WDS, Sysprep?

Banzai_Joe

Banzai_Joe

Banzai_Joe

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Hi all,
been reading some similar threads about sysprep'ing.
I am awaiting delivery of 20 Dell Vostro desktops that come complete with Win 7 Pro x64 and MS Office 2010 H&B.
Now, i have a few other applications that need installing on each pc. I don't want to have to go to each one and install it, cos it's a ball-ache to do so.
We're on a 2008 R2 domain, and i've absolutely no clue about WDS, although i'm feverishly reading up on it.
I've also never sysprepped a pc either, but am willing to try, although there seems to be a lot to do and is often fraught with problems, and i may not have the resources to learn AND troubleshoot at the same time.
Each pc would obviously need to be renamed regardless of how the deployment plan is implemented.

So....i was wondering can the server deploy software other than MS products?

Basically, i need to deploy:
  1. Acrobat Reader / or full Acrobat
  2. Autodesk Design Review 2012
  3. YouSendIt
  4. ABBBY Pdf Convertor
If so, please advise on the best method of doing so.
Is it easy to sysprep. Some tutorials suggest it isn't.

Thanks for any advice offered.
 
Best method of server-based app deployment would be systems center configuration manager (SCCM).

Can get a nice 180 day trial which would allow you to do that for free ;)
 
Thanks paradigm. Got technet subscription so am grabbing all 5GB of it from there right now. ;)

Just tried sysprepping a win7 Enterprise install on a laptop and it failed to reboot. So...first time and it failed and now it won't boot, so i guess its knackered. This is what i'm afraid of happening if i try sysprepping for all 20 machines.

edit: whilst its downloading coudl you give me a brief of your experience of it please? Ease of use? practicality?
I'll probably install it onto one of my 2008 R2 Hyper-V's for testing.
 
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If there are MSI packages available for the software you want to deploy, then you can do it by Group Policy.

A bit old compared to the likes of WDS and SCCM...but it has it's uses.

Or you could go even lower-tech and buy a £20 disk cloner!
 
Can you not install these applications in sysprep /audit mode and then run the WDS capture wizard to just capture it to the WDS server and deploy out?
 
I would just install all the apps you want, configure the laptop just as want then run sysprep on it. Then boot up of a network boot CD or even floppy disk and then image the entire hard disk off.

You should then be able to do the reverse, i.e dump the image onto a laptop, power up, enter computername etc...

Installing and getting SCCM running isn't a small job by the way, at minimum you'll need a SQL server and a server configured as a primary with distribution and PXE service roles installed.
 
Wizzkidy said:
Can you not install these applications in sysprep /audit mode and then run the WDS capture wizard to just capture it to the WDS server and deploy out?
Click to expand...

Well, that's the plan, but i'm new to WDS and a little lost already.
That aside my first sysprep attempt (post #3) failed already.
So i tried again by installing a fresh win7 pro x64 onto the test laptop...that actually failed to install. Don't think there is an issue with the laptop itself, it was running xp fine till i messed with it. :rolleyes:

So....so far...not so good! :(

I've downloaded SCCM, my as well install it onto one of my server 2008 R2 VM's and see. Can i put it on the same one that has thw WDS roles installed?
 
Guys,
i'm part way through syprepping a fresh win7 pro x64 install. I've skipped adding the activation key. I'll install Offcie 2010, i have to enter a key but i won't activate it. There is a registry edit where you can delete the key, so i can do that.
Once i've created my image, how do i bring it into WDS?
The instructions for WDS say to install a boot.wim and install.wim from the Server 2008 RD dvd (which i have). But don't i have to import my newly created sysprepped image that's residing on a usb stick with the winpe thingy?

Hope this question makes sense.
 
err....think i just found the answer. I guess i just plug the USB stick into the server and slect the winPE.wim for the boot one, and when i get the image on there, choose that for the install.wim ????

Feel free to confrim :)

Also, as i'm totally new to WDS and SCCM, which would you advise using? I know WDS is a role (so is free), but i have technet subscription so i can fully evaluate the SCCM.
 
SCCM if you can
It's great

Install SCCM on a seperate server to your WDS box as SCCM uses & configures WDS itself.
 
Banzai_Joe said:
err....think i just found the answer. I guess i just plug the USB stick into the server and slect the winPE.wim for the boot one, and when i get the image on there, choose that for the install.wim ????

Feel free to confrim :)
Click to expand...
Yes, you'll be able to give it a name such as "Vostro desktop image" and it'll merge the install.wim with the one that's already on the server. Then, when you do a PXE boot into WDS on one of the desktops, it'll appear as one of the installation options. I've not done this for three or so years, so my memory is sketchy on the specifics.
 
Update on this:
i'm totally lost folks.
Got some people advising to use WDT now not WDS.
I have 20 brand new Dell pc's all around my office.
I can't get GPO deployment of the apps to work for some reason, otherwise that would be the easiest way to sort all this out.

Any more advise would be greatly appreciated. From a deployment noobs pov, which would be the easiest for me to implement?
1. WDS
2. MDT
3. SCCM
4. GPO deployment
 
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I guess it depends on how often you build/refresh machines and how many systems you to manage.

WDS will let you image capture and delpoy image to systems. Integrate MDT with WDS and you will get a lot more additional features . Use SCCM and you will get even more options.

I'm a Config Manager fanboy so would obviously recommend that, but it really does depend on your situation.
 
Thanks PAz,
Right now, i can only foresee the need to deploy these 20 pc's. I'm really trying to avoid logging into each pc and installing the extra software as that would take me ages.
GPO seems to be proving troublesome already, i used an .exe to .msi convertor, but it didn't work for one of my apps, so that scuppers the plan already,
I'm quite keen on using MDT with WDS, i'm just unsure of what to do for the best with these Dell pc's as they already have win7 pro x64 on and the office 2010 pre-install, where if youinput your activation code then it installs the version appropriate to that code.
I'm wondering how that would/could be implemented into an image that i could deploy across the other 19 target machines. Could MDT also incorporate the other apps i want to install on these pc's?
My 3rd party I.T. support company don't tend to deal with 'enterprise' style deployments like this. Although i wouldn't class 20 pc's as enterprise, it would just save me eons in time.
 
Ok, a bit confused now, if anyone is subscribed to this thread and knows about MDT;
why on earth do i have to start the target pc with a boot disk???
That kind of defeats the point of remote deployment for me. I thought it would allow PXE booting. Or am i missing something big time here?
 
Banzai_Joe said:
Just tried sysprepping a win7 Enterprise install on a laptop and it failed to reboot. So...first time and it failed and now it won't boot, so i guess its knackered. This is what i'm afraid of happening if i try sysprepping for all 20 machines.
Click to expand...

Make sure you use the right sysprep, each version of Windows has it's own. Trying to sysprep W7 with XP will cripple it.

I'd personally set up WDS, install windows on one machine, install the software, sysprep, capture the image and then deploy to each of the machines. Really depends how much time you have and how much reading you want to do to set it all up.

MW
 
Buy the MCTS (Exam 70-643): Configuring Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure self paced training kit.

It's all in there mate.
 
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