraded from 2013, and I think it may have even been 2010 before that).

    Otherwise it would write the image and such but it would not actually boot after that. (post WinPE environment). This was a Dell 5550.
  • Anonymous
    October 15, 2015
    This document is no longer accurate, can you updated it with latest information for SCCM 2012 R2 SP1 Scott/Microsoft?