Springboard Series - The Resource for Windows Desktop IT Professionals : Deployment tools

Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) 2009 is Now Available

Celine Allee — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:55:00 GMT

MDOP 2009 includes MED-V 1.0, App-V 4.5 CU1 and AIS 1.5 Updates

I wanted to let you know that Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) 2009 is now available for purchase to Software Assurance customers. MDOP 2009 includes the first release of Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V 1.0), a Cumulative Update to Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V 4.5 CU1), and an update to the Asset Inventory Service (AIS). Alongside these updated releases, MDOP 2009 also includes the other standard MDOP tools: Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset, Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management, and Microsoft System Center Desktop Error Monitoring.

MED-V 1.0 helps enterprises upgrade to the latest version of Windows even when some applications are not yet compatible. MED-V builds on top of Microsoft Virtual PC to run two operating systems on one device, adding virtual image delivery, policy-based provisioning and centralized management.

In addition, App-V 4.5 CU1 is now available as part of MDOP 2009. App-V 4.5 CU1 adds support for Windows 7 Beta, so customers can move ahead with application testing in preparation for enterprise deployments. It also contains a few improvements such as instant access or removal of applications assigned to end users. When Windows 7 releases, we are committed to supporting the final product within 90 days of general availability.

AIS 1.5 update, now available to all MDOP end users through Windows Update, enhances the license reconciliation feature and the task scheduler. It now provides a detailed report for each application (e.g. whether license type is retail or volume license) to simplify license inventory tasks and to improve licensing compliance. The inventory scan scheduling has been improved to ensure data is collected even from devices that are turned off regularly.

MDOP 2009 is available for MDOP subscribers at the Microsoft Volume Licensing Site (MVLS).

Windows 7 Deployment Tools Interview with Jeremy Chapman, Part 2

Celine Allee — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:50:00 GMT

Before we dive into part two of our interview with Jeremy Chapman, Windows Senior Product Manager, on new image management and deployment technologies in Windows 7, we want to remind you to join Mark Russinovich for a Virtual Roundtable discussion on Windows 7, airing live on February 12, 2009 at 11:00 am PST.

Stephen: In our previous post, we’ve covered the building of images and the delivery of these images. Let’s talk about migration of user data. Migration of user data is a place where deployment projects seem to slow down. With some users having upwards of 50GB of data on their system can make it hard enough, but needing to ensure end-users are not accessing the data during migration means you can only move people outside working hours. This drives up project cost and can impact the relationship with the end users. How will Windows 7 help change this?

Jeremy: You’ve hit on one of my favorite new features. For these types of upgrades we’re introducing Hard-link migration in Windows. In the past we would detect, then migrate files either off the PC or to a protected location locally on the disk, wipe everything except the protected location, then remap or re-migrate those files back into the appropriate locations in the new OS. This would typically be a 30-60 minute time hit up front and then on the backend, even longer if moving to/from a network share. With Hard-link migration, we catalog where the user files are on the disk and create a catalog of hard-links to each file. When an OS is deployed, everything on the disk except those files is wiped and the link catalog protects them wherever they reside on the disk. The new OS is laid down and the files are remapped into the new folder structure and its completely seamless to the user. We can also migrate from a Windows.old folder for people using that option in WDS. In the end, nothing actually gets moved, so it is much faster.

Stephen: So how fast can the deployment of a desktop go with Windows 7?

Jeremy: I’ve tested this quite a bit on my personal PCs and I am typically moving 20-30GB between Windows Vista and Windows 7 in about 5-6 minutes. If I don’t use hard links and move the files to a protected location on the local disk, the same migration takes about an hour and for both gather and restore phases combined. Times will vary based on hardware and the sheer number of files, but it is much faster than the physics of moving the files has been.

Stephen: This will really help streamline a deployment project and limit the impact on users. Windows 7 makes it easier to build images, deliver these images and now migrate users. Before we wrap up, can you give us a brief overview of how tools like Microsoft Assessment Planning, the Application Compatibility Toolkit and the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit will work with Windows 7?

