Richard Smith : SMS 2003 OSD Feature Pack

New Deployment Forum Site...

ricsmith — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:44:00 GMT

Deployment Forum is a new community Web site devoted to IT professionals deploying Windows. Myself and fellow MCS blogger Ben Hunter, as well as MCS architect Steve Campbell have taken up residency in the MVP section with a selection of the industry's best deployment specialists and we will all be adding content to the Deployment Forum. The site is run by Jerry Honeycutt, a well respected writer, speaker, and technologist who has written more than 30 technology books and hundreds of technical articles and white papers.

You find Deployment Forum at: http://www.deploymentforum.com

Deployment 4 Beta 3 Released

ricsmith — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:39:00 GMT

The BDD team have announced that Deployment 4 (the code name for the next version of Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007) has been released as BETA 3 and unifies the tools and processes required for desktop and server deployment into a common deployment console and collection of guidance. Previously referenced as BDD.Next and Windows Server Deployment (WSD), Deployment 4 adds integration with recently released Microsoft deployment technologies to create a single path for image creation and deployment, including:

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Operating System Deployment
Windows Automated Installation Kit
Windows Deployment Services with new multicast technology
Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0
User State Migration Tool 3.0.1
Windows Server 2008 Server Manager for automated server role definition (coming soon)

Deployment 4 Beta 3 combines the guidance and toolset from previous releases of Business Desktop Deployment and Beta releases of Windows Server Deployment. This release continues to support Zero Touch Installation (ZTI) of desktop operating systems using Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 with the Operating System Deployment Feature Pack and adds new deployment and task sequencing capabilities for desktops and servers using System Center Configuration Manager 2007. Deployment 4 also continues to provide Lite Touch Installation (LTI) support without infrastructure requirements and adds capabilities for Windows Server 2003 and pre-release versions of Windows Server 2008.

New features in Deployment 4 Beta 3

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 support, with the following features:
- Full support for Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 deployments with Deployment 4 and Configuration Manager 2007.
- Complete integration into the Configuration Manager 2007 admin console and task sequencing capabilities.
  - Quick start Configuration Manager 2007 operating system deployments using one wizard to create needed task sequences and packages.
  - Extends the Configuration Manager 2007 task sequencing capabilities with new actions.
- Feature parity with BDD 2007 and SMS 2003, including dynamic package installation, automatic determination of state store location, computer backup, database settings.
Lite Touch Installation (LTI) support for Windows Server 2008:
- Support for deploying Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 and potentially RC0 (to be verified after RC0 release), including support for Server Core installation options. (Windows Server 2008 TAP customers only.)
Lite Touch Installation (LTI) enhancements:
- Enhanced disk and network interface cards (NICs) configuration options, including support for static TCP/IP configuration.
- Design changes to ease the migration from LTI to Configuration Manager 2007.
- Support for multiple task sequence templates. New sample templates include:
  - Client template: Windows Vista, Windows XP
  - Server template: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008
  - Replace scenario template
- Ability to invoke web service calls Support for web service calls from rules
  - Web services can be invoked as part of the rules processing performed by Deployment 4, using new rules that can be defined in CustomSettings.ini.
- Support for side-by-side installation with Deployment 4 and BDD 2007 installed on the same machine.
Lite Touch Installation (LTI) multicast support:
- Deployment Workbench supports multicast transmission of operating system images when performing LTI deployments from Windows Server 2008 servers that are running Windows Deployment Services.

Where to Find Deployment 4 Beta 3

Deployment 4 Beta 3 is available as an open beta download.

To join Deployment 4 beta 3 program, follow these steps:

Visit the Microsoft Connect Web site (http://connect.microsoft.com).
Click Invitations on the Connect menu.
You will need to sign in using a valid Windows Live ID before you can continue to the Invitations page.
Enter your Invitation ID in the box. Your invitation ID is: BDDP-QMYH-VWTH
Click Go.
If you have not previously registered with Microsoft Connect, you might be required to register before you continue with the invitation process.
To download Deployment 4, click Download Now.

