An Overview of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2013 Update 2

Microsoft released a deployment assistance toolset called the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2013 Update 2. It is used to automate desktop and server deployment. The MDT provides an administrator with the following benefits:

• Administrative tools that allow for the deployment of desktops and servers through the use of a common console (see Figure 2.1)

  

• Quicker deployments and the capabilities of having standardized desktop and server images and security
• Zero-touch deployments of Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012/2012 R2, Windows Server 2008/2008 R2, Windows 10/8/7

To install the MDT 2013 package onto your computer (regardless of the operating system being deployed), you must first meet the minimum requirements of MDT. These components need to be installed only on the computer where MDT 2013 is being installed:

• Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012/2012 R2, Windows Server 2008/2008 R2, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, or Windows 7.
• The Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows Server 2016 is required for all deployment scenarios.
• System Center 2016 Configuration Manager Service Pack 1 with the Windows ADK for Windows Server 2016 is required for zero-touch installation (ZTI) and user-driven installation (UDI) scenarios.
• If you are using ZTI and/or UDI, you are allowed to add the MDT SQL database to any version of System Center Configuration Manager with SQL Technology; if you are using LTI, you must use a separately licensed SQL Server product to host your MDT SQL database.

In Exercise 2.1, you will download and install MDT 2013. You can install MDT 2013 on the Windows Server 2016 operating system machine that you installed in Chapter 1. If you decide to install the MDT 2013 onto a server or production machine, I recommend that you perform a full backup before completing Exercise 2.1. Installing MDT 2013 will replace any previous version of MDT that the machine may currently be using.

Now that you have installed MDT 2013, you are going to configure the package. In Exercise 2.2, you will configure MDT 2013 and set up a distribution share and database. I am creating the MDT 2013 on a Windows Server 2016 so that we can distribute Windows Server 2016. Make sure the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows Server 2016 is installed because it is required for all deployment scenarios.

Now that you have seen how to install the MDT 2013 utility, let’s take a look at some other ways to automatically install Windows Server 2016.

An Overview of Unattended Installation

Unattended installation is a practical method of automating deployments when you have a large number of clients to install and the computers require different hardware and software configurations. Unattended installations allow you to create customized installations that are specific to your environment. Custom installations can support custom hardware and software installations.

Unattended installations utilize an answer file called Autounattend.xml to provide configuration information during the installation process. Think about the Windows Server 2016 installation from the previous chapter. You are asked for your locale, type of installation, and so on. The answer file allows these questions to be answered without user interaction. In addition to providing standard Windows Server 2016 configuration information, the answer file can provide installation instructions for applications, additional language support, service packs, and device drivers.

With an unattended installation, you can use a distribution share to install Windows Server 2016 on the target computers. You can also use a Windows Server 2016 DVD with an answer file located on the root of the DVD, on a floppy disk, or on a universal flash device (UFD), such as an external USB flash drive.

Unattended installations allow you to create customized installations that are specific to your environment. Custom installations can support custom hardware and software installations. Since the answer file for Windows Server 2016 is in XML format, all custom configuration information can be contained within the Autounattend.xml file. This is different from past versions of Windows, where creating automated installation routines for custom installations required multiple files to be used. In addition to providing standard Windows Server 2016 configuration information, you can use the answer file to provide installation instructions for applications, additional language support, service packs, and device drivers.

If you use a distribution share, it should contain the Windows Server 2016 operating system image and the answer file to respond to installation configuration queries. The target computer must be able to connect to the distribution share over the network. After the distribution share and target computers are connected, you can initiate the installation process. Figure 2.12 illustrates the unattended installation process.

An Overview of the System Preparation Tool and Disk Imaging

The System Preparation Tool, or Sysprep (Sysprep.exe), is used to prepare a computer for disk imaging, and the disk image can then be captured using any image capturing software including DISM or third-party imaging software.

