I wanted to give a glimpse of some projects we are working here at Xtreme Consulting Services – Deployment Team.

This is a Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Build-out (sometimes called Hydration) system.

It starts off as a small 3MB *.zip file. The MDTBuildout.exe program will automatically download all required files (around 10GB of files), create a Virtual Machine running Windows Server 2008, and build out a functional MDT 2010 system. All the files downloaded are publicly avaiable over the internet.

This sample is *not* designed for production environments. The Server OS and Windows 7 Client OS’es downloaded are time-limited Evaluation versions of Microsoft OS’es, and not intended for production environments. If you would like to setup a functional system for your corporate environment, please let us know.

Xtreme Consulting Service’s Deployment Team is ready to assist you with your deployment needs.

Features

When complete, this Buildout (Hydration) system will create:

• A Virtual Machine running Windows Server 2008 (R1) x86 Server Standard.
• MDT 2010, with all dependencies installed (including WAIK).
  • OS’es: Server 2008 R1 x86, Windows 7 x86 and Windows 7 x64.
  • Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise Evaluataion Version.
  • Applications: 7-zip, Foxit PDF Reader, MacroMedia player, Silverlight player, SQL Server 2008 Express, Sun Java Runtime, Video Lan Player, Windows Debugger (windbg).
  • Sample Driver package: Intel Chipset drivers.
  • Sample Packages: Windows 7 Language Packs, Hyper-V Drivers, Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT)
• A Windows 7 Media build DVD image with Office 2007.
• It will also enable a PXE/WDS Service for servicing MDT 2010 WinPE Images (no Domain Controller required).
• A blank Virtual Machine ready to perform a capture of Windows 7 back to the MDT 2010 server.

Requirements

• Your machine must be running windows with a version of either Hyper-V (for Windows Server 2008) or Virtual PC 7 (for Windows 7).
• Your machine must have at least 2GB of ram, and 60GB of free hard disk space.

Walkthrough

Download the MDTBuildout.zip file to your local machine and expand the contents to their own folder. You should see the manual: MDTBuildout.rtf and the Wizard Wrapper MDTBuildout.exe. Go ahead and launch the MDTBuildout.exe.

The MDTBuildout.exe wizard will guide you through the process of creating the virtual machine and downloading the necessary files to get it started. The wizard will create to Virtual Machines:

MDTVirtualServer – This is the Virtual Server that will host MDT 2010. It takes a couple of hours to setup, depending on the speed of your network connection.

MDTVirtualClient – This Virtual Machine will be used later on to capture a reference image of Windows 7 with Office 2007.

It is recommended that you use the default settings during the MDTBuildout.exe wizard, although, you can override the settings if required. Be sure to give the Virtual Machines enough memory, place the *.VHD files on a disk with 40+GB of space free, and select the Virtual Networking adapter with internet access.

When you select “Build” the wizard will begin the process of downloading the Windows Server 2008 Eval *.iso file to the local machine, this file is about 1.8GB. When done, the wizard will automatically create the virtual machines with the required parameters, and start the process. You can continue to watch the progress in the VM window.

The entire build process can take several hours depending on the speed of your network connection. Let the install run. When complete, you should see a dialog showing the status.

The password for the MDT Server is: P@ssword

When complete, you can start the MDT 2010 Workbench (start –> Microsoft Deployment Toolkit –> Deployment Workbench), and view the components added to the system.

The deployment share should be at: c:\deploymentshare

The media share should be at: c:\media

If you wish, you can start the PXE server, to allow other computers on the network to boot into MDT 2010, this is a great way to upgrade machines on your corporate network in a “self-service” fashion. To enable the pxe server, run the command “net start wdsserver”. WARNING: The PXE/WDS Server running on the Virtual Machine *will* conflict with other PXE/WDS servers on the network. Please ensure that you are the *only* PXE/WDS server on the network before starting! This is why the WDS service is disabled by default.

You can also burn the contents of the Win7 Media ISO to a DVD drive. Or perhaps copy the *.iso file to the local machine.

Use this server to evaluate MDT 2010 and try deploying Windows 7 (Evaluation Version), to your test lab.

When ready, you can boot the MDTVirtualClient Virtual Machine, using either the Win7 Media ISO image, or PXE/WDS. The Client Virtual Machine has been specially configured to auto install Windows 7 and upload the captured image back to the MDT 2010 Server in a completely hands off fashion.

More documentation, walkthroughs, and videos to follow.

Link

MDTBuildout.zip

Keith

Keith Garner is a Deployment Specialist with Xtreme Consulting Group