Advice on O/S deployment solution

[Guest Guest]

Hi all

 

I work at two primary schools, one with about 30 machines and the other with about 140 machines all running Windows 7. Both schools have two servers - one server acts as the DC and Exchange and the other as a file server. I don't currently have any sort of O/S deployment solution in place at the moment but I'm obviously looking at this as going forward I'd like to re-image the machines. What advice/recommendations would you give?

 

TIA

[fiza]

Look at WDS its from Microsoft and its free.

[Guest Guest]

Look at WDS its from Microsoft and its free.

 

Would I need a separate server with lots of storage or would it be fine to run from the file server bearing in mind that I would more than likely only image during school holidays?

[fiza]

I havent used it in anger but at the moment my WDS is running from a Dell Optiplex 760 on which I installed Server 2008 R2.

[Guest Guest]

I havent used it in anger but at the moment my WDS is running from a Dell Optiplex 760 on which I installed Server 2008 R2.

 

So basically I'm probably best buying a standalone workstation to act as a WDS server. Do you have two NICs teamed and/or lots of storage in the machine?

[Jamo]

MDT is FAR more configurable than WDS and still free

 

Doesn't require that much, have it running on 2008r2 with a dual core and 1 NIC, it doesn't need to be on its own, you can set it up using PXE but it isn't a requirement. I set ours up in parallel while we still were running Ghost, which used PXE, once it was set up I switched over to MDT PXE and had no problems.

 

We have a single image which is deployed across site, to all stations regardless of hardware types etc. V handy tool.

[Guest Guest]

MDT is FAR more configurable than WDS and still free

 

Doesn't require that much, have it running on 2008r2 with a dual core and 1 NIC, it doesn't need to be on its own, you can set it up using PXE but it isn't a requirement. I set ours up in parallel while we still were running Ghost, which used PXE, once it was set up I switched over to MDT PXE and had no problems.

 

We have a single image which is deployed across site, to all stations regardless of hardware types etc. V handy tool.

 

Thanks for that, I'll take a look. The thing I'm trying to ascertain now is whether I can use the file server to perform one of these roles or whether I'm going to have to invest in another machine. I'll have to get an additional 2008 R2 license.

[twin--turbo]

There's also "fog" to look at as that is free.

 

Rob

[Jamo]

MDT in essence is just a bunch of scripts in a folder! A file server should be fine for that, as its an imaging system the usage pattern for network traffic is very sporadic and shouldn't interfere with the day to day running of the file server.

 

I think you can test it on a Windows 7 station if you want to get a handle over the product before you commit.

[CHR1S]

MDT/WDS/AIK - Run them on a DC or whatever you have spare.

 

Takes a little setting up and tweaking but once your set up its a massive time saver. Build your images in a VM and snapshot before sysprep or you will hit the rearm limit... dont find out the hard way

[sted]

another vote fot wds/mdt its free and works. Can drag the network down if you image lots of pcs at the same time but other than that and hdd space it dosent really affect performance as said its a few services that wait till called and some scripts. Just make sure you have a gb connection from server to switches

[Jamo]

Try the multicast support if you want to reduce traffic, MDT supports it with the addition of WDS on the server.

[sted]

Try the multicast support if you want to reduce traffic, MDT supports it with the addition of WDS on the server.

 

never seems to work from me or works so slow its useless

[Jamo]

never seems to work from me or works so slow its useless

 

Thats usually the switch configuration, they have to be capable of multicast, which would usually rule out any non managed switch. You must have IGMP enabled on all VLANS, on all switches, which host multicast traffic. You also have to set up an IGMP querier if you don't have a multicast capable router (if you do then you set up one of the PIM Modes).

 

If its all set up you should see the same traffic if you image one PC as if you image 60 at a time. We usually do one room at a time (30 pcs) because after that many, you need a break from pressing F12 It should be able to handle way more though, and MS have done a great job of setting up the mutlicast joining support, where you can join a client half way through an existing session and it will not disturb the others or have to wait for a new session to start.

[Guest Guest]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I've decided to go with WDS and MDT but I'm a bit wary about putting it on an existing server so I was thinking of getting a new machine solely for WDS and MDT. What would you recommend? I was looking at either an HP Micro N40L or an i5 machine both with 8GB RAM and RAID.

 

In terms of multicast I don't think our network would support it anyway as we only have unmanaged switches.

[fiza]

@grnat

Here are some articles I found useful when I set up WDS/MDT

 

Deploying Windows 7 - Part 1: Windows AIK 2.0 Enhancements :: Windows 7 :: Articles & Tutorials :: WindowsNetworking.com

MDT 2010: Fully automated Lite-Touch Deployment | Scriptimus Ex Machina

how can I CAPTURE an Image using WDS - Windows Deployment Services (WDS) - www.windows-noob.com

[aerospacemango]

I would agree with WDS as the way forward, although I haven't used MDT.

 

Where I used to work, I used WDS and had a selection of images for staff/students. I could have a room re-imaged in about 30 mins. This took a LOT of stress out of summer holidays, as I could do 1/2 rooms in the morning, and the same in the afternoon..... On a campus with over 500 stations, this proved invaluable.

 

There are, from memory, one or two slight kinks to iron out, but once it's running you'll be home free!

 

I also used a Dell Optiplex - a 330 IIRC - and it handled the load with ease.

[Jamo]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I've decided to go with WDS and MDT but I'm a bit wary about putting it on an existing server so I was thinking of getting a new machine solely for WDS and MDT. What would you recommend? I was looking at either an HP Micro N40L or an i5 machine both with 8GB RAM and RAID.

 

In terms of multicast I don't think our network would support it anyway as we only have unmanaged switches.

 

Definitely best not to go multicast with unmanaged switches!

 

We run ours as a VM with 4GB ram and 2vcpus, it doesn't really require that much in hardware, ours has been running for a year and a half and we have 140GB of data on the drive (which includes sibelius 7 with all its 32 gb of sound files......)

 

I am a big advocate of VM's so I would personally say get that server with 8GB ram and put ESXi on it, virtualise the server give it 4GB ram and you can add another server on to the same ESXi box for free (hardware wise anyway!)

[Tsonga]

I had issues with MDT 2010 on a VM, however I am willing to blame that on the cluster being configured by people who didn't have a clue.

[Jamo]

I had issues with MDT 2010 on a VM, however I am willing to blame that on the cluster being configured by people who didn't have a clue.

 

No probs here, the VM infrastructure should be totally transparent so shouldn't make any difference at all.