Deploy OS using MDT 2012 beta 2 – Part I : Installing MDT

Griffon

 

Hello World,

Today, we will speak about deployment technics.  I’m starting to have some requests about how to deploy Windows 7 in large environment.  There are multiple ways to perform that.  One of the way is to use a quite complete tool called MDT (Microsoft Deployment Toolkit).  We will be working with the latest version available (i.e MDT 2012 Beta 2)

Note : The idea is not to provide a full picture on how to work with MDT. We provide you a starting point and then based on your needs you will need to customize and tweak your MDT installation.

Our Scenario/Goal

In a few words, MDT provides you a working infrastructure where you can quickly prepare a deployment server.  Standard activities are already available to you so you can start quickly to perform your deployment.  If you want to use fully, you will need to tweak the MDT software in order to automate as much as possible your deployment.  One thing that MDT does not provide is a PXE functionality. This means that when you perform the installation of the MDT package, you will need to install/configure a PXE solution in order to deploy your software via the network.  I’ve seen plenty of posts explaining how to integrate WDS and MDT or SCCOM and MDT.

In my scenario, I want to have a standalone server where MDT can be installed and where PXE functionalities are present.  The advantage of  such configuration is that I do not need to rely on Active Directory (like WDS or SCCM) and I should be able to use this server in any network where a deployment is required.  We will have a ready to go Deployment Server.

Installing MDT 2012 Beta 2

Step 1 – Download the MDT 2012 Software. You can visit this page to get the software. Because It’s still a beta version, you might need to register to the connect web site and get access to the software.

Step 2 – Go to the location where you have download the software and double-click on it

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Step 3 – I’m working with Windows 2008 R2 server. In order to be able to launch the installer, you might be prompted to install the Framework 3.5

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If this is the case, you simply open Server Manager, Click on Add Features.  In the Add feature page, select the Framework 3.5 option and proceed till completioin

Step 4 :  Now you should be ok. Start the installation again and you will see the Installation Wizard

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Step 5 :  In the license agreement page, tick the box I accept…. and Press Next

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Step 6 :  In the Custom Setup Page, accept default or modify settings accordingly and Press Next when ready

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Step 7 :  In the Ready to install page, Press Install and you will see the installation progress bar

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 Step 8 :  In the Completed Page, Press Finish.  You just have installed the MDT Software

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Post Setup Actions

The core software is installed but you will need to install additional components in order to start your deployment activities.  If you open the Deployment WorkBench (-> Start Menu->Microsoft Deployment Toolkit->Deployment Workbench, you can expand the Treeview and navigate to the components node.  The software will tell you which components are required.  For example, you can see in the following screenshot that I’m missing the WAIK component. From within the console, I can perform the download and then the installation.  If you plan to deploy office with MDT, you will see that you can install additional components such as the office Migration Planning Manager or the MAP Toolkit.

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Final Notes

We are done with the installation process of MDT component.  In the next part, we will show you how to import Operating system files into your MDT server. We will also show you how you can add additional drivers within the MDT console. These drivers will be added on the fly during the deployment of your operating system.  In part III, we will demonstrate how to deploy an Operating system using MDT 2012.  Finally, in the part IV, we will configure the PXE service on the MDT server and see how you can start a network based deployment of your favourite operating system.

Till Next Time

See ya

Part I : Installing MDT

Part II : MDT Deployment Share

Part III : Deploying OS with MDT

Part IV : Adding PXE Capabilities to MDT

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “Deploy OS using MDT 2012 beta 2 – Part I : Installing MDT”

  1. I have followed these instructions as I am trying to install the MDT 2012 beta2 on my SCCM 2012 RC1 server. Everything goes fine, but these seems to be an integration problem with WAIK. It is installed and I can bring it up, but the workbench shows it as required but not installed. I have tried downloading and installing from the workbench, but it did not change anything. It only shows as downloaded and not installed.

    What am I doing wrong? I havev done this on at least 3 servers and the results are the same.

  2. Hello Steve,

    Interesting issue ! seems to be a bug. If the waik is installed and working, if you can open the workbench and start working… ignore the message displayed in the console…

    if you wanna get rid of the message, you can always remove the entry by editing the configlist.xml file in c:\program files\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit\download\{00000-0000-00000_00000}

    hope this help
    till next time
    see ya

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