Most likely if it was advertised to a "All Windows Machines" collection, then only computers in that collection would have been it.

The task sequence was most likely configured to be mandatory/assigned and thus initiated automatically with little to no intervention.

If that collection included the "unknown computers" collection then if those machines PXE booted and PXE support was enabled, then those could have been hit as well.

The safest way to advertise a task sequence is to the Unknown Computers collection, (or a collection specifically for imaging) and not make the advertisement mandatory. There are reasons to advertise it to a collection with computers, one being that you can re-image a computer without having to remove it from ConfigManager (since you are advertising to UNKNOWN computers). This is really handy especially for the guys doing the re/imaging of computers. Saves a lot of time.

But as we see here, there is a huge danger. You can reduce the threat by advertising the task sequence to only media and PXE.. that prevents it from showing up on production workstation. You can also configure the advertisement to only run on an OS you don't have in production, again, making the advertisement optional rather than mandatory helps too. But there are situations where you do need to have it mandatory so extra caution applies.

I've not worked with deploying a task sequences to running computers, but you can do them where they will copy the users files offline. Then the boot image is downloaded and the system reboots to that and performs the wipe, install, etc. Then once the system is back up, it copies the users files back (for something like xp to 7 upgrades)

SCCM is a great tool, but like any great tool, it can do great bad if you are not careful. Happened to this company a few years ago. http://delimiter.com.au/2012/0...

btw, here are the steps you should follow should you be lucky enough to experience it :)
http://blogs.technet.com/b/system_center_configuration_manager_operating_system_deployment_support_blog/archive/2011/10/27/how-to-remediate-an-incorrectly-deployed-osd-task-sequence-in-system-center-configuration-manager-2007.aspx/

I agree. Working in the US for 20 years, 8 different companies, never did I have a problem taking vacation or was penalized for it.

Sure at one job I was one of the only person in my position who knew how to do my job so I would get the occasional call to help when I was on vacation, but I loved my job and my co-workers so it did not bother me.

Now that I live in Finland, things are kinda the same, kind of different. We get bonuses for going on vacation. Kind of nice to get paid to go on vacation so you actually have money to do something. If we accrue too much overtime, we are forced to take time off. Had a nice 13 day extra winter break last year because I had so much extra time.

Oh, and check this out. If you are on vacation and get sick or injured, that vacation time does not count and you get to take it again :) Had that happen to me during my summer vacation and because of it got to take extra time off this winter.

Coming from the US I felt weird with all these benefits but I think over here its more pro-employee than in the US. But like I said before, I never really had a problem. (except here, calling someone on vacation is pretty much unheard of.. and if you don't answer the phone no one gets upset) :)