Jeremy: All of these tools will be updated for Windows 7. MAP will be updated to provide detailed hardware assessment for Windows 7. With ACT, we are looking to provide more support for 64 bit and compatibility testing against Windows Server. Microsoft Deployment Toolkit will integrate all of the foundational elements from Windows AIK tools, hard links, etc. If you know these tools now it will be very easy to get up to speed quickly with Windows 7-supporting versions.

Stephen: It sounds like everything IT pros have learned about Windows Vista deployment will carry forward, and that Windows 7 will make it easier, faster and more flexible. If you were still in your old IT Pro capacity outside of Microsoft, what would you be doing right now to prepare for Windows 7?

Jeremy: I’d download the Beta and start combing the CHM files corresponding with the tools we just discussed. The Windows AIK is now available on the Microsoft Download Center and the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Beta is an open Beta program on Microsoft Connect. You can start building Windows 7 images and testing the deployment tools now.

Stephen: Good advice. Thank you, Jeremy, for taking the time to sit down with me and help get our IT Pro community up-to-date on Windows 7 deployment, and for folks looking for more Windows 7 information and resources, be sure to visit the Windows 7 tab on www.microsoft.com/springboard.

Windows 7 Deployment Tools Interview with Jeremy Chapman, Part 1

Celine Allee — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:44:00 GMT

We see the Springboard Series blog as a place to communicate important information and updates for desktop and laptop-focused IT professionals—what you need to know to effectively perform your job.

Now on to a discussion on Windows 7, and what you’ll want to know as you begin looking at your application portfolio and deployment tools.

We recently sat down with Jeremy Chapman, Senior Product Manager responsible for deployment and application compatibility tools for the IT Pro, to get a sense of how these tools change with Windows 7.

--Stephen Rose, Senior Community Manager, Windows Client Division

Stephen: Jeremy, can you tell us a little about your job here at Microsoft?

Jeremy: I look after the tools that customers use to deploy operating systems, spanning everything from assessing their current hardware and applications – with tools like the Application Compatibility Toolkit – to building system images, migration user data and automating operating system and application installations.

Stephen: Now that Windows 7 beta is out and lots of people are starting to download and test the software the big Stephen people are asking is, “How different will Windows 7 deployment be from Windows Vista?”

Jeremy: The good news is that all the big architectural changes we made in Windows Vista continue to live on—such as componentizing the OS for offline serviceability, releasing what used to be the OEM-specific tools in the OEM Pre-installation Kit (OPK) to customers in the form of the Windows Automated Installation (AIK), and with things like Windows PE and ImageX, and all the tools we built to augment deployments. For people who know Windows Vista deployment, the changes moving to Windows 7 will be incremental and easy to get ramped-up on, with improvements made across the deployment spectrum.

Stephen: What about Hardware? Will customers need new hardware to run Windows 7?

Jeremy: We are taking our engineering tenet seriously that hardware running Windows Vista well will run also Windows 7 as well.

Stephen: Great. I use Windows 7 on my old Windows Vista hardware and love it. It sounds like most of what people have done to prepare for or deploy Windows Vista will carry forward. So what about additional features and functionally … Are there enhancements to the deployment process that IT pros will want to know about?

Jeremy: Everything from imaging, to image delivery, to migration improves with Windows 7, as do the toolkits like the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit, Application Compatibility Toolkit, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and Volume Activation tools.

Stephen: Tell us more about Imaging. Most customers manage a lot of OS images. How will Windows 7 change this?

Jeremy: Let’s take a step back here. People on Windows XP or people using sector-based imaging may be managing a lot of images, but we built Windows Vista in a way that allows companies to use file-based, non-destructive WIM images. Windows 7 builds on this, and the new Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) command line tool lets IT Pros enumerate the features, packages, updates and drivers on an image offline, and also service these areas. With Windows 7, we now have the ability to add and remove drivers in a mounted or applied image – that was something you had to do using deploy-time driver injection in Windows Vista. We can also service Windows 7 VHD images built for native VHD boot just like WIMs. The tools for imaging and unattended installation are still there, like ImageX and Windows System Image Manager. All of that carries forward from Windows Vista.

