Windows System Deployment

Where to find information on Vista and Windows Server 2008 Deployment Tools

2009-02-24T23:39:00Z

I have received a number of email messages asking about solutions and functionality that is already available in Windows Vista.

In the two years since we launched Windows Vista (January 2007), we’ve not only updated the deployment tools, but offered additional documentation to support more scenarios. Although you can search the web to find these tools and topics, having them in one place may be beneficial (finding just the right words for your search query is always a challenge). Let me start by answering basic questions using the Windows Vista and Server 2008 deployment tools available from Microsoft.

What does Microsoft offer in terms of tools to make my deployment easier?

We have a number of tools to get you started, including free ones:

· The Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) contains tools and documentation on how to automate and manage your Windows deployments. It’s a great starting point for those that want to build their own deployment solutions (because they have specific needs, want to resell their solution, or just like to tinker). The Windows Vista SP1 WAIK is available as a free download here, and includes utilities that other solutions (System Center or Microsoft Deployment Toolkit – described below) require.

· The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT, formerly known as the Business Desktop Deployment) is available here. It provides a GUI to help you get through your deployment preparation and execution, allows for creation of installation media, driver integration, automation, and tracking. It is free and utilizes the WAIK. The October 21^st, 2008 TechNet Radio show on dives into details on MDT.

· Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (ConfigMgr07), with the OS Deployment (OSD) capability, is the best place to start if you’re looking for a complete systems management solution and zero touch deployment, or if you’re already using System Center Configuration Manager (formerly Systems Management Server). ConfigMgr07 supports a number of deployment options complimenting its systems management capabilities.

· Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP), available here, can be used prior to your deployment projects to inventory and assess the hardware in your environment for Windows Vista compatibility. MAP offers additional capabilities for assessing security of clients, inventorying applications and assistance for planning of operating system virtualization.

· The Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) is a free solution to help you identify and resolve application compatibility issues. I is available as a download from Microsoft.com.

That’s just Windows - I’ve got to think about applications too

Both ConfigMgr and MDT allow for integration of application installations into the deployment process. Also, through Windows System Image Manager (available in the Windows Automated Installation Kit), you can execute a applications’ setup program during the Audit Mode phase of deployment (that’s after the WINPE phase is complete, and before the user has the opportunity to log in for the first time).

But there’s another side of application deployment that can’t be ignored – Application Compatibility. This past summer we researched customer needs regarding deploying Windows Vista face to face with a number of IT Pros from different companies, in different industries. Every one of them had concerns about application compatibility, and it was a concern for many of these customers. As we drilled down with each customer we found that, more often than not, they didn’t know where to get started in figuring things out.

· What Microsoft Does: Microsoft tests many commercially available applications with every Windows release. This takes care of a lot of the “big names.”

· What you can do yourselves: Almost every business has apps they have developed themselves (or buy from a vendor) that aren’t tested by Microsoft. These need to be assessed and fixed to have a successful deployment. The Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) is a free solution that is available as a download from Microsoft.com. Using it, you run an application on the old operating system and it identifies issues that will crop up when you install that application on a newer version of the Windows OS. You can run it on users’ machines as well, letting them exercise functionality you may not know about, and find more of the issues earlier in the process. ACT generates comprehensive application inventories and allows you to query your applications against known incompatible applications. If there isn’t a compatible version of the application for the newer OS, it also helps you solve the problems without code changes by associating the applications with compatibility fixes or “shims” that help “fix” the incompatibilities of the application. This is the same technology that Microsoft uses to address third party application issues.

· Is there a quick way to learn more? I highly recommend the on October 7, 2008 TechNet Radio Show (audio cast), which gives you an insight into how this works.

Can I use the Vista tools with older versions of Windows?

Yes and no – it really depends on the tools and what you want to accomplish. For the most part the new infrastructure that was developed for Windows Vista (component model, Windows System Image Manager, etc.) require Windows Vista or later, but there are some exceptions:

· ImageX and the Windows Image (WIM) format can be used to capture and store Windows XP and Server 2003 images.

· WinPE is a small Windows-based operating system that most often is used in deploying Windows images. Although you can only create WinPE images based on Windows Vista with the Vista SP1 WAIK, you can use it to deploy some older (Windows XP and Windows Server 2003) images, perform recovery and maintenance tasks, and as the host OS to capture images.

