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| | Author | Messages | |
sintaks
Posts:5
 | | 10/25/2008 5:44 PM |
| Hello everyone... new to the forums and to MDT 2008. I'm getting a good conceptual grasp of how everything works but still have a few hurdles: - Customsettings.ini: Am I correct in saying that cs.ini updates sysprep.inf on the fly?
- Computer scenarios: this one still eludes me. How does the wizard know if it's a new computer, upgrade or refresh? One of the tasks in the sequence "gathers local data" but how does it know? Is it common to create a separate deployment point for each scenario? (that's the only way that seems logical to me)
- BuildMassStorage = yes: I read a lot of people complaining about sysprep taking a long time when this setting is enabled, but I've always heard its a wise thing. Is it really necessary though? I have 10 different models... can't I just add their mass storage drivers to "out of box" and be done with it? The task sequence should update my sysprep and inject them, correct?
- Database: I haven't even looked at this nor can I find any decent docs on it. Are you guys utilizing the db?
Hope I wasn't too long winded. Any help is most appreciated. Thanks! | | | |
| Konrad
Posts:67
| | 10/26/2008 5:56 PM |
| From my useage and understanding of MDT:
"Customsettings.ini: Am I correct in saying that cs.ini updates sysprep.inf on the fly?"
Essentially, many settings in customsetting.ini do work their way into sysprep.inf, mostly from the "Configure" Task Sequence step (running ZTIConfigure.wsf from the scripts folder), but a few other steps will modify it in one way or another. They'll also update unattended.txt for an XP scripted install.
"Computer scenarios: this one still eludes me. How does the wizard know if it's a new computer, upgrade or refresh? One of the tasks in the sequence "gathers local data" but how does it know? Is it common to create a separate deployment point for each scenario? (that's the only way that seems logical to me)"
I only use "new computer" (at least for the moment) so I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think you get the other options when you launch the LTI deployment wizard (LiteTouch.wsf) under the OS of the machine you're upgrading.
"BuildMassStorage = yes: I read a lot of people complaining about sysprep taking a long time when this setting is enabled, but I've always heard its a wise thing. Is it really necessary though? I have 10 different models... can't I just add their mass storage drivers to "out of box" and be done with it? The task sequence should update my sysprep and inject them, correct?"
If you know all your models then you can probably do without that option. I personally leave it there as my build takes long enough anyway so waiting a bit more for sysprep isn't too bad. I also don't manually update the sysprep.inf file, but instead let MDT do this for me using the Task Sequence step "Inject Storage Drivers for XP and 2003", which is disabled by default. This works well for me, most of the time, and saves me having to do the manual work which I've done enough of in my time of doing SOE work.
"Database: I haven't even looked at this nor can I find any decent docs on it. Are you guys utilizing the db?"
I currently use the database to do hardware dependent software installs based on "Make and Model" - some drives, DVD software, burner software, etc.. This was working well up to recently when we started to build x64 images as well, so what I really need now is a "Make, Model and Architecture" option instead... MDT is flexable enough that I could build my own database tables to "fix" this, but then I'd need to use Access to update the database entries and I'm not sure that would have much long term appeal for others to maintain once I've gone.
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| sintaks
Posts:5
| | 10/27/2008 3:58 PM |
| | Thanks for the response. Since I posted this I've been able to work through most of my confusion I had with these questions. Stil though, I can't figure out for the life of me how the wizard knows what type of deployment it is, i.e., new computer, upgrade, etc. I've never been prompted to enter a deployment type in any wizard, so it must pull that info from somewhere... | | | |
| Konrad
Posts:67
| | 10/27/2008 5:07 PM |
| If you run deployment\scripts\LiteTouch.wsf from within the XP OS you want to refresh and/or upgrade, then it will prompt you for the "deployment/migration type" (Refresh or Upgrade) just before it asks you for the computer name. If LiteTouch.wsf is launched under Windows PE, it automatically sets the DeploymnetType Task Sequence variable to
"NEWCOMPUTER" as you can't do an upgrade or refresh when initiating the LiteTouch process from Windows PE.
LiteTouch.wsf does this at line 394, where it checks to see if the system drive is "X:" and if it is, it sets the TS variable "DesploymentType" to "NEWCOMPUTER".
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| sintaks
Posts:5
| | 10/27/2008 9:35 PM |
| | Never realized you could run it from within the OS... thought it was strictly a PE thing. Now that I know that, and have tried it, of course it blows up... invalid credentials. The only way it would work is if the PC was a member of the domain. My distribution share is wide open, so it's not a permissions issue. | | | |
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