Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Beta 1: Using MDT to Prepare, Install and Capture customized Windows 7 Images – Part III
February 2, 2009 at 12:42 am | In Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT), Windows 7 | 29 CommentsTags: Image Deployment, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010, Windows 7
This is going to be the last part (at least for now) for this step-by-step guide for customizing and deploying Windows 7 images with MDT 2010. On the previous posts we’ve learned how to run the firsts configurations on MDT, adding operating system files and creating a task sequence for the reference image (Part I); and also adding Office 2007 to the reference image and making it a silent installation (Part II).
The third post it’s going to be just to deploy the reference and customized image, and then capture it into a .wim file, that we can later deploy using MDT or add it to Windows Deployment Services (WDS).
Deploying Reference Image
Since we already have our boot environments, ISO and WIM files; and that we have the Windows Deployment Services role installed, I’ll start using it: I’m going to add the LTI boot image to WDS that will let me create and capture the reference image.
Note: You can also use the ISO file too boot from a CD or, if it’s a virtual machine, mounting it; but using WDS keep the things a lot easier.
1. Open WDS snap-in > “Boot Images” > “Add Boot Image”.
2. Browse the MDT distribution share, inside the “Boot” folder. And select “LiteTouchePE_x64.wim”. Click “Open”.
3. Finish up the boot image wizard.
4. Now on the computer you are going to use as the reference, boot from the network to receive WDS boot image. And select the LiteTouchePE image you added.
Note: For proper WDS configuration with DHCP and boot images, check this post.
5. Once the boot files are loaded, a new wizard will be prompted. Select your “Keyboard Layout” and click on “Next”.
6. Insert the domain credentials that will be used to access the shared files used by MDT 2010. Use a domain admin account to avoid any inconvenient.
7. Select the task sequence to be executed: “Deploy Windows 7”.
8. Enter a computer name. A random one is created by default.
9. Leave the option “Join a Workgroup”.
IMPORTANT: Do not add it to a domain, otherwise you won’t be able to capture the image you are about to deploy. A machine joined to a domain it’s not a good idea to be captured, because if the sysprep task is removed from the deployment, you will have several issues about the Security Identifiers (SID) within the domain.
10. Since we are not migrating any image, this is a fresh deployment select “Do not restore user data and settings”.
11. Select your location and keyboard layout to be configured on the reference image.
12. Select the “Time Zone”.
13. Select the application you are going to install “Microsoft Office 2007”.
14. You can skip BitLocker configuration if you want to and set “Do not Enable BitLocker for this computer”.
15. Leave selected the option “Capture an image of this reference computer”. And insert the filename “WIN/_REFERENCE.wim”. Click on Next.
16. Here you’ll find a summary of the options selected. Click on “Begin” and the installation process will start.
Creating and formatting partitions
OS installation and final settings
Installing Office 2007 silently
Creating WIM file and send it to the server
Notice that this tasks could take several minutes, depending on your hardware. Try to not interrupt the process. After all this, the WIM file is created and stored in “%distribution%\Captures”.
Adding the Reference Image to MDT 2010
You actually have two options to start using this image:
- Add it to WDS and start deploying it from there. But you don’t get a chance to make any other changes to that image, unless you create a new one.
- Add it to MDT 2010 as a new customized OS. You can add or modify new task sequences to this new machine, for example, adding a new application or enable/disable other features that will be included directly in the deployment.
We are going to take option 2 for now, since the WDS option does not require any other task other than “Add Install Image” from the console.
1. “Deployment Workbench” > “Distribution Share” > “Operating Systems” > “New”.
2. Select “Custom image file” and click on “Next”.
3. Browse for the WIM file that was created and click on “Next”.
4. Leave selected “Setup and Sysprep files are not needed”.
5. Select the directory name: “WIN7_REFERENCE”. And click on “Finish”.
Once you click Finish a process starts working checking the integrity of the file and several other tasks, it could take several minutes to complete. Be patient and the image should appear as a valid operating system.
Creating the Task Sequence
Now that we have the image of the OS, we are going to create the task sequence that will be using that image.
