Best way to use WDS

[fiza]

I am just getting around to WDS. There seems to be alot of information floating around about how to use it - but its mostly getting me confused!!!

 

I have installed WDS

I have installed MDT with WAIK

 

Do I use WDS in conjunction with MDT? and then is it with just the customsettings.ini file or the Database aswell?

Which takes precedent if I have default settings in the ini file which are then added to by settings in the Database for particular machines?

 

I have managed to automate Win7 deployment (using MDT and WDS) so far that I press F12 on the machine and boot from PXE server. It boots the boot image and picks the task sequence ID automatically - deploys my image and also joins the domain.

 

i tried putting the name of the test machine in the Database based on its MAC address but when it gets built it has a random name like MININT-7538Q2

 

How are people using it and how do you set the name of the machine?

 

i want to be able to import a csv file into the database with all my machine names based on MAC addresses.

[birchanger]

To get the machine name set correctly just open up the properties for the computer you just added in MDT, then click the details tab. Set OSDComputerName to the name you want the machine to be.

 

I just used adhoc MSAccess queries to set up the computers in the database, having first built up a separate database of computer names, adaptor MAC addresses etc. using MAPS. I've now got MDT adding the machine to the correct OU and setting the correct screen resolution, as well as setting the name.

 

BTW, I have found that using Maik Koster's web service to move computers to a Staging OU during the build has greatly improved reliability as group policy processing can no longer get in the way. The same guy has web-service-based screens for maintaining the DB. See MDT Scripts, Front Ends, Web Services, and Utilities for use with ConfigMgr&#47SCCM

Edited April 5, 2012 by birchanger