Win 10 Deployment Project Consultant

[Nausing]

Not sure if this is in the right topic, but you guys will probably have the right answers.

 

I'm a lone Sysadmin for a college (1500 users/900 devices) currently running Win 7 with roaming profiles for staff, mandatory for students. I'm in the deep end with a lot of things but manage day to day.

 

I had a discussion with my COO about moving to Windows 10 and changing the way staff and student profiles are. He offered to get me trained but I have declined the offer and suggested hiring a deployment specialist on a 12 month contract to complete the project.

 

He has asked me to create a JD for this role but not too sure exactly what I need to put in.

 

Question:

What skill sets would you expect someone who will perform a full Win 7 to Win 10 site migration to have?

 

I currently run MDT with WDS and WSUS, although never successfully deployed an image with it. Currently cloning hard drives when required.

 

Thanks!

 

EDIT Between working time on this project, they can also help with day to day errands of the department. As he/she will be physically onsite, they will go through the project design, plan, testing and deployment with me so I will get trained at the same time.

Edited September 27, 2017 by Nausing

[sted]

with 900 devices id be looking at sccm rather than just mdt it will probably make it easier long term

[alfatec]

I don't think you need a 12 month contracted consultant for that. We rolled out Windows 10 to all 850 devices 18 months ago and it is all about getting your image and profile correct. You would be better off employing a technical solutions provider to do a 2-3 day

contract in designing, configuring and building you an image and profile. You could then roll out over a period of time yourself. You would need to start doing an audit of existing workstations and software now though to ensure compatability.

[Nausing]

I don't think you need a 12 month contracted consultant for that. We rolled out Windows 10 to all 850 devices 18 months ago and it is all about getting your image and profile correct. You would be better off employing a technical solutions provider to do a 2-3 day

contract in designing, configuring and building you an image and profile. You could then roll out over a period of time yourself. You would need to start doing an audit of existing workstations and software now though to ensure compatability.

 

This is really useful to consider. I thought 12 months would be a good base so we can ensure everything is fully tested and we can deploy to a small test group and slowly roll out to all devices.

 

My biggest daily battle are roaming profiles and I would like to get rid of them with this roll out. I don't think 2-3 days is enough.

 

Could you recommend a solutions provider? Thank you!

[alfatec]

With Windows 10 you are better off looking at Mandatory or Local. Roaming profiles are causing a lot of issues in Windows 10. Not sure about a solutions provider in the London area, other members will probably give some advice on that. It might also be worth visiting

a school who has already deployed to look at the pitfalls etc.

[Norphy]

He offered to get me trained but I have declined the offer and suggested hiring a deployment specialist on a 12 month contract to complete the project.

 

 

I think that was a mistake. Even if you do get someone in on a fixed term contract to do this, you are still going to need to be able to support and continue what they've done when the contract ends. Getting the appropriate training would make doing this a lot simpler.

[Nausing]

I think that was a mistake. Even if you do get someone in on a fixed term contract to do this, you are still going to need to be able to support and continue what they've done when the contract ends. Getting the appropriate training would make doing this a lot simpler.

 

The idea is having someone here for up to 12 months to design, plan, test and deploy the project will be working along side me to do it.. I will be following the process the whole way. I could probably get official training and cert from my COO later down the line anyway.

[djm968]

Where about in London are you based? Most of the work can probably be completed remotely.

[Nausing]

Where about in London are you based? Most of the work can probably be completed remotely.

 

South. I would want someone here to go through the process with me.. plus management want to see the person they are paying it seems..

[mavhc]

You want someone who's already done migrations similar to yours, to give reasons why one solution is better than another.

 

You want someone who realises Windows 10 is Different, new OS every 8 months means no manual creation of images for deployment, all has to be automated, either thin images with post app deployment, or scripting the creation of thick images. MS prefers the former.

 

If they're not up to date on whatever 1709 is bringing, they're not worth talking to, fast changing world now.

 

Basically someone to a) teach you how to set up imaging, b) set up imaging with you, c) create methods to deploy all the software you need deploying.

 

The important thing is at the end you know how to do it too, but they've done all the tedious work, and their existing knowledge has meant you have the best solution for today's environment.

[Steve21]

Honestly think you should reconsider the training route too. You'll be the one managing it daily and it'd be better for you to test things in your own time and have a play with a dummy client etc than get forced into the way the external company "tell you" it should be done or is better etc

 

Steve

[Nausing]

Honestly think you should reconsider the training route too. You'll be the one managing it daily and it'd be better for you to test things in your own time and have a play with a dummy client etc than get forced into the way the external company "tell you" it should be done or is better etc

 

Steve

 

I've tried to set up MDT with thin images for almost 9 months. Managing an IT Service department with 3 apprentices is tough.. I just don't have the time to really concentrate on a single project. I am beginning to lose motivation and confidence being so alone to be honestly. I am hoping new blood with experience will re-joy me. Official training and certs can always be done side by side or afterwards too.

[Steve21]

But in all fairness if you don't have time now, will having someone else do the work actually help you learn it before it's deployed and yours to run?

 

You mentioned above you'd want to work alongside them which would mean making time, else you're only really going to stab yourself when it comes to the end and you have a new network to use that you won't know how to.