· Windows Deployment Services ships with Windows Server 2008 and support network installation of Windows XP and later operating systems. It replaces the Microsoft Remote Installation Service (RIS) available previously, and can also be downloaded and installed on Windows Server 2003.

· WinSIM, PkgMgr, IntlCfg and PEImg (or any current offline servicing tools) are specific to Vista and Server 2008. Offline servicing is supported beginning with Windows Vista.

· MDT and ConfigMgr07 both support deployment of Windows XP operating systems, though with reduced overall functionality.

Other questions???

Let me know by commenting on this blog, and I’ll try to answer quickly.

Windows 7 Deployment Changes

2009-01-21T02:17:00Z

Welcome back to the Windows system Deployment blog!

With the public availability of Windows 7 Beta on January 9, I thought it might be a good idea to talk a bit about the changes to deployment in Windows 7, as well as some of the reasons behind the changes. Don’t worry though – these are mostly enhancements (where in Windows Vista we pretty much changed all the tools and infrastructure used to build and deploy Windows). Early reviews tell us that we made some very good decisions, ruffled a few feathers, and probably have some (small) things to tweak before we release.

We took the feedback people were giving us about our deployment tools, processes, and documentation and thought long and hard about what we could to make them better. When we looked at all the requests it was obvious that we couldn’t get all of them done in the timeframe associated with what is now Windows 7, so we prioritized the feedback and figured out where we could make the customers happy, then set about trying to do so (you, or course, are the final judge on whether we succeeded).

We heard multiple requests around three main areas:

· Windows Setup

· Servicing Infrastructure and Tools delivered in the Windows Automated Installation Kit (for corporate customers), or the OEM Pre-installation Kit (for resellers)

· Network-based deployment

I’ll cover these topics at a high level now, but (based on feedback) we’ll dig deeper into these over the next few weeks.

OK, some details… Here we go!

Windows Setup

You can’t install the beta without using Windows setup (at least once) and we made some minor changes to setup in Windows 7. Note that Minor doesn’t mean insignificant in either effort or impact.

Some of the biggest things we heard were and acted on:

In Windows 7 we moved the license key to the Windows Welcome page, so you can enter it after the install. This makes it easier for people to evaluate and get started with Windows. We also provide a better experience when upgrading editions (i.e., from Home Premium to Ultimate) by enabling specific, licensed components, not reimaging the system.

Bitlocker and recovery environments are better supported as we created an additional, hidden partition by default. In Windows 7 Beta it’s small, about 200 megabytes, and we’re making it even smaller in the final release. Although it’s hidden from the end user (so it is less likely to be unknowingly deleted) you can still see it in the Disk Management MMC if you really want to.

Finally we wanted to improve the end users experience during the machine configuration phase (the second to last phase - the last phase is Windows Welcome) of setup. In Windows 7 we’ve taken pains to resolve some of these issues, making it faster and providing better graphics with information about what’s going on so users can understand what the machine is doing (and that it will soon be ready for use). Why invest here? Because many resellers’ save time in their factory process by shutting down the machine before this phase begins, boxing it up, and shipping it to the customer. When the customer gets the machine, they’re excited to set it up and use it (I know I am). Windows Vistas’ experience here left a lot to be desired, even causing some users interrupt the process which caused system corruption, something we needed to invest in to avoid.

Servicing Infrastructure and Tools

We recognize that a very small number of Windows users ever see the setup part of Windows Setup. Most machines have Windows installed from an “image,” using something like a high tech disk copy process. To start, someone installs Windows on a machine, modifies it by adding adds apps, patches, IE home pages, etc., and then recaptures that system as an image that can be redeployed to many machines. Although there is value here in small numbers (even small companies can take advantage of this approach), large resellers and corporations get the most value because they have the most machines to deploy and customize. The downside is that Windows is not static – there are fixes released on a regular basis and once these deployment images are created they have to be maintained. That presented considerable cost prior to Windows Vista as the only way to update an image was to deploy it, start the machine and make the changes.