Great work from the team getting this release out...

BDD Lite Touch and Zero Touch Lab Recommendations

ricsmith — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:46:00 GMT

So - I get asked a lot about how to set up a test lab or Proof of Concept environment for Lite Touch and Zero Touch. Working with my colleages in the MCS UK desktop team, specifically Mark Aslett and Adam Shepherd, we have developed a rough guide to a lab design that works for us that I thought I would share for discussion...The lab environment looks like this -

Infrastructure Server

Requirement	Why?
Windows Server 2003 R2	To fully support Windows Vista, in particular some group policy functionality and to test the DFS-R replication of images, domain controllers should be Windows Server 2003 R2.
Active Directory	Required to authenticate users accessing the Windows DS, RIS, SMS and BDD 2007 servers. Additionally Windows DS servers must be a member of an Active Directory domain.
DNS	DNS name resolution must be possible in the lab environment for Active Directory to function and for clients to locate network resources.
DHCP	During the development process clients will boot to the network to load Windows PE, this will not work without DHCP.

Build Server

Requirement	Why?
Windows Server 2003 R2	Recommended to host the other server applications, specifically Windows DS and RIS.
RIS	Prerequisite to installing Windows DS and used for legacy testing and OSD boot image delivery.
Windows Deployment Services	Should be installed in mixed mode to support legacy images such as the SMS OSD boot CDs as well a Windows PE 2.0 boot images used by BDD 2007 and Windows Vista deployments.
Windows Automated Installation Kit	Provides a number of tools required by BDD 2007 including System Image Manager, ImageX and Package Manager.
BDD 2007	Used as a repository for all build components, the generation of the reference build and the configuration of the ZTI scripts.
SQL 2005 Express	Used to test role based deployments and configurations that are moved to the deployment server

Deployment Server

Requirement	Why?
Windows Server 2003 R2	Recommended to host the other server applications.
SQL Server 2005 SP1	SQL is required by SMS 2003 and role based deployments using the BDD 2007 database. Can also be used for ACT database support. SQL 2005 SP1 should be the minimum service pack used.
SMS 2003 SP3	SMS is required to support OSD captures and deployments; it is also used as the mechanism for managing the replication of images and applications. Service Pack 3 is the update for SMS that supports Windows Vista and the latest OSD Feature Pack Update.
SMS OSD Feature Pack Update	Required to allow for operating system images to be captured and deployed via the SMS infrastructure.

The three server installation can be consolidated to two servers if Zero Touch is not required, but we find that this design works well when developing build and deployment designs in many customer environments.

Computer Name Selection in ZTI Deployments

ricsmith — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:42:00 GMT

I've been asked by a few people about the RequestComputerName.vbs script that i use in the ZTI configuration demo video posted earlier. The script prompts the technician for a computername at the start of the deployment process and stores it as an OSD variable (OSDNEWMACHINENAME) for use by the ZTI scripts.

The VB script is as follows:

Option Explicit

Dim numCount
Dim strComputerName
Dim objOSD

Do While numCount = 0
    strComputerName = InputBox ("Please enter a name for the new computer:","New Computer Name","Vista00",10,10)
    If strComputerName = "" Then
        Wscript.Echo "You must enter a computer name."
    Else
Set objOSD = CreateObject("OSD.Environment")
objOSD("OSDNEWMACHINENAME") = strComputerName
Set objOSD = Nothing
        Exit Do
    End If
Loop

The script is copied to your ZTI distribution point scripts folder (and then copied over to the SMS OSD deployment point) and is called by entering a new task into the task suquencer in the NEW COMPUTER folder in the PREINSTALL phase. This task, after creation should then be moved to the top of the list in the NEW COMPUTER folder

It is also possible to use the BDD 2007 wizard framework to create wizards that prompt for information at build time and use the OSD variables. BDD already supplies a COMPUTERNAME wizard and this could be used instead of the VB script shown above - Ben has an excellent piece on how to do this on his blog