1. “Deployment Workbench” > “Task Sequences” > “New”.
2. Insert “Task Sequence ID”: “Win7_Target”. And name “Deploy Captured Image – Windows 7”.
3. Select “Standard Client Task Name”. Click on “Next”.
4. Select the reference OS just added from the list.
5. Leave selected “Do not specify product key at this time”.
6. Complete the OS settings like it was done before.
7. Specify Administrator’s password and click on “Finish”.
Deploying Reference Image to a Client
We’ve now configured everything that was needed for this reference image, so we can start deploying it to a client. The process will be the same that we used for creating the reference image, the only twist regarding the previous configuration is that we are going to join to the domain this machine.
1. Boot from the network on the client machine. Select again “Lite Touch Windows PE (x64)”.
2. The wizard will prompt again. Select your “Keyboard Layout”.
3. Specify domain credentials to access the network shares.
4. Now we are going to select the task sequence created to deploy the customized image “Deploy Captured Image – Windows 7”.
5. Select the computer name.
6. Join the machine to the domain.
7. On the summary section click on “Begin” to start.
Notice that the option to capture the image was not present because we selected that we are going to add this machine to the domain.
The deployment process begins.
Once it’s done, you’ll see this message. Check “Details” for more information.
Office 2007 installed with all the components.
Conclusions
- If you are not familiarized with this deployment tool, it’s a great chance to start with MDT 2010.
- Automated deployment tools will give you a lot of profit and flexibility once you get the chance to get to know, manage and maintain them. For more info about it, check my other Windows Deployment Services posts.
- Even though this is just a MDT Beta version, did not bring me any stability problems. We expect to get to know more about the functionalities once it gets to a RC version or RTM.
- Check the MDT help included in the installation, you’ll find almost everything you need to know there (most of the sections are the same as in MDT 2008).
Well that’s pretty much it for now about Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Beta 1 and Windows 7.
I hope that you find these posts helpful.
Cheers!
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[...] Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Beta 1: Using MDT to Prepare, Install and Capture customized Windo… [...]
Pingback by Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Beta 1: Using MDT to Prepare, Install and Capture customized Windows 7 Images – Part II « Augusto Alvarez — February 2, 2009 #
Hi
I have worked with MDT 2008 before, now when i am trying to deploy windows 7 in my mdt 2010 lab i can´t get my win 7 to join the domain. I have made changes to unattend.xml to join domain with the correct package. I can se in the logs that it reads the settings and insert them to unattend.xml on the system. But it never joins the domain and no errors are found in the deoploymentlogs??
Can you give me a hint on what the problem is?
Comment by Olov — February 13, 2009 #
Hello Olov,
That is a bit strange. You are using LTI for deployment right? Can you paste the unattend.xml section related to the domain joining?
Cheers
Augusto
Comment by Augusto Alvarez — February 13, 2009 #
Here it comes.. I begining to think that it uses some other unattend.xml file because:
1. I syspreped the master image my self using sysprep.exe -oobe -quiet
2. I had to include setupfiles with my created image to be able to deploy it, in your gide it says that you´r not supposed to?
3. The name of the deployed computer is still “Master” even if i enter the name “Client1″ in the guide before deploying the image.
Thanks for fast replies!
BR/
Olov
here is the join domain part:
administrator
scom
password
scom.local
OU=Computers, DC=SCOM, DC=Local
True
Comment by Olov — February 13, 2009 #
Ok.
Before we can check on the files configuration, can you tell me the big picture of the process you are executing? It is the same that I used on these posts? I have to make sure that we are on the same page, because I never had to use sysprep manually to prepare the image.
Cheers
Augusto
Comment by Augusto Alvarez — February 13, 2009 #
[...] 1, that works only with WAIK 2.0 (check these articles of mine about MDT 2010: Post I, Post II and Post III); maybe you’ve noticed that the management tools that were included with WAIK 1.1 (and 1.0) [...]
