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Microsoft supports running SCCM 2007 SP2 on a 2008 R2 server, but I’m doubting whether or not running SCCM 2007 SP2 in Native mode in an environment using a 2008 R2 CA is supported (and if so, there’s an issue to be aware of).  Specifically, it seems like client certificates created with a 2008 R2 CA (following the instructions on Technet for a 2008 CA) do not work by default in SCCM 2007 when running a site in Native mode (you’ll get MP errors stating that it cannot connect via HTTP, and mpcontrol.log will contain errors that the SAN2 fields have errors).  It seems if you create your 2008 R2 CA with the default Key store provider, the client certificates just do not work.  However, if you create your 2008 R2 CA with the Microsoft Strong cryptography provider (which is the default for 2003 and 2008 CAs), magically the certs created work fine.  If you look at the contents of the certs created between a 2008 and 2008 R2 CA, they “look” identical, but something else must be happening I haven’t dug into yet.

I’ve been fairly silent recently, and the reason is I’m involved in rollouts of Win7, Server 2008 R2, Exchange 2010, SCCM 2007 R2, and Office 2007 with 2 distinct organizations (not to mention the movement of physical to hyper-v servers at the same time).  I’ll probably blog something about this later, but I wanted to give http://www.windows-noob.com some credit for getting me “unstuck” when the Microsoft documentation is lacking on SCCM 2007.  Bravo .

One of the more interesting things in MDT is the “Application bundle” application install option.  What an application bundle allows is the ability to install multiple applications, in order, as dependencies.  Think of it more as a logical container for applications that need to be installed, perhaps in a specific order, or as prerequisites for another application (like, for instance, installing Visual Studio 2008 prerequisites, Visual Studio itself, and then the latest service pack).

Adding the application(s)

To create an application bundle that will show up in the list of applications to install (or be available to configure via a task sequence), you first need to add all of the applications to MDT that will make up the bundle.  This is done similar to adding Office 2007 as I documented in my post on creating an MDT deployment point – you must create a New Application and add it’s source files to the deployment share.  I’ll document quickly how to add the Windows Live Essentials components to your deployment share and “bundle” them (instructions on getting the .msi packages you’ll need from the Windows Live Essentials downloadable package can be found here, if you do actually want to try this).

Having a USB key that will install multiple versions of Windows is great, but what if you want to add other Windows PE images to it, above and beyond the installers?  For example, what if you wanted to add a recovery environment, like the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT), or a BartPE environment, or any other Windows PE-based environments?  Well, it’s not that hard to do, and I’ll document how to do it with the Microsoft DaRT x86 and x64 recovery ISOs that it creates in this example.

Adding the DaRT files

First, you will need to copy the files from the MS DaRT WinPE ISO image to your “Content” folder that was created when you used MDT 2010 as per my previous post.  The content folder should look something like this:

And the contents of the MS DaRT ISO image, once extracted to the hard disk, will look something like this:

To go along with my previous post on deploying Windows via MDT 2010, here is a list of the “default” keys that Windows uses when you choose not to enter a product key during setup.  These keys of course will not activate, but you can enter them into your task sequences when you are prompted for a product key to use.  This will make your setup more unattended.

Here’s the list:

Windows Vista:

• Ultimate  -  VMCB9-FDRV6-6CDQM-RV23K-RP8F7
• Business  -  4D2XH-PRBMM-8Q22B-K8BM3-MRW4W
• Home Premium  -  X9HTF-MKJQQ-XK376-TJ7T4-76PKF
• Home Basic  -  RCG7P-TX42D-HM8FM-TCFCW-3V4VD
• Starter  -  X9PYV-YBQRV-9BXWV-TQDMK-QDWK4

Windows 7:

• Ultimate  -  D4F6K-QK3RD-TMVMJ-BBMRX-3MBMV
• Professional  -  HYF8J-CVRMY-CM74G-RPHKF-PW487
• Home Premium  -  RHPQ2-RMFJH-74XYM-BH4JX-XM76F
• Home Basic  -  YGFVB-QTFXQ-3H233-PTWTJ-YRYRV
• Starter  -  7Q28W-FT9PC-CMMYT-WHMY2-89M6G

Ever wanted to put every version of Vista, Server 2008, Windows 7, Server 2008 R2, and perhaps a version of XP or two on a single USB key?  No?  Then you’re probably normal.  If you’re like me, however, the thought has crossed your mind.  However, the daunting task of configuring said USB key to boot to some multiboot Linux distro or hacking a bit at bcdedit to boot a WinPE to handle it also made it something to avoid, at least for me, because, well, I tend to be lazy about these things.

However, after playing with the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit for a bit, I realized I could probably make my USB key bend to my will and be said multi-bootable Windows OS installer, without a whole lot of work.  I set about to put all of those versions of Windows one one key, along with some unattended applications (for this blog post, I’m just adding Office 2007 to keep it short).