The D-Spot (The Deployment Spot)

The deployment wizard was not showing any Task Sequences after an upgrade from MDT 2010 U1 to MDT 2012 beta2.

Of course I updated my Deployment Share after the upgrade. Updating a second time, and completely regenerate the boot images got my attention that I didn’t reimported the boot images into WDS.

After reimporting the new generated boot images with MDT 2012 my Task Sequences showed up and I was able to start deploying again!

So don’t forget to reimport your WinPE boot images after upgrading to MDT 2012!

I was deploying Windows ThinPC using MDT with a customer, and received this error:

Windows could not parse or process unattend answer file [C:\MININT\unattend.xml] for pass [windowsPE]. A component or setting specified in the answer file does not exist.

According to the MS forums this should be solved in MDT 2012 beta 1. So we upgraded to MDT 2012 beta 2, but unfortunately the error remains.

Deleting the <UpgradeData> node from the unattend.xml, like Michael mentioned, fixed the issue. Windows ThinPC deployed successful when this node was removed.

Recently we hosted an event about “Desktop optimisation – efficient windows 7 and office 2010 deployment – notes from the field”. This seminar not only listed many of the new features and functionality that are included in Windows 7 and Office 2010 but also answered many deployment questions including some notes from the field.

The result can be found here:

http://seminar.the-d-spot.org/Desktop optimisation – notes from the field – 17102011.pdf

Microsoft gave the TechNet newsletters a holiday feeling with four different topics in a bite-size format. One of the topics of this summer edition is about Desktop Deployment.

Desktop deployment involves much more than just migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7. In fact it’s mainly about managing your desktop and application infrastructure effectively. This Technet article covers all about optimized desktop and why a properly managed desktop has a good TCO. Also the new tools in MDOP are covered and how to use the cloud with Windows Intune. You can take a short tour (half an hour), mid tour (half day) or the full tour (full day).

The following topics are covered:

• Application Compatibility
• Office 2010 Deployment – Office 365
• Desktop Optimization Pack
• Windows 7 Deployment
• Internet Explorer 9
• Windows Intune

Take the deployment dive at Technet.

There are several ways to deploy Internet Explorer 9 to client computers. Of course, you can install IE9 while building your reference image, but that’s so 90’s. Another way is to integrate the IE9 package with DISM into the Windows 7 wim image. But as we are using MDT2010 we choose the fastest way, that is to import Internet Explorer 9 into the DeploymentShare.

First we need the offline IE9 installer, not the offline executable installer that you can unpack using the /x command, but the Microsoft Update package (MSU)!

Get the Sources

One prerequisite update is required to run Internet Explorer 9 on Windows 7. This update, known as KB2454826 is available for both x86 and x64 platforms.

The second required package is IE9 itself, download Internet Explorer 9 MSU’s for Windows 7 from Microsoft:

• x86: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=210145
• x64: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=210143

Save all MSU files into the same location, so we can easily import them.

Next step is to import the MSU files into Microsoft Deployment Toolkit.

Import into MDT2010

Open the Deployment Workbench, choose Packages, right-click to import files and browse to the path where you saved the downloaded MSU files.

The imported files in BDD:

I only imported the x64 prerequisite MSU. Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 automatically includes the updates into the image during installation. So you can import both x86 and x64 MSU’s, MDT will include the needed packages during setup!

The Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK) for Windows 7 SP1 is available for download since yesterday.

The WAIK contains tools like ImageX, DISM, WinPE, USMT and VAMT.

This update isn’t needed to deploy Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 with SP1 or the standalone Service Pack 1, it is an optional update. Be sure to read what is changed in this version: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd349350(WS.10).aspx#SP1

Download WAIK for Windows 7 SP1 at Microsoft. (this is pointing to the original WAIK 2.0, not version 3.0! Read more below).

UPDATE: Apparently Microsoft didn’t updated the WAIK ISO, but only released supplemental files for the WAIK.  These supplemental files are packaged in an ISO file (waik_supplement_en-us.iso), and doesn’t contain an installer like the original WAIK.  You need to extract the ISO and (old school) xcopy the content to your Windows AIK directory (\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\).

Contents of the supplemental ISO file (waik_supplement_en-us.iso):

(X)Copy them to:

C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools

More on Michael’s blog.

Microsoft released an update for User State Migration Tool 4.0 (USMT). The main focus is Office 2010 support.

Read more about this info on Michael’s blog.

I was with a customer today for a MDT 2010 installation, and struggled with a very annoying issue.

Just before the task sequence had to be selected and after credential input, the deployment process reboots with no error message whatsoever. And keeps rebooting again and again. The log file couldn’t help me out on this issue.

The only solution I could find with a Google-search was to create a new Deployment Share with the previous MDT 2010 version. This seems no solution to me

Solution

I had a typo in the customsettings.ini file:

If you specified a wrong domain for DomainAdminDomain, you won’t get an error message telling you about the mistake!

In previous parts of this guide we’ve setup MDT 2010 and have it configured. Now it’s time to add WSUS integration to automatically install the latest patches while deploying Windows 7.

Install WSUS

First download and install WSUS 3.0 x64 version or WSUS 3.0 x86 version (for Server 2003), or add the WSUS server role of you’re on Server 2008:

The WSUS installation window is underneath the Server Roles window, use alt-tab or the taskbar to proceed with the installation.

Configure WSUS to your needs:

Enable WSUS for Task Sequences

Update each Task Sequence you want updates installed through WSUS. By default ‘Disable this step’ is checked, to enable WSUS for this TS just remove the check:

Update CustomSettings.ini

Add WSUSServer to your CustomSettings.ini:

WSUSServer=http://wsusServerName

or

WSUSServer=http://wsusServerName:portnumber

Depending on your WSUS configuration.

Configuration is done, time to deploy a Win 7 client.

After the image is applied, Windows Update is doing its job using our WSUS server:

Just to make sure, take a look at the Installed Updates on the newly deployed client:

WSUS integration succeeded!

Please find other parts here:

Windows 7 Lite Touch installation with MDT 2010 – Part 1

Windows 7 Lite Touch installation with MDT 2010 – Part 2

Windows 7 Lite Touch installation with MDT 2010 – Part 3

Had a strange error today. After some successful Windows 7 deployments to a Dell Latitude D630 test machine I got this error:

The Task Sequence has been suspended. LiteTouch has encountered an Environment Error (Boot into WinPE!).

I was pretty sure nothing happened to my Task Sequences, it must have something to do with the client machine.

Booted the laptop into the earlier deployed Windows 7 operating system, and deleted the two directories MDT has made:

• _SMSTaskSequence
• MININT

After removing these directories, the error was history!