I am tasked with setting up a MDT server for deploying OS to 25000 endpoints. Is it possible for me set up clustering and then install MDT so MDT is HA. I am also planning to host the deployment share on a clustered HA file share.
I am researching a new workstation deployment strategy for my company. As it stands right now we are building every workstation by hand and this takes massive amounts of time. The step that takes absolutely the longest is Windows Updates.
I currently have setup a Windows Deployment Server for testing and I have tried the following two methods to try to create a .wim that contains the latest windows updates.
Method 1:
I built a workstation from scratch and installed all of the necessary applications and made sure it was fully up to date. I then booted the reference workstation with Windows PE and captured an image of the workstation using the wdscapture.exe tool.
I then did a test deployment to a target workstation and it successfully installed. The only issue though is that none of the updates from the reference workstation seem to carry over. When I check Windows Updates on the target workstation it said I have over 100 updates.
While I realize this method is not hardware agnostic I am OK with managing a .wim file for each model workstation that belongs to our company. This is irrelevant though because Windows Updates seem to not be captured.
Method 2:
I attempted to follow this guide to inject the Windows Update packages directly in the generic install.wim that comes on the Windows 7 DVD.
I then deployed this install.wim to my target workstation but I still have around 60 updates when I check Windows Updates. However the update packages that the wsusoffline tool downloads are included in the capture. So it seems to me that wsusoffline tool is not downloading all of the windows updates that are available.
Problem:
How can I deploy/capture a .wim with the latest Windows Updates included? Is this even possible?
Whenever we deploy a new machine via PXE and WDS, I have to log on to our Sever 2008 R2 WDS server via Remote Desktop to approve the machine.
This is annoying, and as we should all know, logging on to a server should be avoided where ever possible.
However, all of my google-fu is failing me, and I can't find any reference to an MMC console for administering WDS from a remote machine. It's not present in the RSAT modules either.
So, does such a thing exist? I don't like it, but I will settle for extracting the files required to run the console from the original server if needed (something like this, but I don't want to do this unless I totally have to. It's difficult to maintain and a pain to document).
Our client machines are all Windows 7 SP1
I'm just getting the hang of trying to configure/use Windows Deployment Services (WDS) to image Windows 7 workstations on our network.
I have the WDS server configured so any machine can request an image, but the administrator must authorize the configuration. This way we would minimize accidental (or malicious) re-imaging of computers on the network.
For the initial setup, I configured the base Windows 7 install and boot images then hooked up a testbed Dell machine. Booted the Dell with PXE boot, it started the PXE boot, and went back to the WDS server to authorize ID 1 machine. No problem, the Dell booted to Win7 setup and started the whole configuration process.
Got all done and started going through instructions to create an image WIM file on the master; Sysprep with the generalize option completely hosed the staging client. After many profanities, I decided to start from scratch again.
Rebooted the client with PXE boot, and this time it saw the WDS server and started the re-imaging process again without me authorizing it.
This makes me think that if individuals on the network managed to PXE boot an imaged machine, the machine will allow them to re-image it without authorization.
Is this the case?
If so, is there a way to clear out the already authorized ID's/MAC's from the WDS server?
Using Windows Deployment Services on Windows 2008 Server.
Windows Deployment Services on 2008 R2.
I'm trying to add a 64 bit driver package. Dell provides the drivers but they are unsigned. WDS does not allow adding unsigned 64 bit drivers. Is it possible to override this requirement and add them anyway, or is there a simple way to sign these drivers myself?
To be clear, I'm not trying to inject drivers into the boot image, just have them available in the driver pool during installation.