1. Deploying from DVD
Rather than working with deployment shares, you can
put all the needed software used to deploy the machine on MDT local
deployment media. This media can be a DVD, USB hard disk, or any other
portable device. You build the media from the Deployment Workbench and
determine what to include when you choose a selection profile. Follow
these steps:
Open the Deployment Workbench and browse to Deployment Shares => <your deployment share name> => Advanced Configuration And Media.
From the Actions pane, select New Media to start the New Media wizard.
On
the General page, provide the path where the media should be created
(make sure this path, including the folder, exists), and choose a
selection profile to specify what should be included in the local
deployment media. Click Next to continue.
Click Next on the Summary page. The New Media wizard will now start and display its progress on the Progress page.
You can save the status presented on the screen to a
log file by selecting Save Output and providing a name to save the
output to. You can also view the PowerShell script used to create the
local deployment media by selecting View Script. You can later use this
script as a basis to create local deployment media automatically. Click
Finish to close the Create New Media wizard.
After the New Media wizard has run, you will find its
output in the folder that you specified in the Create New Media wizard.
After you update the media, the folder contains an ISO file. You can
use this file to burn a DVD, or you can mount it to virtual machines in
your virtual environment. Whether ISO files are created or not is an
option that you specify in the media's properties. When you don't plan
to use the ISO, disabling its creation will save a lot of time when the
Update Media Content wizard runs.
The folder will also include a directory structure
containing the content specified in the selection profile. You can use
this directory structure to create a bootable USB drive, for example.
Before you do, you should prepare your USB drive as follows:
Insert the USB drive into your computer.
Start a command prompt and type diskpart.exe.
In diskpart, type list disk and determine the disk number associated with your USB drive.
Type the following in diskpart:
Select Disk x (where x is the number you determined in step 3)
clean
create partition primary
active
format fs=NTFS quick
assign
exit
You can now copy the contents of the Content
subfolder to the bootable USB drive, which you can use to boot into the
Deployment Wizard.
Local deployment media can be used in an OEM preload
scenario. In this scenario, the installation of the OS takes place
offline by the OEM. Only the steps necessary while connected to the
internal network are performed onsite. To do this, you create a task
sequence based on the LiteTouch OEM Task Sequence template.
When the OEM starts the created media, it is
presented with the OEM Preinstallation Task Sequence For Staging
Environment task sequence, which copies the contents of the bootable
media to the local hard disk of the computer. The hard disk can then be
duplicated by the OEM's hard disk duplication method.
When a machine equipped with a hard disk cloned from
the task sequence's output is booted in the internal network, the last
part of the installation is performed. Because all media is available
locally on the hard disk, the deployment takes place much faster than
when deploying from an MDT share on the network.
2. Working with the MDT Database
Within MDT 2010, you have the option to create a
database that can serve as a centralized repository for the settings
that you specify in the CustomSettings.ini file. Instead of putting the settings in the CustomSettings.ini file, you configure the INI file to query the database for the settings to use.
The settings you specify depend on the following:
The settings specified when you defined the computer in the database
The location where the computer resides
The make and model of the computer
2.1. Creating the MDT Database
Before you start creating the MDT database, you must have a SQL Server available. You should have the sysadmin or dbcreator server roles.
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You can use the free version of SQL Server, SQL
Express, for your MDT database—the MDT database doesn't need all the
features of the paid version. Keep in mind, though, that when using SQL
Express, the name of the instance you use is SQLEXPRESS. If you use a
named instance, you should enable the SQL Browser so that the named
instance can be found on the network.
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Start by opening the necessary ports on the firewall to enable access to the SQL Browser service:
Open Windows Firewall from the Control Panel and select Allow A Program Or Feature Through Windows Firewall.
Select Allow Another Program, and click Browse to browse to Sq1browser.exe, which you'll find in the \Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared folder.
On
the Allowed Programs And Features screen, ensure that SQL Browser
Service EXE is enabled for the network profile you are using—in our
example, Domain (since our SQL Server is domain joined).
Now you can create the MDT database using the New DB Wizard:
Open the Deployment Workbench and navigate to Deployment Shares => <your deployment share name> => Advanced Configuration => Database.
From the Actions pane, select New Database to launch the New DB wizard.
Fill
in the name of the SQL Server that will host the MDT database and
provide the name of the instance if the database is available in an
instance other than the default one. Optionally, provide another port
number if your SQL Server operates at a port other than the default port
(port 1433).
Also select how you want to connect
to your SQL Server, either by using Named Pipes, which is the default,
or by using TCP/IP Sockets. Click Next.
On the Database page, select the option to create a new database and provide a name for the new database. Click Next.
When
using the Named Pipes option, you must specify a share name to which a
connection will be made to ensure that authentication will work. You
could, for example, specify a 1ogs$ or any other share you created.
Click Next. If you didn't select Named Pipes, then you have the TCP/IP
option for which the difference is detailed in the section, "Using
TCP/IP or Named Pipes."
On the Summary page, verify the information and click Next.
On the Confirmation page, click Finish to complete the New DB wizard.
