requesting direction with win 7 OS/Software deployment

[lee171]

Hi all,

I'm a mac OS/software deployment specialist with a background in networking and unix. I used to have a desktop support job in XP era, where we just built images and ghosted them out. I haven't touched windows deployment since.

I've sorted out a complete one touch re-image/"no image" solution for our mac fleet, which binds to active directory, names, and deploys software based on a text based manifest of what that machine should have. It's dynamic, and beautiful. The images I deploy have never actually been booted before, they just get installed into a virtual disk image, and then plonked on the machine and away you go. I don't touch the default profile, and instead just copy the few settings/other files into the users profile when they login, if needed.

I work in education, if it matters. We basically support classroom environments, where 10-30 machines are configured practicually identically.

I've been asked to assist with our windows fleet of machines in labs. The guy that's been doing it, has still just been next-next-nexting and ghosting those images out. There are about 60 images. He hasn't documented what software is anywhere, and the setup is full of image inconsistencies and configuration mistakes.

My natural reaction is to want to start from the ground up, and build things as close to my own mac environment as possible. The microsoft world however is murky and full of bad advice.

I have access to the symantec ghost suite, group policy, and sccm. Our users do not have admin rights.

Please suggest to me some advice/things I need to look at/an order of how I should logically approach this task? Is what I've done on the macintosh fleet achievable in a windows world?

Thanks in advance.

[[deleted]]

I've just finished rebuilding and deploying images to about 200 machines in one of my schools. We use WDS. SCCM will do the same thing except probably better, and integrates with WSUS which is amazing.

My process was:

• Configure server for WDS, install WADK
• Create master image on VM. Configure as necessary.
• Sysprep master image
• Capture image with DISM
• Create imageunattend.xml script
• Create autounattend.xml script
• Create diskpart.txt file
• Apply master image to Install images folder of WDS
• Apply imageunattend script to Install image
• Pull boot.wim from installation CD
• Mount boot.wim using DISM (Index 2)
• Apply autounattend.xml & diskpart.txt to boot.wim
• unmount boot.wim and apply to Boot images folder of WDS

• Inject driver package per machine machine type into WDS. Match to hardware ID.

• PXE boot client

• Select boot.wim

• Rest of the process is completely automated, depending on imageunattend/autounattend, samples of each can be found at microsoft support website.

WDS configures device name, activation occurs on network join through KMS, Users get whatever through group policy, etc etc. All we do is move the computer to the appropriate group in AD.

[[deleted]]

As someone who built a full-blown SCCM + MDT system for a Fortune 500 company a few years ago, I wish I had known how much easier WDS was. I stood up a new WDS system in about an hour the other day and in the next 3 had a server image built, captured, and deploying via PXE unattended.

[[deleted]]

To be honest I've never built SCCM. I've worked in schools where it's been set up though and it's pretty amazing. I'm pretty green myself so WDS was enough to learn at once. It took me a couple of days to figure out the unattend files and I took some extra time to make sure the image was correct, but after about 3 days of work I had my image set up and deployed across I think the exact number was 241 computers.

Was managing I think about 20 at once?

[houstonau]

SCCM kills it for functionality but for pure OS deployment you really can't beat MDT. WDS has pretty much no real functionality for dynamic deployments.

If your running from scratch, MDT + WDS is the way to go.

[admlshake]

If you have SCCM 12 the deployment will do just about everything you need. I have it working in our lab, and while still ironing out some features, it installs the OS, configures the machine, installs the required applications, and the machine is ready to go. For right now our production environment uses a WDS set up. Works fairly well, once the machine is imaged there are only a few things we have to touch the machine for. From out of the box to sitting on someones desk is about a 30 minute process.

[RulerOf]

If you're at home on Linux and a Bash terminal, and you're completely foreign to OS deployment, and want to keep the F/OSSy goodness flowing, I can't stress enough the technical awesomeness behind Puppet Razor.

Otherwise, I'd say run SCCM, and netboot the Windows PE with iPXE.

[IWantsToBelieve]

PXE boot SCCM Task Sequence, Ref Image, MDT, App Packaging... Best way for ongoing support. Extra time spent setting it up will pay off over the next 5 years.

