Unattended server2008 deployment

[Yipikayee]

Hi,

I am a student doing my internship, the last stap before graduating. My employer wants me to setup a system to install/deploy unattended installations of server2008r2 and 7. The servers should be installed with the correct iprange, name, hard disk partitioning, shares with the correct permissions.

The clients should join a domain automatically, have the correct computer name, and some software has to be installed on them.

I have been settings up URANOS (Unattended Resolution in A Nutshell - OS) but this program didn't satisfy my boss, a problem with the file permissions.

For the moment I have to search for an alternative but I haven't been very successful. If I can convince him (give good reasons) he might let me use WDS, MDT, ...

He says that there must be a good alternative but I haven't found one yet. Here are some of the alternatives I found but they weren't good either for some reason:

- Opsi: Some modules are not free atm.

- OpenGnSys: can't find info if it's real unattended deployment or imaging.

- Winner: no longer updated.

- Ultimate Deployment Appliance: nothing about server2008, w7 in beta.

I hope that I am at the correct forum and that maybe someone can help me with my quest.

Thx in advance!!!

[Tripredacus]

MDT would be the way to go for sure. If you want to impress your boss/teacher, you would tell them that a real company wouldn't do everything manually. Either way, we can point you to documentation on how to use MDT but since you are working on a school related project, we can't do the work for you.

[WinOutreach4]

I might be a little biased , but I agree with Tripredacus, MDT is the way to go. Here are a couple of pointers to get you on the way.

1. Download and go through the Proof of Concept Jumpstart kit. The PoC contains a VHD of Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 Enterprise (trials of course), along with instructions you can follow to setup this test environment, deploy Windows and applications, prove ROI, etc... All of the deployment tools you could need are included.

2. The Deliver page on the Springboard Series on TechNet will keep you busy with articles and videos that cover every aspect of deploying your operating systems.

You should be able to complete your assignment and convince your boss with working deployments in your test environment in a short amount of time.

Hope this helps,

David

Windows Outreach Team - IT Pro

[Yipikayee]

Thank you so much guys, I think I convinced my boss, he is not at the office atm but will be in the afternoon.

I am gonna check out your guides and if I have any questions I can't find solutions for with google I will report back here.

For the deployment of software I have done some research as well and I think WPKGis probably the way to go.

I am gonna let you guys know how it is going/has been anyway!

Thx and see you later!

[cluberti]

If you do get to using MDT, there are another set of resources on my blog. Yes, shameless plug, but should be quite helpful.

[Yipikayee]

Thanks for the link cluberti!

@WinOutreach4 I downloaded the poc jump start kit, start using it in Virtual PC but since I don't have 2 physical pc's. I am trying to switch to VirtualBox where you can create your own virtual network.

I use the .vhd file to create a new server in VirtualBox with 2048mb memory as in virtual pc but the server keeps crashing when I start it up. I looked on the virtualbox forums for a solutions. There I found that if this virtual pocserver was created with hyper-v this could give errors. I really want to check out this pocserver but if I can't run it in a program where I can create a virtual network I'm afraid I won't be able to use it.

I also tried a version of the pocserver that I had not run in virtual pc but it also crashed on start up.

edit: Found the solution: in the settings of virtualbox I had to remove the harddisk and the sata controller, than readd the harddisk with the IDE controller, this is because the virtual machine was created with hyper-v and hyper-v uses the IDE controller.

Edited March 26, 2012 by Yipikayee

[WinOutreach4]

fantastic, glad you got it worked out.

[Yipikayee]

Okay took me a while but I finished the PoC kit.

It provides part of the required features. It's a small company so they don't have the budget for the SCCM package, but I believe it should still be possible to do ZTI (zero-touch installation) deployments with just WDS (MDT) and unattended files/scripts.

They expect me to test/setup this environment so they can use it at customers locations to deploy new, update old pc's.

Also I expected more from MDT, it gets used mostly for the deployment of office in the POC kit but I thought it would be used to make unattended files like with WAIK.

edit: okay I got the WAIK, MDT thing figured out I think by reading some more tutorials and ebooks. But I was wondering is it possible to deploy a thin windows 7 image and than deploy your software like firefox, adobe reader, some company specific software afterwards with MDT? Microsoft seems to always point to SCCM for this but since this is not possible regarding the budget, I wonder if it is possible with MDT.

Or do you think that wpkg is maybe a good alternative?

edit2: I have found this site http://www.ithastobecool.com/2009/08/17/zerotouch-for-mdt-2010-without-sccm/ with an alternative but it seems like it is no longer "supported".

Edited March 30, 2012 by Yipikayee

[Tripredacus]

Of course MS will recommend the product that costs more!

Maybe, but MDT can install programs too. I'm not sure about the "thin" image you mean.