[mdt] Deployment Shares

[fiza]

Can anyone tell me (Google doesnt seem to find an answer for me) what you would use multiple deployment shares for in MDT?

[sted]

capture images my deply share has lots of assumptions and hidden screens so i create a second share for captures

[SHimmer45]

i use one for "development" and one at present for live installs.

not been using it long but has already proved handy for testing small tweaks and changes without causing issues to the main deployment share (like completely ballsing up an XML or something like that)

[Arthur]

what you would use multiple deployment shares for in MDT?

Development + Production (as explained in the video below).

 

[free780]

John has two in his mdt 2010 videos. Capture and production. You could also have a testing one. On a side note does server 2012 de duplication work with deployment shares? Just thinking of multiple source files taking a fair bit of space.

[Arthur]

On a side note does server 2012 de-duplication work with deployment shares?

It does, although everything stored on the same volume(s) as the deployment shares would also get de-duped.

 

If you run ddpeval.exe after adding the Data Deduplication role you can estimate how much disk space you will save prior to running the deduplication jobs.

 

blogs.technet.com/b/keithmayer/archive/2012/12/12/step-by-step-reduce-storage-costs-with-data-deduplication-in-windows-server-2012.aspx

 

How Much Disk Space Can I Expect to Reclaim?

When you install the Data Deduplication role service on a server running Windows Server 2012, DDPEVAL.EXE is also installed in the C:\Windows\System32 folder as an additional command-line tool. DDPEVAL.EXE can be run against any local NTFS volumes or NTFS network shares to estimate the amount of disk space that can potentially be reclaimed by moving that data to a Windows Server 2012 NTFS volume with Data Deduplication enabled.

 

C:\> DDPEVAL \\server\folder /V /O:logfile.txt

 

When I've executed this against various shared folders on my servers, I’ve seen it compute anywhere between 30% – 80% estimated disk space reclamation, depending on the level of duplication on a volume and staleness of data. Wouldn't it be great to have 30% or more of your storage budget returned next year to spend on other projects? Results may vary volume to volume, so I'd be very interested in hearing about your results!

[fiza]

i use one for "development" and one at present for live installs.

not been using it long but has already proved handy for testing small tweaks and changes without causing issues to the main deployment share (like completely ballsing up an XML or something like that)

 

Silly question but how do the clients know which deploymentshare to connect to? Currently the deployment share details are in the boot.ini would I add in more than one?

[sted]

Silly question but how do the clients know which deploymentshare to connect to? Currently the deployment share details are in the boot.ini would I add in more than one?

 

different boot.wim in wds

[fiza]

different boot.wim in wds

 

ok....so that gives me 2 boot.wims in WDS, yes? Which one does the client latch on to when PXE booting?

[sted]

ok....so that gives me 2 boot.wims in WDS, yes? Which one does the client latch on to when PXE booting?

 

the one you pick with the keyboard or the one you set as default in wds after x seconds

[fiza]

the one you pick with the keyboard or the one you set as default in wds after x seconds

 

Ah...so it comes up as an option on the client as to which one to pick?

[sted]

Ah...so it comes up as an option on the client as to which one to pick?

 

yup but you can select a default on the properties of the wds server in wds console

 

left blank it gives you a dos menu with up down enter

[sted]

 

is an example of the menu where i am

[fiza]

yup but you can select a default on the properties of the wds server in wds console

 

left blank it gives you a dos menu with up down enter

 

Thank you for clearing that up.

 

Could you cast your expert eye on my other problem highlighted in this thread ? http://www.edugeek.net/forums/o-s-deployment/112832-multicast-error.html

[sted]

no

 

every time ive tried multicast it runs so slow i gave up images that unicast take 20-30 mins take hours multicast. One of these days i will do a cm network or something simple and try and narrow down the issues (i suspect its spanning tree or some other switch config)

[fiza]

no

 

every time ive tried multicast it runs so slow i gave up images that unicast take 20-30 mins take hours multicast. One of these days i will do a cm network or something simple and try and narrow down the issues (i suspect its spanning tree or some other switch config)

 

Thanks - How large is your image and how long does it take you to image an ICT Suite (24 computers)? Just want to know if I should give up on Multicast and continue as I am? I have 450 machines to deploy over summer.

[sted]

Thanks - How large is your image and how long does it take you to image an ICT Suite (24 computers)? Just want to know if I should give up on Multicast and continue as I am? I have 450 machines to deploy over summer.

 

it varies from school to school time wise but the image here is what i usually use file size 6.25gb (base win7x64 ent with office 2010 and updated to jan 2013). Rebuilt a school suite in the holidays did the entire suite 20ish pcs iirc) took about 30-40 mins to deploy image but that was full gb network AND server 2012 with 2 teamed 1gb cards. it also depends where you stop counting when mdt has finished (which can massively depend on any msi's the pcs gets) and it can often sit as long doing applying sysprep files after the image is on the pc. unfortunately its a how long is a piece of string question

[vladker]

I use a separate deployment share for deploying 'standalone' images (i.e. laptops not on domain).

 

I also have development and production shares, but I seem to only use development.

[fiza]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18137[/ATTACH]

 

is an example of the menu where i am

 

Going back to this menu. Does each item relate to a different deployment share? If so when you capture an image do you then need to transfer it to the "deploy" deployment share?

[sted]

Going back to this menu. Does each item relate to a different deployment share? If so when you capture an image do you then need to transfer it to the "deploy" deployment share?

 

in that case no

 

windows deploy is a wds boot to deploy xp images

windows capture is a wds boot to capture windows xp pcs

windows 7 rescue is a network bootable version of windows 7 with a gui and various tools to fix pcs or at worst yank data off without me having to find a cd/dvd/pen drive to boot from

the bottom one is my mdt boot don't have any captures there iirc or if I do the boot image is hidden as I don't need it atm