Sysprep is a free utility that comes on all Windows operating systems. By default, the Sysprep utility can be found on Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2016 operating systems in the Windowssystem32sysprep directory.

Disk imaging is the process of taking a checkpoint of a computer and then using those checkpoints to create new computers, thus allowing for automated deployments. The reference, or source, computer has Windows Server 2016 installed and is configured with the settings and applications that should be installed on the target computers. The image (checkpoints) is then created and can be transferred to other computers, thus installing the operating system, settings, and applications that were defined on the reference computer.

When the client computer starts an installation using a disk image, you can customize what is displayed on the Windows Welcome screen and the options that are displayed through the setup process. You can also fully automate when and how the Windows Welcome screen is displayed during the installation process by using the /oobe option with the System Preparation Tool and an answer file named Oobe.xml.

Sysprep is a utility that is good only for setting up a new machine. You do not use Sysprep to image a computer for upgrading a current machine. There are a few switches that you can use in conjunction with Sysprep to configure the Sysprep utility for your specific needs. Table 2.1 shows you the important Sysprep switches and what they will do for you when used.

When you decide to use Sysprep to set up your images, there are a few rules that you must follow for Sysprep to work properly:

• You can use images to restart the Windows activation clock. The Windows activation clock starts to decrease as soon as Windows starts for the first time. You can restart the Windows activation clock only three times using Sysprep.
• The computer on which you’re running Sysprep has to be a member of a workgroup. The machine can’t be part of a domain. If the computer is a member of the domain, when you run Sysprep, the computer will automatically be removed from the domain.
• It simplifies the addition of user-specific or computer-specific configuration information.
• When installing the image, the system will prompt you for a product key. During the install you can use an answer file, which in turn will have all the information needed for the install, and you will not be prompted for any information.
• A third-party utility or Image Capture Wizard is required to deploy the image that is created from Sysprep.
• If you are using Sysprep to capture an NTFS partition, any files or folders that are encrypted will become corrupt and unreadable.

One advantage to Sysprep and Windows Server 2016 is that you can use Sysprep to prepare a new machine for duplication. You can use Sysprep to image a Windows Server 2016 machine. The following steps are necessary to image a new machine:

1. Install the Windows Server 2016 operating system.
2. Install all components on the OS.
3. Run Sysprep /generalize to create the image.

When you image a computer using the Windows Sysprep utility, a Windows image (.wim) file is created. Most third-party imaging software products can work with the Windows image file.

Overview of the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit

Another way to install Windows Server 2016 is to use the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK). The Windows (ADK) is a set of utilities and documentation that allows an administrator to configure and deploy Windows operating systems. An administrator can use the Windows (ADK) to do the following:

• Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer (ICD)
• Windows Assessment Toolkit
• Windows Performance Toolkit

The Windows (ADK) can be installed and configured on the following operating systems:

• Windows Server 2016
• Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10
• Windows Server 2012 R2
• Windows Server 2012

The Windows (ADK) is a good solution for organizations that need to customize the Windows deployment environments. The Windows (ADK) allows an administrator to have the flexibility needed for mass deployments of Windows operating systems. Since every organization’s needs are different, the Windows (ADK) allows you to use all or just some of the deployment tools available. It allows you to manage deployments by using some additional tools.

Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer (ICD) The tools included with this part of the Windows (ADK) will allow an administrator to easily deploy and configure Windows operating systems and images.

Windows Assessment Toolkit When new Windows operating systems are installed, applications that ran on the previous version of Windows may not work properly. The Application Compatibility Toolkit allows an administrator to help solve these issues before they occur.

Windows Performance Toolkit The Windows Performance Toolkit is a utility that will locate computers on a network and then perform a thorough inventory of them. This inventory can then be used to determine which machines can have Windows Server 2016 installed.

Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer

The Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer (ICD) allows an administrator to work with images. The ICD allows an IT Department to do the following;

• View and configure all of the settings and policies for a Windows Server 2016 image or provisioning package.
• Create Windows provisioning answer files.
• Allow an answer file to add third-party drivers, apps, or other assets.
• Create variants and specify the settings that apply to each variant.
• Build and flash a Windows image.
• Build a provisioning package.

The Windows (ICD) gives an IT department many options on how to deploy and setup Windows Server 2016 clients. Here are some of the following tools included with the Windows (ICD).

• Configure and edit images by using the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) utility
• Create Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) images
• Migrate user data and profiles using the User State Migration Tool (USMT)
• Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer (Windows ICD)

Summary of Windows Server 2016 Deployment Options

Table 2.2 summarizes the installation tools and files that are used with unattended, automated installations of Windows Server 2016, the associated installation method, and a description of each tool.

The Windows Server 2016 installation utilities and resources relating to automated deployment are found in a variety of locations. Table 2.3 provides a quick reference for each utility or resource and its location.

Using the System Preparation Tool to Prepare an Installation for Imaging

You can use disk images to install Windows Server 2016 on computers that have similar hardware configurations. Also, if a computer is having technical difficulties, you can use a disk image to quickly restore it to a baseline configuration.

To create a disk image, you install Windows Server 2016 on the source computer with the configuration that you want to copy and use the System Preparation Tool to prepare the installation for imaging. The source computer’s configuration should also include any applications that should be installed on target computers.

Once you have prepared the installation for imaging, you can use imaging software such as Image Capture Wizard to create an image of the installation.

The System Preparation Tool (Sysprep.exe) is included with Windows Server 2016, in the %WINDIR%system32sysprep directory. When you run this utility on the source computer, it strips out information that is unique for each computer, such as the SID. Table 2.5 defines the command options that you can use to customize the Sysprep.exe operation.

In the following sections, you will learn how to create a disk image and how to copy and install from it.

Using Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer (Windows ICD) to Create a Disk Image

After you’ve run the System Preparation Tool on the source computer, you can create an image from the installation, and you can then install the image on target computers. To create an image, you can use Image Capture Wizard, which is a utility that can be used to create and manage Windows image (.wim) files.

At the time this book was written, The Windows ICD supports disk images for Windows 10 Desktop editions, Windows 10, Mobile editions, and Windows 10 IoT Core images. Windows ICD Does not support the configuration of Windows Server 2016 editions.

To run the Image Capture Wizard utility to create a disk image of a Windows Server 2016 installation, follow these steps:

1. From the Windows ICD Start page, select Simple Provisioning.
2. In the Enter Project Details window, specify a Name and Location for your project. Optionally, you can also enter a brief Description to describe your project.
3. Click Next.
4. In the Enter Project Details window, you need to enter the Name of your project and the location of the project. You can also enter a description. Click Next.
5. In the Choose which settings to view and configure window, select the Windows edition that you want to do a provision package. Then click Next.
6. Optional. If you have a provisioning package that contains customizations already configured in a different project and you want to reuse the customizations from this package, click Browse in the Import a provisioning package screen to locate the provisioning package that was exported from another project.
7. Click Finish.

There is also a Command Line version of the Windows (ICD) tool (C:Program Files(x86)Windows Kits10Assessment and Deployment KitImaging and Configuration Designerx86) that you can use. The Microsoft exams have started using a lot of command line utilities on their tests. So let us take a look at the Windows (ICD) command line utility. The command that we use for this is icd.exe:

icd.exe <command> <parameters>

Table 2.6 shows you the icd.exe command and some of the switches that you can use to configure the images.

After you create the disk image, the next step is to install it. In the next section, you’ll learn how to install the disk image on a new machine.

Installing from a Disk Image

After you’ve run the System Preparation Tool and Image Capture Wizard on the source computer, you can copy the image and then install it on the target computer.

