In part 3 of this series, you’ll be configuring MDT – specifically, you will go about adding Windows 7 SP1 and XP SP3. You’ll also be adding Office 2010 (with SP1), and handling drivers for both Win7 and XP.
Create and Configure Your Distribution Point
The first thing you need to do, of course, is to create a distribution point. This is the main structure for deploying, so you need to do this first. To begin, open the Deployment Workbench from the start menu on your MDT virtual machine:
Once the workbench is open, right-click the Deployment Shares folder and select “New Deployment Share” from the menu:
The New Deployment Share Wizard will open – you will need to select a local folder to store your deployment files, the folder name, the share to expose from the server, and a few other options. Here you can see what I’ve chosen for my particular build share (C:\MDT\Build, Build, and Build$ – took the defaults for other options):
In part 2 of this series, you will be creating a second virtual machine which will be used to install and configure MDT for deploying Windows and applications. I’ll dive right into creating a virtual machine for your MDT server, which will be very much the same as creating the virtual machine for your domain controller in part 1.
Create a Virtual Machine for your MDT server
In the Hyper-V Manager, click Action > New > New Virtual Machine to bring up the New Virtual Machine wizard. On the first page, give the new VM a name that will show up in the Hyper-V console (I chose “MDT”), and click the “Next” button:
Next, give the virtual machine some RAM – I chose 2GB – then click the “Next” button:
After writing a piece about MDT and installation from a USB key, I’ve gotten a steady stream of requests for a more in-depth piece on the actual installation of MDT, how I recommend it be configured, and some tips and tricks about managing it for a smaller organization, or a small (non-royalty) OEM, or even how it can be used in an environment for building machines for friends or relatives in machines someone might be stuck supporting. With that in mind, I’ve gone ahead and rebuild my lab (as promised earlier this year), and taken some screenshots to go along with this post. I will cover the installation of the WAIK, MDT 2010 Update 1, and DHCP and Windows Deployment Services (for those with a domain, as WDS requires a domain to work properly). I think it’s worth noting that nothing I post here is specifically exclusive to this site, and most of what I’m putting together here has probably been posted on and/or discussed at length all over the internet. I’m just putting together a beginning to end document for those who are looking for a one-stop shop to at least get started, and are willing to try some of the more advanced stuff on their own.
Seems like Microsoft changed the name of the Language Packs from “Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package” to “Microsoft-Windows-Client-Refresh-LanguagePack-Package”. A small distinction, but huge when MDT or SCCM can’t find the language pack name! In MDT, go to the DeploymentShare’s \Scripts folder, edit “Deploywiz_Initialization.vbs”, and go down to line 1101 – you’ll see that LPQuery is set to look for only the old Language Pack package name. Add the new package name, and things will work again (you will have to update any media you’ve created, of course).
I found this while searching TechNet, here:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/mdt/thread/5253b2e3-a60e-43a5-921d-a9acc6485d35
The change should have line 1101 looking like this when you’re done:
LPQuery = “PackageType = ‘LanguagePack’ and (ProductName = ‘Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package’ or ProductName = ‘Microsoft-Windows-Client-Refresh-LanguagePack-Package’) and substring(ProductVersion,1,7) = ‘” & left(ImgBuild,7) & “‘ and substring(ProductVersion,5,4) >= ‘” & mid(ImgBuild,5,4) & “‘”
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Just a quick note to point out that the final release of MDT 2010 has released to web (RTW) and is available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3bd8561f-77ac-4400-a0c1-fe871c461a89
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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).
Note that the content in this guide has been updated to include deployment over a network, and some other tips/tricks. After reading this, you might want to take a look at the updated guides here:
http://www.cluberti.com/blog/2011/06/23/mdt-for-the-smaller-guys-part-1/
http://www.cluberti.com/blog/2011/06/23/mdt-for-the-smaller-guys-part-2/
http://www.cluberti.com/blog/2011/06/28/mdt-for-the-smaller-guys-part-3/
Have you 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.