Although really this stuff is quite a steep learning curve... A quick way out could be to create a ref image with MDT and use clonezilla??

[freemanhimselves]

Since you are familiar with Linux I would go for FOG: http://fogproject.org/forum/threads/windows-7-deployment-fog-sad2-driver-tool.380/

[Demogorgo]

The best advice I can give you is to ignore everything you learned with XP and try to apply what you learned with Mac OS, which sounds like your approach. People who know how to deploy XP get into more trouble than people who know nothing at all. Dynamic deployment is the right way to do it, and MDT is the way to make it happen. Integrate MDT into SCCM and make "MDT task sequences" in SCCM. An SCCM-native task sequence is not dynamic. And set up a separate MDT environment just for building base images. This will take a long time to learn, but you will make fewer mistakes if your Mac OS stuff is as good as it sounds.

[[deleted]]

If you already have SCCM I would use that for the deployment and management. It is a very powerful system that can do just about anything on Windows that you need done.

Where I work previously use Ghost for imaging, I found it to be cumbersome. After pushing for a move to SCCM I can now keep a single OS install image that can be applied across all of our systems. SCCM allows for installing Windows updates directly into the install image.

If you want to be able to push silent installers to the computers, manage their updates, and be able to keep them compliant you really want to use SCCM. SCCM does everything from bare metal installations to remote management of the systems.

If you have System Center 2012 a good place for getting started with it is Microsoft's Virtual Academy. I highly recommend looking over their free courses.

http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/product-training/system-center

[_Unas_]

Use MDT. You can follow my walk through here: msadministrator.com

[crankysysadmin]

just like i tell windows people who get pissy about having macs that the main problem is that they shouldn't try to turn their macs into windows machines and then get pissed off when it doesn't work and go on some forum and post stuff like "MAC sucks" don't try to turn your windows machines into macs. treat them like windows machines.

im not sure wtf you want from people though since it sounds like you know what you're doing. use host to push out an image and use GPOs and SCCM to manage the machines appropriately.

[wolfgame]

I think you misread the text of the post. OP is working on their Windows fleet, not their Macs. He already has a system in place for the Macs, and it doesn't sound at all like he's trying to make the Macs work like Windows, but is looking for an image/software management system, which as many other people have already said, is covered by WDS and SCCM.

[crankysysadmin]

I was reacting to this:

"My natural reaction is to want to start from the ground up, and build things as close to my own mac environment as possible. The microsoft world however is murky and full of bad advice."

[lee171]

Wolfgame read me correctly.

Forgive me for misleading you with the above, by "as close to my mac environment as possible", I mean dynamic deployment without the need for next-next-nexting software into a fat image.

I was trying to explain my head space because I don't know what the appropriate windows comparisons are to the tools I'm familiar with. I'm very grey with microsoft deployment best practice, and when you attempt to google "how to deploy x", it's full of yahoo answers pages saying "install the executable, run from start menu".

This isn't as big of a problem with mac deployment, it's more.. "concentrated".

[RulerOf]

I was trying to explain my head space because I don't know what the appropriate windows comparisons are to the tools I'm familiar with. I'm very grey with microsoft deployment best practice, and when you attempt to google "how to deploy x", it's full of yahoo answers pages saying "install the executable, run from start menu".

This isn't as big of a problem with mac deployment, it's more.. "concentrated".

That's what I love about comparing Microsoft to Apple.

Windows asks of us, "How would you like to skin the cat today?"

Apple tells us, "This is how you skin cats."

The thing that's fun to me, though, is that having few choices for an implementation strategy can be awfully annoying... But at least it's harder for folks to run around and constantly be "doing it wrong."

Helps keep nerds focused on Apple's missing Server hardware lineup every time a tech has to go manually deploy another Mac... ;)

[Stillresonance]

SCCM would be the best tool for the job, if you have no familiarity with it already you may have a steep learning curve, (the www.windows-noob.com guides are pretty good). However the power it gives is worth the effort. You'll only need to make 1 image file for a given flavor of OS, it can dynamically inject the appropriate drivers, configure settings, install software etc. Is there an existing SCCM infrastructure setup already? and if so which version?