ThinkVantage Technology Deployment using Active Directory

Question

I am attempting to automate the deployment of Rescue and Recovery using Active Directory for about 50 laptops. So far, I've read through all of the Lenovo documentation for RnR deployments, none of which is useful. The deployment guide has broken links, the section "Corporate Active Directory Rollout" is incomplete, the command line options aren't clearly written, and the AD instructions end with 'then deply settings using a registry edit'.
My goal is to configure the laptops to automatically backup to a network share once a week, in the background, without any user intervention. So far, almost everything that I've tried in my test environment has led to failure.
First step, install the software. I can't deploy via Group Policy, as the installation doesn't seem to end up working. I did the administrative install to a network location, then published the program via AD. After the reboot, I'll click the RnR shortcut in the start menu, and nothing happens. I've also tried creating a batch file that runs rrcmd.exe to create a backup, but that fails too "Service not found". So I resort to installing manually.
Next, I try to configure the network location via Group Policy and the supplied ADM file. I set the destination path for MND to \\server\%computername%\, but that fails, as MND tries to connect to a share called %computername% instead of what the system variable says. To get around this, I had to create an MND batch file that edits the MND info right before the backup, which doesn't seem to always work.
Now, if mid-backup the user disconnects from the network, there is a series of Delayed Write errors. That's not acceptable.
Also, if I set the backup location to local via GP, then change it to network, the backup command still reads "L", even after a reinstall of the software with the "local" location set to 0 in group policy.
Are there any tips to help ease this deployment?
Thank You

Answer 1

I think I figured it out! You can do exactly what I was doing.
The solution seemed to be I was missing:
orcluserprincipalname=<ADUser>@<domain>
orclsamaccountname=<name>
objectclass=orclADUser
You need at least the first and third one in order for it to work ( adding them is another story - you are on your own for that :-) ).
FYI I found this in the document that I have been using all day (but I didn't pay close enough attention as I missed that part) Doc ID: Note:277382.1
which can be found on metalink.