Pingback by Step-by-Step: Adding Hyper-V Integration Components to Windows PE using WAIK 2.0 Tools « Augusto Alvarez — February 28, 2009 #
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language ;)
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo
Comment by RaiulBaztepo — March 28, 2009 #
Thanks Raiul.
Cheers!
Augusto
Comment by Augusto Alvarez — March 28, 2009 #
Hi
I got the same problem as the previous poster Olav – can’t join the domain. I’ll wait for the WAIK RC, they may have fixed that by then.
Of more concern to me is the Product Key and activation. At no time did your great tutorial mention to enter them. Is this because we are dealing with “generic” keys, rather than VLKs?
Anyway, I built my system using the Win7 Professional version (rather than ultimate). The Activation Wizard now tells me that it can’t activate Win7 using the supplied key. Wtah gives?
Any feedback appreciated.
Regards
Felix
Comment by Borki — June 2, 2009 #
Great article.
I was testing my image this morning doing it the same way as you,ie using WDS and specified I wished to do a capture. As it started sysprepping it failed with the following error.
“Unable to find rules INI file, rc = 1
ZTI error Non-Zero return code by ZTIGather, rc = 8000
Failure:8000 running wscript.exe “X:\Deploy\Scripts\ZTIGather.wsf
File: X:\deploy\control\locationserver.xml Line: 0 _the system cannot find the file specified. ”
I am aware you can munually create the locationserver.xml file and specify to use it but I am basically using all default settings and am baffled why its looking for it.
Any ideas or know where i can get help with this??
Regards
Dazza
Comment by Dazza — July 1, 2009 #
Hello Dazza,
Which version of MDT are you using? Beta 2?
I haven’t test it yet this version, but I can comment a little bit about locationserver.xml.
The location about this file must be X:\deploy\control (as mentioned by the error you said), so I’m not sure if that’s the actual problem.
Here are some links that might help you:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/itprovistadeployment/thread/4763d079-a794-48ae-9aaf-5a8b15ac5671/
And regarding ZTIGather.wsf:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490322.aspx
Hope it helps.
Cheers!
Augusto
Comment by Augusto Alvarez — July 1, 2009 #
I was able to fix it finally by editing the Z-HAL-Detect script. For some reason the variable of the destination drive was pointing to X: instead of C:, I don’t know why MS would changed that in this version, I had to changed all references to the sysprep.inf and hal.dll file to manually reflect C:\ at the begining of the string instead of a variable & string.
Regards,
Gabriel
Comment by Gabriel — July 31, 2009 #
I was having the same problem after upgrading my MDT 2008 distribution point to MDT 2010 Beta 2. The locationserver.xml is just one of the errors. I was able to fix that error by adding the customizations I had on the DeployWiz_Initialization.vbs on MDT 2008, this line of code in particular:
Set oXMLSiteData = oUtility.CreateXMLDOMObjectEx( “x:\LocationServer.xml” )
and commenting the following line:
‘Set oXMLSiteData = oUtility.CreateXMLDOMObjectEx( property(“DeployRoot”) & “\control\LocationServer.xml” )
In my case I had a Custom LocationServer.xml file with multiple distribution points. Anyway after fixing that now I get this error:
Unable to find rules INI file, rc = 1
ZTI ERROR – Non-zero return code by ZTIGather, rc = 8000
FAILURE:8000: Running wscript.exe “X:\Deploy\Scripts\ZTIGather.wsf”
Could not locate Sysprep
I am trying to deploy a wim image of Windows XP SP3. I was checking the code of the new ZTIGather.wsf and comparing to the old one I noticed that is a lot different. That error code 8000 was not included in the old ZTIGather. I am using the same HAL detect script I was using in MDT 2008. Would this be a bug of this Beta release? Any help would be appreciate it.
Thanks,
Gabriel
Comment by Gabriel — July 31, 2009 #
I was able to fix it finally by editing the Z-HAL-Detect script. For some reason the variable of the destination drive was pointing to X: instead of C:, I don’t know why MS would changed that in this version, I had to changed all references to the sysprep.inf and hal.dll file to manually reflect C:\ at the begining of the string instead of a variable & string.
