I’ve been selected to deliver a session next month as part of the Microsoft MVP Virtual Conference – You can register here. My session is focussed on the managing the MS Surface in the Enterprise and as part of my preparation I’ve been assembling lots of nuggets that will be scattered throughout the presentation. This blog post series is an attempt to aggregate some of the more significant pieces from the session that may have broader appeal. This is the second installment in the series. Here is a link to part 1 – Who’s Minding the Store.

As more and more organizations are deploying Surface devices there are some special considerations when deploying with Configuration Manager:

Since the Surface doesn’t have a physical NIC, if you will probably need a USB NIC or docking station. If you are reusing the same dock or USB NIC, Configuration Manager will need to have the MAC address of the NIC cleaned out after each deployment. This blog provides more information on the issue and provides a script that can be used for the cleanup. The Surface Pro 3 Class 3 UEFI device. In order to support PXE bot for such a device Windows Deployment Services(WDS) must be at least Windows Server 2008R2 with Windows Server 2012 Boot image (Windows Server 2012R2 WDS with 2012R2 boot image is recommended) DHCP Scope Options 66/67 will not work with mix of BIOS and UEFI systems. Ip helpers must be used instead.

You may want to download the Deployment and Administration Guide for Surface Pro 3.