 

Not saying you have to do certs etc, but even things like a paid day offsite looking at how other schools etc have done it can be brought in as training etc

 

Steve

[Nausing]

But in all fairness if you don't have time now, will having someone else do the work actually help you learn it before it's deployed and yours to run?

 

You mentioned above you'd want to work alongside them which would mean making time, else you're only really going to stab yourself when it comes to the end and you have a new network to use that you won't know how to.

 

Not saying you have to do certs etc, but even things like a paid day offsite looking at how other schools etc have done it can be brought in as training etc

 

Steve

 

My COO is rather fair and would allow me to spend time at other schools. I'm confident he will pay for training at the end of the project too.

 

Its difficult for me to complete projects alone because the apprentices are always asking questions and need support so it is hard for me to concentrate on something.. especially if it is something i have never done before, trying to learn and failing with.. not having another technical person to reflect off of is difficult too. This school is the first I've worked at and I have only been doing IT for 5 years.. my exp and skill are already limited..

 

I think having someone here for many months to go through the project at a steady pace will be enough time to show me how things are set up and configured with daily progress.

[Arcolite]

We've just gone through our Windows 10 roll out this summer (1000 workstations).

 

Apart from changing the profile type to local and a few GPO tweaks here and there, the roll out was no different than a mass Windows 7 roll out.

We found the same skills applied and that we'd over thought the project far more than we needed too.

 

What part of London are you in? There may be schools nearby who have gone through the roll out already you could visit for guidance.

[Nausing]

We've just gone through our Windows 10 roll out this summer (1000 workstations).

 

Apart from changing the profile type to local and a few GPO tweaks here and there, the roll out was no different than a mass Windows 7 roll out.

We found the same skills applied and that we'd over thought the project far more than we needed too.

 

What part of London are you in? There may be schools nearby who have gone through the roll out already you could visit for guidance.

 

I have never done a roll out before, and being alone I am not sure I want to lol.. We have a lot of classrooms and roaming staff.. if you are similar, what challenges have you had from moving from roaming profiles?

[mavhc]

I've never used roaming profiles, but deployment wise for win 10:

download iso, use dism to convert install.esd to install.wim

add boot.wim to wds, add install.wim to wds, create xml file for auto deployment, auto domain join etc

then script all the installs, usually msis

 

MDT lets you do more stuff, but more complex

[Arcolite]

I have never done a roll out before, and being alone I am not sure I want to lol.. We have a lot of classrooms and roaming staff.. if you are similar, what challenges have you had from moving from roaming profiles?

 

We're using UE-V to roam some settings between workstations (previously this was part of MDOP, but it's now baseline in Windows 10). This is something we used on Windows 7 to create the experience of roaming profiles with mandatory profiles.

 

So far, we haven't had any challenges. The only bumps we've faced have been training related, not technical.

We use folder redirection on everything other than AppData so there is very little in our profiles to worry about.

 

A few of the new GPO settings added in 1703 were a bit hit and miss at the start (Lockscreen background mostly), but that has settled down after a few updates.

[dobsonl]

@Arcolite I don’t suppose you’ve got any guides on how to setup U-EV have you? We are looking at moving to that from the traditional roaming profile

[NB9457]

The cost of someone coming in for 12 months would be very high. Would you not be better putting forward a case to high a couple of apprentices or an ICT Tech to help you with the day to day jobs so then you can focus on the bigger things like the upgrades?

 

That's a lot of people and devices to look after single handed.

[Nausing]

The cost of someone coming in for 12 months would be very high. Would you not be better putting forward a case to high a couple of apprentices or an ICT Tech to help you with the day to day jobs so then you can focus on the bigger things like the upgrades?

 

That's a lot of people and devices to look after single handed.

 

I have 3 apprentices but being in the field for only a few years, my technical knowledge is limited.

 

I want high level engineers but they wont give me it.. instead they can pay for consultants.. I've offered them all sorts.. seems to get no where unless SHTF.

[ricki]

The deployment of the image is only a small part of the job the preparation is the bit that takes ages. Getting software to run on Windows 10 preparation of sccm and deployment, training for staff politics and finance is time consuming Richard

[Arcolite]

@dobsonl It's a doddle on Windows 10, for once Microsoft has actually documented it pretty well. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/ue-v/uev-for-windows

 

It boils down to four things:

 

GPO setting to turn UE-V on

GPO setting configure where to load custom templates from (UNC Path)

GPO setting to configure where to store the settings (UNC Path - optional, will default to HomeShare)

PowerShell script to enable the default templates.

Edited September 29, 2017 by Arcolite

[Spenketh]

@dobsonl It's a doddle on Windows 10, for once Microsoft has actually documented it pretty well. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/ue-v/uev-for-windows

 

It boils down to four things:

 

• GPO setting to turn UE-V on
  

 

• GPO setting configure where to load custom templates from (UNC Path)
  

 

• GPO setting to configure where to store the settings (UNC Path - optional, will default to HomeShare)
  

 

• PowerShell script to enable the default templates.
  

I don't suppose you use a Google Chrome template at all? I've had nothing but issues trying to get Google Chrome settings to sync whereas other templates have been perfectly fine.

[djm968]

Give Will Townsend at ESP Recruitment a shout, he should be able to provide a consultant on a contact basis to work alongside your team and implement your windows 10 project.