MDT2010 - Anyone using it?

[garethedmondson]

In preperation for a possible Windows 7 deployment I am considering MDT2010 instead of WDS. Can anyone tell me - is this a good idea or will WDS do the job for me and thus no point looking at it?

Can MDT2010 deploy XPSP3? I've read one website that says it can and another that says it cannot.

GJE

[ZeroHour]

I think you use MDT to make scripts/set installs etc for WDS. WDS is still needed I believe but SYNACK would be the man to ask.

[AngryTechnician]

Personally I'm using WDS on its own as my needs were very simple and MDT seemed like a much more complicated beast to deploy that I needed.

[strawberry]

i'm using mdt on its own without wds, does all i want, boots from cd/dvd or over network ( using pe) . allows me to install several different scenario types easily. big thumbs up from me.

[garethedmondson]

Hi Strawberry,

I've finally installed MDT2010 and have managed to get it booting into the litetouch.wim etc. I've captured an image (a practice image) using a task and can deploy that image.

However - how to I automate everything to join the domain etc like with an unattend.xml file? Do I need one?

I want to boot into the pxe bit, click install OS and then it goes through with all the settings. I cannot find where to do that or where to create the .xml file.

I thought it was through Windows System Image Manager but that doesn't seem to give me many options - or any that I understand :-)

Any help appreciated,

Gareth

[SYNACK]

However - how to I automate everything to join the domain etc like with an unattend.xml file? Do I need one?

Any help appreciated,

Your looking for light touch automation, theres a brief writeup here for the previous version that should still work fine:
Deploying Vista – Part 27: Automating a Light Touch Installation

This is a good overview of the basic setup of MDT too:
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Beta 1: Using MDT to Prepare, Install and Capture customized Windows 7 Images – Part I Augusto Alvarez

[garethedmondson]

Your looking for light touch automation, theres a brief writeup here for the previous version that should still work fine:
Deploying Vista – Part 27: Automating a Light Touch Installation

This is a good overview of the basic setup of MDT too:
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Beta 1: Using MDT to Prepare, Install and Capture customized Windows 7 Images – Part I Augusto Alvarez

So I've done what it says in Part 27 and edited the custom.ini and the bootstrapper files. I've updated the deployment share but.....

I'm still getting the 'Welcome Windows Deployment' window when I boot into lighttouch. I have three options - one of which is to 'Run the Deployment Wizard to install a new Operating System'.

I can live with that but then I get asked for credentials to connect to the network share. I thought this might go away as well. Hang on...... the machine then restarts and I get the following error

BOOTMGR is missing
Press CTRL+Alt+Del to restart

I assumed it would install the OS.

:-( - not sure what I have done wrong here.

Gareth

[SYNACK]

Strange, if you have configured the boot.ini as in fig.5 ( Deploying Vista – Part 27: Automating a Light Touch Installation ) with correct credentials and fully rebuilt the deployment point then re-added the updated WIM to WDS it should pick up the changes.

Not sure about the boot loader missing bit, perhaps the task sequence has an error in it that is stopping it from setting up the drives properly. You could test if it has applied the image by booting a Win7 DVD on the machine in question and using the repair tools which should pickup a successful image and fix a missing batch of system files.

[garethedmondson]

Strange, if you have configured the boot.ini as in fig.5 ( Deploying Vista – Part 27: Automating a Light Touch Installation ) with correct credentials and fully rebuilt the deployment point then re-added the updated WIM to WDS it should pick up the changes.

Not sure about the boot loader missing bit, perhaps the task sequence has an error in it that is stopping it from setting up the drives properly. You could test if it has applied the image by booting a Win7 DVD on the machine in question and using the repair tools which should pickup a successful image and fix a missing batch of system files.

Hi Synack,

Well I found the missing bit - I didn't realise I had to re-upload the updated .wim file to WDS. I've done that and it worked fine.

The boot loader is an odd one. I'll have to look at that tomorrow.

I've checked the Tasg and in there under the settings for 'New Computer' it clearly tells it to format drive 0 and partition 1. What if these are not there? Do they get created automatically? For example on a brand new hard disk?

Gareth

[garethedmondson]

Well that's it for this evening. I've deleted all my tasks and reset the .ini files back to normal. Will play again tomorrow sometime.

Thanks Synack.

GJE

[garethedmondson]

Your looking for light touch automation, theres a brief writeup here for the previous version that should still work fine:
Deploying Vista – Part 27: Automating a Light Touch Installation

This is a good overview of the basic setup of MDT too:
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Beta 1: Using MDT to Prepare, Install and Capture customized Windows 7 Images – Part I Augusto Alvarez

There's now a Windows 7 version of the first post:

Deploying Windows 7 - Part 1: Windows AIK 2.0 Enhancements

Gareth