Regards,
Gabriel
Comment by Gabriel — July 31, 2009 #
Hello there Gabriel,
Thanks for sharing your workaround. Since I’m not working right now with MDT 2010 Beta 2, I’ll be reviewing those configurations.
Cheers!
Augusto
Comment by Augusto Alvarez — August 2, 2009 #
Hi Augusto,
I’m trying a LTI deployment with MDT 2010 with a custom Win7 .WIM using the steps you’ve listed, but it’s trying to install the OS using SETUP rather than just applying the .WIM.
Can you tell me what I’m doing wrong?
Thanks.
Comment by TheKZA — September 1, 2009 #
Hey There,
Are you using the LiteTouch ISO created within the process? or ar you using the WIM file added to WDS?
Cheers!
Augusto
Comment by Augusto Alvarez — September 2, 2009 #
Yep, I’m using the LiteTouch ISO.
Comment by TheKZA — September 2, 2009 #
My image fails upon capturing. I set up a sysprep and capture task sequence. But it always gives me the error:
“ltisysprep cannot find the file specified”
I check the ltisyspre.log and it tells me:
“Unable to find Sysprep.inf, image deployment may not be automated”.
Where is sysprep.inf supposed to be? thanks for any input.
Comment by joe schmo — September 22, 2009 #
Hello,
I’m having the same error message that DAAZ deploying images using MDT 2010 RTM.
Where can I find this file “Z-HAL-Detect script?
What should I change in sysprep.inf and hal.dll file manually to reflect C: \?
Thank you.
Comment by deeway — October 14, 2009 #
Hello,
Do you know how to add direct service pack via MDT 2010 RTM?
They told me to go through the menu “Applications”, adding a “source files” and declare a command line (Windows6.0-KB936330-X86-wave0.exe / quiet) to start the installation but during this operation my task sequences “stop after installing the service pack and does not create wim image.
thank you for your help.
Comment by deeway — October 14, 2009 #
Hi All
I have successfully used MDT 2010 to deploy the OS using image and source files and installed apps and drivers. Now that the target machine has the OS and the drivers, is it possible to use MDT to deploy just the app and not the entire OS again. And I mean ANY APP not just office.
Any help will be appreciated.
Comment by Murad — November 26, 2009 #
Hello Murad,
You will need MDT combined with System Center Configuration Manager 2007 to accomplish that.
Cheers!
Augusto
Comment by Augusto Alvarez — November 27, 2009 #
[...] If this is not clear for you I suggest taking a look at this post series:http://blog.augustoalvarez.com.ar/2009/02/02/microsoft-deployment-toolkit-2010-beta-1-using-mdt-to-p… [...]
Pingback by more win 7 wds « swyda_techblog — December 8, 2009 #
Hi,
Just wondering if you deploy Windows 7 and then capture it, will the captured image have all the drivers you added in the Out-of-Box Drivers? So if you install the wim file on a different model it will install all the drivers for it.
Thanks Ron.
Comment by Ron — December 14, 2009 #
On my experience, sometimes depends on driver involved. Most drivers remains in the process.
In case you need separate drivers for different models, you can use the Out-of-Box Drivers section within MDT.
Cheers!
Augusto
Comment by Augusto Alvarez — December 14, 2009 #
Fellows, am having a problem using my MDT. After OS installation, my reference PC do not automatically log os the Admin, instead, the windows prompts for product key, irreaspective of the fact that i choose “do not ask for Product key” during my task sequesnce and deployment share folder creation. What do I do
Comment by Uche — December 31, 2009 #
Why do you deploy to the reference computer and then capture it for redeployment? Why can’t you just deploy directly to the target computers? It seems like deploying the captured image gives you less flexibility to customize the apps that get installed.
Comment by Peter — February 27, 2010 #
Hello Peter,
That is actually the supported deployment process, since within this process the deployment sets the necessary OS configurations and the applications involved.
Cheers!
Augusto
Comment by Augusto Alvarez — February 27, 2010 #