Once the image is copied, you should boot the destination computer into the Windows PE. If the computer has been used previously, it may be necessary to reformat the hard drive, which you can do using the diskpart command in Windows PE. If the image is stored over the network, you should then copy the image to the destination computer by using the net use [dir] [network share] and copy [file] [dir] commands. Then, you should use the /apply option of the Image Capture Wizard utility to apply the image to the local computer. If an answer file has not been deployed along with the image, you may have to apply such information as regional settings, the product key, the computer name, and the password to the new computer after the destination computer is rebooted.

In Exercise 2.4, you will use the stripped image that was created in Exercise 2.3 to simulate the process of continuing an installation from a disk image.

When you install Windows Server 2016, the installation wizard asks you questions such as your username and computer name. There is a way to answer these questions without actually being in front of the computer. As you’ll see in the next section, you can do this by using an answer file.

Using the Deployment Image Servicing and Management Tool

Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM.exe) is a PowerShell and command-line utility that allows you to manipulate a Windows image. DISM also allows you to prepare a Windows PE image. DISM replaces multiple programs that were included with Windows 7/8. These programs include Package Manager (Pkgmgr.exe), PEimg, and Intlcfg. These tools have been consolidated into one tool (DISM.exe), and new functionality has been added to improve the experience for offline servicing.

DISM provides additional functionality when used with Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2012/2012 R2. You can use DISM to do the following:

• Add, remove, and enumerate packages
• Add, remove, and enumerate drivers
• Enable or disable Windows features
• Apply changes to an Unattend.xml answer file
• Configure international settings
• Upgrade a Windows image to a different edition
• Prepare a Windows PE 3.0 image
• Works with all platforms (32-bit, 64-bit, and Itanium)
• Allows for the use of Package Manager scripts

Using Windows System Image Manager to Create Answer Files

Answer files are automated installation scripts used to answer the questions that appear during a normal Windows Server 2016 installation. You can use answer files with Windows Server 2016 unattended installations, disk image installations, or WDS installations. Setting up answer files allows you to easily deploy Windows Server 2016 to computers that may not be configured in the same manner, with little or no user intervention. Because answer files are associated with image files, you can validate the settings within an answer file against the image file.

You can create answer files by using the Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM) utility. There are several advantages to using Windows SIM to create answer files:

• You can easily create and edit answer files through a graphical interface, which reduces syntax errors.
• You can validate existing answer files against newly created images.
• You can include additional application and device drivers in the answer file.

In the following sections, you will learn about options that can be configured through Windows SIM, how to create answer files with Windows SIM, how to format an answer file, and how to manually edit answer files.

Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit

This chapter is all about installing Windows Server 2016 the easiest way possible. One utility that you can use to help design your network is the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit. MAP is a utility that will locate computers on a network and then perform a thorough inventory of these computers. To obtain this inventory, MAP uses multiple utilities like the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), the Remote Registry Service, or the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).

Having this information will allow an administrator to determine if the machines on their network will be able to load Microsoft Windows clients (including Vista, Windows 7/8/10, or Windows Server 2008/2008 R2/2012/2012 R2/2016, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Application Virtualization. One advantage of using MAP when determining the needs for Windows is that MAP will also advise you of any hardware upgrades needed for a machine or device driver availability.

Anyone who has been in the industry for a while can see the potential of using MAP. Having a utility go out and discover your network hardware and then advise you of needed resources to allow the operating system to operate properly is a tool that should be in every administrator’s arsenal.

When deciding to locate the computers on your network, you have multiple ways to do this. The following are your discovery options and how they try to discover the computers:

• Use Active Directory Domain Services
  • Select this check box to find computer objects in Active Directory.
• Use The Windows Networking Protocols.
  • Select this check box to find computers in workgroups and Windows NT 4.0 domains.
• Import Computer Names From A File
  • Select this check box to import computer names from a file.
• Scan An IP Address Range
  • Select this check box to find computers within a specified IP address range.
• Manually Enter Computer Names And Credentials
  • Select this check box to enter computer names individually.

