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Designing a Windows 7 Client Deployment Strategy : Choosing a Deployment Method (part 1) - Understanding Deployment Options & Deployment Scenarios

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9/20/2011 5:39:33 PM

1. Understanding Deployment Options

There are any number of ways you can combine the tools to suit a specific network environment, and it is likely that your particular situation differs from the preplanned scenarios supplied by Microsoft in their documentation.

1.1. Using Local Installations

The simplest and most basic option, of course, is to have no mass deployment plan at all and simply deploy each workstation manually by inserting a Windows 7 disk into the drive and letting Setup.exe perform the installation. For a small number of workstations, this is the most logical solution. Planning and implementing a mass workstation deployment is usually a complex and time-consuming process, and it is up to the individual administrator to decide at what point a mass deployment saves time and effort over individual installations.

The more applications, updates, and customized settings you have to apply to each workstation, the longer an individual installation takes. For example, if you are rolling out 10 bare-metal Windows 7 workstations with Microsoft Office 2007 and no other customizations, you might be better off installing them manually. However, if you have a dozen applications to install and a large number of settings to configure on those same 10 workstations, you might be able to save time and effort by building a reference computer, capturing an image of it, and deploying that image to the workstations.

1.2. Using Customized Target Computer Installations

There is also a middle ground between a manual installation and a mass deployment using reference computers. You can perform customized target computer installations without using a reference computer, in the following ways:

  • Modify the default Install.wim image file by using DISM.exe You can mount an image file while it is offline and add device drivers and updates to it or configure operating system settings by using the DISM.exe command-line program. Then, you can deploy the modified image directly to the target computers.

  • Customize the Install.wim installation process by using an answer file or a task sequence You can use an answer file created with Windows SIM or a task sequence created with Deployment Workbench to customize a target computer installation without creating a reference computer first.

Modifying a single image file or creating a single answer file is faster and easier than planning a full deployment project. However, both of these options assume that the customizations you intend to make are relatively minor and that you are working with a relatively small number of workstation configurations.

1.3. Using Reference Computers

As noted in the previous sections, the first decision administrators have to make when approaching a workstation installation project is whether to perform individual or customized local installations or design a full-featured deployment using reference computers to capture images.

In an enterprise environment, full deployments are more common. This is not only because there are typically large numbers of workstations to install, but also because the time and effort of designing and planning the deployment can be amortized against future workstation rollouts. You can take the image files, task sequences, answer files, and other elements you create for a deployment now and use them again for future deployments.

After you have decided that local, individual installations are not practical and that you will be building reference computers and capturing new image files, the next questions are how many images you will need and how to create them.

In most cases, there are no compelling reasons not to use Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 as the basis of a large-scale enterprise workstation deployment. MDT 2010 is a free product, as is Windows 7 AIK, its prerequisite, so there are no cost issues to consider. MDT provides support for several different deployment scenarios, as well as extensive documentation to aid in the planning and implementation of a deployment strategy. Assuming, therefore, that you will use MDT 2010 as the basis of your enterprise deployment, the remaining question is how you are going to use it, and what other tools you are going to use with it, as discussed in the following sections.

2. Understanding Deployment Scenarios

So far, the discussion of large-scale Windows 7 workstation deployments has centered around bare-metal installations, that is, brand-new computers with no operating system on them. In many deployments, this is the most common scenario. Computer OEMs have to install Windows 7 on hundreds or thousands of new computers, and the more automation they can bring to the process, the better. However, in the case of corporate deployments, this is not always the case.

Corporate IT departments deploying Windows 7 do not always have new computers to work with, so MDT 2010 defines four deployment scenarios, as described in the following sections. The main difference among the scenarios concerns the varying needs for and methods of preserving existing user state data. The User State Migration Tool (USMT) is a Microsoft utility you use to save user state data by copying it to a different location. 

To implement these scenarios, you might have to perform certain predeployment tasks on the target workstation and select different templates when creating your task sequences in Deployment Workbench, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Selecting a task sequence template in Deployment Workbench


2.1. Using the New Computer Scenario

The new computer scenario is when you use MDT 2010 to deploy Windows 7 onto a brand-new, bare-metal computer with a clean hard disk. Because there is no existing user data, no applications, and no file system on the target workstation, there is nothing to preserve prior to the deployment. To perform a new computer deployment, you run the Windows Deployment Wizard using a task sequence you create in Deployment Workbench using the Standard Client Task Sequence template.

2.2. Using the Upgrade Computer Scenario

In the upgrade computer scenario, you use MDT 2010 to deploy Windows 7 onto a computer with another operating system already installed on it. The Windows 7 upgrade procedure preserves the existing user state data, applications, and file system, so you do not need to prepare the workstation before the deployment. To perform a new computer deployment, you use a task sequence created with the Standard Client Task Sequence template, just as in the new computer scenario.


Note:

UPGRADING TO WINDOWS 7

The main limitation of the upgrade computer scenario is that the upgrade paths for Windows 7 are limited. If your workstations are running Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2, you can use the upgrade computer scenario to perform an in-place upgrade to Windows 7. However, for workstations running Windows XP or earlier, in-place upgrades are not possible. The only option is to save the user state data with USMT and perform a new operating system installation, either on the same workstation, using the refresh computer scenario, or on a new workstation, using the replace computer scenario.



Note:

UPGRADES AND ZTI

MDT 2010 supports only the upgrade computer scenario when you perform an LTI deployment. You cannot upgrade workstations using a ZTI deployment.


2.3. Using the Replace Computer Scenario

The replace computer scenario describes a means for deploying new workstations while preserving the user state data from your existing workstations. In this scenario, you save the user state data from the existing workstation to a removable medium or network share by running the Windows Deployment Wizard and applying a task sequence created with the Standard Client Replace Task Sequence template. Then, you deploy Windows 7 by running the Windows Deployment Wizard again on the new workstation by using a task sequence created with the Standard Client Task Sequence template, which also restores the user state data you saved previously. Because you are moving only the user state data, the applications and the file system are left on the existing workstation and not transferred to the new one.

2.4. Using the Refresh Computer Scenario

In the refresh computer scenario, you use MDT 2010 to deploy Windows 7 on an existing workstation, to standardize the configuration or repair a problem while retaining the user state data. For this scenario, you run the Windows Deployment Wizard only once, using a task sequence based on the Standard Client Task Sequence template. This single task sequence saves the user state data to another location, installs Windows 7, and then restores that same data after the operating system installation is complete. This procedure deletes the existing file system in the process, so all applications and data are lost except for the user state data you saved before the installation.

Real World

Craig Zacker

Most IT projects—deployments included—end up being much less simple than they appear on paper. In a perfect deployment, administrators have identical, brand-new computers, onto which they can deploy Windows 7 in a single configuration. In reality, however, a deployment project is likely to require some, or even all, of the four scenarios, which adds another complicating factor to an already complicated project. For example, you might have some Windows Vista workstations that you can upgrade, as well as Windows XP workstations that you must refresh or replace.

To streamline the deployment process somewhat, you might find it preferable to select one scenario for all your existing workstations. If, for example, you are going to refresh your Windows XP computers, you might find it easier to refresh the Windows Vista workstations as well, rather than implement a separate upgrade scenario.

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