Deployment Advise

[kemikal]

Hello All,

 

I am trying to find the best way to implement a build server. I need to build a image, that has basic OS and office installed but ultimately I would like to have something that I can have packages via sccm to update and manage software packages and have wsus server for updates. Im new to the whole new deployment and want some advise. or pointed to a tutorial. I have tried the whole wds but havent seem to find a tutorial that works.

[Jorgen Nilsson]

Hi,

I would either go for a MDT solution or use Configuration Manager 2012 to deploy the server as well. For SCCM 2012 there are great guides to get started at this very site.

Regards,
Jörgen

[winoutreach5]

Just as Jorgen touched on, you might want to take a look at the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit for your deployment and imaging needs.

 

First off, it is entirely free and can deploy images via USB drives and DVD; it can even integrate with WDS for network deployments. In addition to the above, MDT can also manage multiple images, drivers, packages and software for nearly any Windows Operating system deployment including Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012.

 

By using MDT in tandem with WDS you will be able to keep a thin image, which could be the base install.wim from the OS DVD. You can create a new standard client task sequence for the newly captured image of your reference machine and you can add all your necessary settings such as domainjoin, systemlocale, time zone, etc. You can then add all necessary drivers specific to each hardware configuration and MDT will install the proper drivers based on PnP calls. Applications can be installed as post installation tasks, so when a new version of an application or driver is released it can be changed in MDT easily. There is no need to refresh the image.

 

Finally, you can integrate it with Windows Update or WSUS to make sure the deployment is fully updated; alternatively, you can put the updates into MDT as packages to be installed during deployment.

 

To become more familiar with MDT you might want to check out the following videos from the Springboard Series page on TechNet:

 

· Deployment Day Session 1: Introduction to MDT 2012

· Deployment Day Session 2: MDT 2012 Advanced

 

Alternatively, should you still want a walkthrough for using WDS for deployments, you might find the Deployment Day Session 3: Deployment using WDS video helpful as well.

 

Hope this helps and keep us posted on your progress!

 

 

Jessica
Windows Outreach Team -- IT Pro