In Windows Vista we delivered an infrastructure and set of tools to update the images without having to install them first. We got lots of feedback on the process and tools and made some changes to make this better. Here’s a synopsis:

· ImageX and its underlying infrastructure, which is used to manage Windows Image (WIM) format images, now allows multiple images to be modified simultaneously, supports interim saves and with a newly re-written underlying supporting architecture for mounting and manipulating images, is more robust than in Windows Vista.. The extensible infrastructure (WIMGAPI) and supporting mount capabilities are now included in every Windows edition.

· Using Diskpart, you can mount a VHD offline and service that VHD using the servicing tools (just like you can with WIM).

· We consolidated a number of offline management tools (including pkgmgr.exe and intlcfg.exe) into a single tool, known as DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management). DISM also supports more features and functionality than it did in Windows Vista, including logging, inventory commands with parsable output, detailed help, offline INF driver package installation, direct application of MS update packages, and integration of international settings .

· WinPE support has changed in two ways:

o PEImg functionality has been incorporated into DISM.

o The PE feature package model has changed; instead of starting with an image containing all of the feature packages and then removing the ones that aren’t enabled, you start with a base image and add only the feature packages you want.

· The Windows Recovery Environment (RE) is now installed by default in Windows 7, reducing the time and effort required to get basic diagnostic and recovery capabilities into the system for no-boot situations. The customization options in the new Windows RE have also been expanded compared to Windows Vista.

· The User State Migration Tool (USMT) has several new features that improve its flexibility and performance. The hard-link migration store significantly improves performance in refresh scenarios, offline migration enables user state capture from within Windows PE, and the document finder reduces the need for custom migration XML when capturing all user documents. It is now distributed through the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK).

· Although not directly included in the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK), we’ve made getting the Application Compatibility Toolkit, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, and Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkits easier by presenting links on the WAIK autorun (StartCD) page. Because these tools are often released more often, or at different times than the OS, the target pages can be updated as new versions become available.

We’ll be diving in deep in later posts.

Network-based Deployment

WDS (Windows Deployment Service) replaced RIS (Remote Installation Service) in Windows Server 2008. New features in Windows Server 2008 R2 include:

· Multicast with Multiple Stream Transfer allows you to set performance thresholds on multicast clients, allowing slower clients to move to slower “streams“ so that they don’t slow down your fast machines, a limitation in the original multicast feature.

· Dynamic Driver Provisioning allows drivers stored on the WDS server to be dynamically chosen at deployment time. This makes updating your images with new drivers less important (as you just add them to the store), lowering OS bloat and image maintenance costs. You can also insert drivers into boot (WinPE) images directly from the WDS driver store.

· WDS VHD Native Boot. Deploy a Windows 7-based VHD file to a machine and boot from it.

If you’d like to be better acquainted with WDS, this link is a good place to start.

What’s next?

So, is there anything here you really want to hear more about??? Let us know and we’ll give you more information.

Pat

Helpful Links:

Windows Automated Installation Kit Beta Download

User State Migration Tool team blog

Windows Automated Installation Kit Windows 7 Beta is on the download center

2009-01-16T21:39:00Z

The Beta build of Windows 7 Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) is available for download. It's available in English, German and Japanese, although the download pages are not translated (separate download page for each language. This WAIK supports Windows 7 (client) and Windows Server 2008 R2.

You can get the English version here.

The WAIK is much like it was in Windows Vista/Server 2008, but a number of new tools are available as well as additional documentation.

· The Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) Tool is available for downlevel installation.

o Documentation for all features and commands, including compatibility with PkgMgr scripts

o PEImg and IntlCfg are replaced by functionality found in DISM

o Supports offline installation of drivers without creation of an unattend.xml file

o Offline MSI inventory commands are available, including application and application patch listing and information.

o WIM mount support within DISM

· A new WIM mount infrastructure is installed and the ImageX tool now supports modifying multiple images simultaneously and interim saves (you don’t need to unmount to save the image anymore).

· Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) deployment scenario documentation, including walkthroughs. You can also modify a VHD offline using DISM, adding drivers and OS updates

· User State Migration Tool is now included in the WAIK, and not available as a separate download

We are really looking for feedback on the kit and its components. For the tools and the WAIK installer, we ask that you provide feedback through the Beta feedback mechanism. Documentation feedback can be made through the links at the bottom of each documentation topic. You should also feel free to reply to this post with other questions on the Windows 7 WAIK Beta.

This will be the only public drop of the WAIK for Beta. The next version will be available when the Windows 7 release candidate is available.

