Windows deployment services questions

[sted]

at a basic level you can just use wds (im still looking at mdt2010 in my spare time and going through a book but i will only do it in work hours) just like ghost. Set up a pc as you want sysprep it then boot it off the network and copy the image to a server then network boot clients tell them to have the image and away you go (though atm i cant get it to name pcs as i want i can get username1 etc as pc names though and just rename later) and my newer sysprep files for xp still ask for computername and domain password to join but i believe it can be pretty automated i just havnt had chance to get that far. To start with you need wds (its slightly easier if you do it on the dhcp server but its not hard if it isnt) and a win7 dvd

once set up (and the defaults are pretty good though id move remote install to d rather than c) load the cosole and add win7dvd\sources\boot.wim as a boot image and name it windows deploy.

Then when thats done right click it and create capture image point it at d:\remote install and creat a capture folder then name the file. Depending on which server version you have it may ask if you want to import this image automatically or you may have to manually add it (same as the first image).

then go to install images and create some appropriate groups (say compaq 610 & dell 280 etc)

set up your workstaition as you want it and sysprep. pxe boot it into windows capture and follow the wizzard (its pretty self explanatory and as long as the nic drivers are in winpe and your network account has the right privilages then it pretty much next next next select group name image . . .

[SYNACK]

Is it worth setting up an SCCM server for deploying Windows 7 and then further updates or will WDS and MDT do the job for less money?

What are people using for deploying updates in windows 7?

MDT and WDS or even WDS on its own are totally capible of deploying Windows 7, SCCM just adds a whole bunch of extra managment tools and extentions for monitering and application deployment.

We also use WSUS for updates.

[PEO]

wsus never seems to work properly here, its a PITA. mind you we are using it on 2003. is it any better on 2008?

[ChrisH]

WSUS is pretty flawless for us on 2003 we are upgrading over the summer though.

[jsnetman]

I have seen a few post on here which say they roll out images without using sysprep /generalize, if you do do this WSUS will not work as all the machines have the same SID.

[SYNACK]

I have seen a few post on here which say they roll out images without using sysprep /generalize, if you do do this WSUS will not work as all the machines have the same SID.

It also causes problems with KMS server client counts and sometimes activations as I found out a while back on a batch of laptops.