Stephen: So we’ve made it easier to create and manage images. Let’s talk more about the delivery of these images. We’ve seen images sizes continue to grow with every release of Windows – from typically 1-2GB in the Windows XP timeframe to typically 3-4GB for Vista. This makes delivering images complex and uses a lot of network bandwidth. Does this change in Windows 7?

Jeremy: Good point. Yes, images have grown in size both due to OS footprint and in many cases, software footprint. In Windows Server 2008, we introduced Multicast to break the paradigm of one image transferred per target PC. Of course, if you are deploying 100 PCs with 5GB images, that means 500GB goes over the wire. With Multicast we can transmit that 5GB image once or twice, and hit ‘deploy’ to the same 100 PCs, using only 5-10GB of network bandwidth. The one remaining problem was that the slowest connected client in the pool would throttle the transfer rate for all PCs. We address this in Windows 7 by adding a Multiple Stream Transfer option in Multicast. Think of it like a highway, the left lane or faster clients get to their destination quicker, while the slower ones in the middle and right lanes move at their own pace. That means huge speed advantages in many cases for the faster clients.

Stephen: What about deployment for people without persistent network connections or without Windows Deployment Services? Will Windows 7 have something to help them?

Jeremy: We continue to provide more flexibility in the cases where network deployments either are not ideal, due to speed or latency, or in some cases non-existent or non-accessible. We have media-based deployment using Lite Touch Installation from the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit – this is still very automated and just takes a minute or so per machine to kick off a standard image deployment. Likewise, we introduce OEM pre-staging of Lite Touch deployment back in July, allowing customers to hand off a full LTI-based build to their preferred OEMs. When powering on the system for the first time, users can configure the PC to meet their needs (with the right applications, drivers, etc.) using LTI, within about a minute. Those are the more elegant ways for disconnected/low-bandwidth users, and you can still use custom thick images as well, but you’ll forgo some flexibility.

New deployment tools available for Windows 7 Beta!

Celine Allee — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 04:00:00 GMT

We know many of you have downloaded the Windows 7 Beta (enough to overwhelm our servers!), and are likely putting the new operating system through its paces. Now that you’ve had a chance to explore the new UI and some of the advanced end-user features, it might be time to begin working with the management and deployment capabilities.

Microsoft has just released two complementary deployment tools you will want to take a look at:

The Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) is a tool to help IT pros create and deploy Windows images to new hardware. The Windows AIK is a collection of tools and documentation that help you automate Windows OS deployments with a high degree of flexibility—allowing you to configure many deployment options, which is helpful in highly customized environments. Tools such as the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT—discussed below) and products like System Center Configuration Manager use components of Windows AIK to create system images and automate their installation. This latest release of Windows AIK is designed to work with Windows 7 images, and supports the new Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool that is part of Windows 7. The User State Migration Tool (USMT 4.0) is now installed as part of Windows AIK, to help streamline and simplify the migration of user accounts, files, OS settings and application settings. You can download the latest Windows AIK here.

The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Beta is also now available as an open beta on Connect. MDT 2010 is the fourth generation deployment Solution Accelerator from Microsoft. Along with detailed guidance, MDT 2010 provides unified tools and processes for desktop and server deployments from a common deployment console, delivering standardized images across both your server and client infrastructure. MDT 2010 also supports Hard Link Migrations using USMT 4.0 for refresh scenarios, which will reduce your user state back-up and restore time. MDT 2010 supports deployment of Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, in addition to supporting Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP SP3 and Windows Server 2003.

Check out other Solution Accelerators at www.microsoft.com/solutionaccelerators, and visit the Springboard Series on TechNet for more information and guidance on Windows technology adoption!