Welcome To The Windows System Deployment Blog!

2009-01-08T22:04:00Z

So, another Windows Deployment BLOG... What the heck are we thinking? :)

Truthfully, we're working on figuring this out a way for everyone to have one central place to go. Until that time we'll drop a lot of (hopefully) interesting content here, ask questions, and cross-post with the other Bloggers on TechNet and elsewhere when there's interesting deployment stuff out there.

OK, now that that's out of the way… Who am I? Who else is here? What will we talk about?

Whose Blog is it anyway?

My name is Pat Azzarello, and I'm a Senior Program Manager in Windows, working on deployment technologies - aka Windows Setup. For those new to the Windows deployment world, there are a lot of options for how you install Windows, and as we have a HUGE number of machines out there, we take our charter very seriously.

I'll probably be the primary blogger, but it's open to other members of the deployment team, our tech writers, and others.

What we'll (probably) talk about

We'll offer solutions to deployment issues, talk about upcoming release features (when we can disclose them publicly, or course) and probably ask your opinion on things as well.

Our team owns the following core technologies for Windows Vista, Windows Server, Windows 7, and beyond:

· Retail setup

· Upgrade and Migration (incl. USMT)

· WinPE

· SysPrep and Unattend

· OPK and WAIK (deployment kits)

· Windows Deployment Services (WDS)

· Windows Image (WIM) format and ImageX

· Windows component management tools (i.e., PkgMgr, DISM) and infrastructure

· CAB format

Although we'll focus primarily on our teams’ technologies, we do recognize that things outside of our deployment team have a great impact on deployment. Topics like licensing, drivers, virtualization, VPN, application compatibility configuration, network infrastructure and support resources potentially affect the success of your deployment. If there's a topic you're looking to hear more about - let us know!

We won't talk much about things that don't impact deployment, but there will be times when we may offer up some additional personal or other information - but this won't be the place where you find me pondering why people wait 5 minutes in the aisle to park 25 feet closer to the health club door, then get on a treadmill for an hour.

Our Customers

For the consumer who buys a copy of Windows from a retail store, it should be easy to install. We ask a few questions, get to the point where we don't need to ask any more questions, put the bits on the hard drive, and try to predict how long it will take so the user can grab a cup of coffee (Microsoft is in Seattle, after all) while we finish.

For those who build machines to resell (we call the biggest ones OEM's, and the smaller ones "System Builders") we provide tools, documentation, and "best practices" to help make it easy for them to get Windows on the machine. The biggest OEM's generally build their own solutions using some building block tools we provide, and they're extremely sensitive to the time it takes to install the software - so much so that some incent employees who can shave seconds off their process.

The smallest resellers use the retail media, the same way anyone picking up a copy at a retailer would - though they can usually click through the screens faster and with fewer hesitations to ponder the true meaning of the words on the screen.

Then there are the businesses and governments that use computers running Windows. I've yet to find any business running Windows that doesn't do something special. Again there is a continuum between the small business that runs Windows with Office and doesn't need anything more, to highly customized computers that require highly customized deployment systems, to Internet cafes and training centers that deploy Windows over and over again – and need to get really efficient at it.

Solutions

As there are no absolutes in how our customers deploy Windows, we have a big job to manage the scenarios, tools and docs in a way that can be consumed. It’s the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK or Windows AIK) that provides a large number of tools and documentation to build a solution to deploy Windows. This kit is also used by many other solutions, including Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) and System Center. Since the WAIK is the most common thread amongst our users, we’ll discuss these tools and docs in this blog a lot, but many of these discussions will also apply to our OEM’s and System Builders.

Microsoft also delivers end-to-end solutions, built on the technologies that our team creates, primarily for the business/government users: I consider two of them to be our primary offerings, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and System Center (formerly SMS) and will probably offer many links to their blogs and sites. Though they will take an investment in time to understand and become fluent in, these tools can help you deploy faster and lower your deployment costs.

Check Back Soon: Future Topics

We’re looking for feedback from you on what we should cover in this blog. The next couple of installments are already written, and focus on the “Why”, not so much the “Who” or “How”. After that I’d like to drive the content based on what you want. Like the TV show Dirty Jobs, we’d like to hear suggestions from you – but please, don’t make me compete with Mike Rowe for the dirtiest job.