Windows 7 / Getting Started

---

Computer Associations

Computer associations are records that track user data migrated between two instances of Windows using an SMP to store the data while it is in transition; they map the source system to a target system, both of which are identified by their MAC addresses. Computer associations are directly referenced (or created) by the User State tasks, as discussed in the "User State" section.

There are two types of migrations and thus two types of computer associations:

• In-place
• Side-by-side

Each association also records the date that state data was captured and restored, the location where state data is stored, and the encryption key for the state data.

For in-place migrations as part of a refresh deployment, a computer association is created automatically by ConfigMgr when the user state is first captured. Essentially, if ConfigMgr does not see an existing computer association specifying the current system as the source system, it assumes the data is meant to stay in-place and creates an in-place association that specifies the system as both the source and destination.

For side-by-side migrations as part of a replace scenario, you must create a side-by-side computer association manually before an applicable task sequence is run on a system; otherwise, an in-place association is automatically created. To create a new association, navigate to Assets and Compliance → User State Migration and choose Create Computer Association from the ribbon bar or right-click context-menu. This displays the Computer Association Properties dialog box.

This dialog allows you to specify the source and destination computer. Use the User Accounts tab to specifically limit which profiles are captured or restored; the following profile-culling options are available and are equivalent of manually specifying the /ue option on ScanState or LoadState (described at http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/ archive/2009/11/30/understanding-usmt-4-0-behavior-with-uel-and-ue.aspx):

• Capture and restore all user accounts
• Capture all user accounts and restore specified accounts
• Capture and restore specified user accounts

To view existing computer associations, navigate to Assets and Compliance → User State Migration. From here, you can delete or review any association. Note that you cannot change the source or destination computer for an association once it is created. After creating an association, right-click it to view the following information:

• Source Computer Properties
• Destination Computer Properties
• User Accounts
• Recovery Information

This limitation manifests itself during replace deployment scenarios where you are transferring user state data to new hardware because the destination system must already exist in ConfigMgr. This occurs for security reasons. This doesn't mean the system itself must exist, just that you must pre-create a record for it in ConfigMgr. To pre-create a system, follow the steps outlined in the "Known Computers" section.

To recover previously captured user data manually, you must first extract the encryption key and the user state store location from the computer association. These display by selecting View Recovery Information from the context menu of an association (or the ribbon bar) used to capture data. You can then pass the key and the state location on a command line to USMT using the /decrypt option.

Sample syntax would be

loadstate < state store path > /i < migapp.xml > /i <miguser.xml> /i <migsys.xml> /decrypt /key: <encryption key>