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Dell BIOS Manipulation with the K1000 and Dell CCTK

The purpose of this guide is to familiarize you with some of the ways that you can manipulate the BIOS settings of your systems en masse.  This guide will teach you how to use the Dell Client Configuration Toolkit (CCTK) as well as how that can fit directly in with your KACE appliances.  

The Dell Client Configuration Toolkit is a free tool that can assist you in making bios changes to your Dell systems.  It can create executable files that will alter BIOS settings as part of a reboot.  These files can be created to work on a single model of Dell system or as a multi-platform file that will work on all supported Dell system models.

 

In this guide we will cover the 2 most common scenarios for using the CCTK with KACE. 

  • Enabling PXE
  • Enabling Wake-On-Lan

We will deploy the CCTK packages using K-scripts on the K1000 

Installing the CCTK

Download the CCTK installer here:  http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/systems-management/w/wiki/1952.dell-client-configuration-toolkit-cctk.aspx

Run the installer and choose the default settings.

 

Creating the BIOS Manipulation Packages

Run the CCTK Configuration Wizard and choose “Create Package” on the main screen of the tool.

 

On the next screen you will have the option to create 3 types of files. 

  • Multi-platform
  • This System
  • Another System

Most of the time you will create a multi-platform file which will work on any of the supported systems for the CCTK.  You can use the other options to create a BIOS Manipulation package for a single specific system.

Choose Multi-platform and click next. 

We are now presented with a list of available BIOS settings for all supported Dell System Models. 

For the purposes of using this tool with KACE we will focus on the two most common situations.

  • Enabling Wake On LAN
  • Enabling PXE Boot

You can see in the screenshot above that the Wake On LAN option is selected.

To enable Wake On LAN we would select the “wakeonlan” option and then select “enabled” from the available values.

To Enable PXE boot we would select “embnic1” and select “on” from the available values. 

-“on” is chosen here because the default is commonly “onnopxe” where there NIC is enabled but PXE booting is not.

Double Click the field under Value to Set and drop down menus will appear.

Select your value and then click “Export Configuration .exe”

If you have a password on your client systems BIOS then you can enter it on the next screen.

Now we will create a script to deploy the BIOS changes with the K1000.

Go to the Scripting tab and select “add new item” from the “choose action” drop down menu.

Now you will want to choose “Online KScript” as the script type then follow the steps below to create the script.

  1. Give the script a name
  2. Select your desired target machines from the Deployment section.
  3. Select the target OS versions.
  1. Choose run as Local System
  1. Configure End User Alerts (if any)
  1. Schedule the script (if needed)
  1. Click “Add Task Section” and configure the following task
    1. Under “On Success” choose “Launch a program”
      1. In “Directory” enter “$(KACE_DEPENDENCY_DIR)”
      2. Under “File” enter “YOURFILE.exe”
      1. Under “Parameters” enter “/l=$(KACE_DEPENDENCY_DIR)\log.txt”
  1. Save the Script

The script will require a reboot to apply the changes.  You can add another step to initiate the reboot or you may wait for the user to reboot the system themselves.

Your script task section should look like like this: 

 

You can now save and run the script.

  

You will see a log file created in the KACE packages directory for the Script.  If successful you will see a line that reads  “CCTK STATUS CODE : SUCCESS”


Comments

  • Could you give an example of setting the very same script up in the K2000? Thank you! - aaronr 11 years ago
    • To create the same thing as a post installation task in the K2000 you would just run the WOLPXEEnable.exe file as a post install task. - WhitzEnd 11 years ago
      • Ha! Love it when things are so much easier than they appear. Thanks WhitzEnd, I'm going to try it out. - aaronr 11 years ago
  • I'm new to K1000 and little confused on how the K1000 is picking up the .exe file created in the first part to actually deploy via the K1000. Nowhere did the file get uploaded or a file path given... The instructions are pretty much step by step, but I'm missing something... - harold.moorhead 10 years ago
    • To upload the file you need to add it as a dependency in the "Dependencies" section just above the "Tasks" section. The file will upload when you save the script. - gmileon 10 years ago
  • I have followed this verbatim, quadruple-checked my syntax, added the .exe as my dependency, but I still cannot get this to work across multiplatform. I really need a way to enable WOL on at least 1000 machines. Do I need to add the PXE "embnic1" part of this to get WOL to work as well?

    Any thoughts on this?

    EDIT (8-30-13)

    Nevermind.........this works perfectly! It just didn't work on XP for me. Looking through the logs, using an absolute path with $(KACE_DEPENDENCY_DIR), either KACE or XP do not like C:\Documents and Setttings\path\path.

    I keep getting error.....cannot find C:\ and Settings\path\path. On Win 7 machines, this works fantastic. Thank you for the tip!! - J.R. Colby 10 years ago
  • First of all, thank you it works a treat. I am wondering how I can the CCTK status line that is contained in the log file as a Custom Inventory Rule. I can point to the log file, but dont want all of it ..

    Has anyone done this?? - Netpar 10 years ago
  • I validated that this works for K1000 v6.0 as well. - KACE_Mary 9 years ago
  • Thanks so much for this post. New to this and can verify this works on KACE 6.4.120756.
    We were able to push out BIOS setings to the systems (OptiPlex 9010AIO, 9020AIO, and 3020m) without issues. All systems Win7 x86 and x64

    Thanks again. - hf13207 7 years ago
  • Hey has anyone figured the command for disabling the TouchScreen? I have some E7470 with touchscreen that causing freezing issues on applications. Disabling the touchscreen fixes the issue. Need to update deployment image with it disabled. - abnranger67 7 years ago
  • If you want to enable a password to the BIOS, is thier anything extra that needs to be done? Would this work for the latest command and configure version and the latest K1000? - jgarcia29 6 years ago
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