As a network administrator, one thing that is always difficult to determine is how many servers are needed for your Windows end users and where to place them on your network. An included feature with MAP is the ability to obtain performance metric data from the computers. MAP will also generate a report that recommends which machines can be used for Windows clients.

MAP generates your report in both Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word. These reports can provide information to you in both summary and full detail modes. MAP can generate reports for you for some of the following scenarios:

• Identify currently installed client operating systems and their requirements for migrating to Windows 10.
• Identify currently installed Windows Server systems and their requirements for migrating to Windows Server 2016.
• Identify currently installed Microsoft Office software and their requirements for migrating to Microsoft Office 2016.
• Server performance by using the Performance Metrics Wizard.
• Hyper-V server consolidation and placement.
• Assessment of machines (Clients, Servers) for installation of Microsoft Application Virtualization (formally known as SoftGrid).

To install MAP, we must first take a look at the system requirements.

What Is Virtualization?

Virtualization is a method for abstracting physical resources from the way they interact with other resources. For example, if you abstract the physical hardware from the operating system, you get the benefit of being able to move the operating system between different physical systems.

This is called server virtualization. But there are also other forms of virtualization available, such as presentation virtualization, desktop virtualization, and application virtualization. I will now briefly explain the differences between these forms of virtualization:

Server Virtualization This basically enables multiple operating systems to run on the same physical server. Hyper-V is a server virtualization tool that allows you to move physical machines to virtual machines and manage them on a few physical servers. Thus, you will be able to consolidate physical servers.

Presentation Virtualization When you use presentation virtualization, your applications run on a different computer and only the screen information is transferred to your computer. An example of presentation virtualization is Microsoft Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2016.

Desktop Virtualization Desktop virtualization provides you with a virtual machine on your desktop, comparable to server virtualization. You run your complete operating system and applications in a virtual machine so that your local physical machine just needs to run a very basic operating system. An example of this form of virtualization is Microsoft Windows 10 Hyper-V.

Application Virtualization Application virtualization helps prevent conflicts between applications on the same PC. Thus it helps you to isolate the application running environment from the operating system installation requirements by creating application-specific copies of all shared resources, and it helps reduce application-to-application incompatibility and testing needs. An example of an application virtualization tool is Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V).

Now that I have given you a brief understanding of virtualization, let’s look at how we can install Hyper-V. In Chapter 4, “Understanding Hyper-V,” I will have exercises showing you how to do full installations of Hyper-V on a Windows Server 2016.

There are multiple ways that you can install Hyper-V onto a Windows Server 2016 system. The first and easiest way to install Hyper-V is to use Server Manager and choose the Hyper-V role. Another way is to install Hyper-V role is by using PowerShell. The following is the command that is run while in Windows PowerShell to install Hyper-V:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V –All

Linux and FreeBSD Image Deployments

One of the new features of Windows 2016 is the ability for Hyper-V to support Linux and FreeBSD virtual machines. Hyper-V now can support these new virtual machines because Hyper-V has the ability to emulate Linux and FreeBSD devices. Because Hyper-V now has the ability to emulate these two devices, no additional software needs to be installed on Hyper-V.

Unfortunately, because Hyper-V has to emulate these devices, you lose some of the Hyper-V functionality like high performance and full management of the virtual machines. So it’s a trade-off. You get to run Linux and FreeBSD type Hyper-V virtual machines but you lose some of the benefits of Hyper-V.

But wait. There is a way to get your Hyper-V functionality back. This issue can be resolved as long as you install Hyper-V on machines that can support Linux and FreeBSD operating systems. The drivers that are needed on Hyper-V are called Linux Integration Services (LIS) and FreeBSD Integrated Services (FIS). By putting these drivers on a device that can handle Linux and FreeBSD, you can then have Hyper-V with all of the features Microsoft offers.

To get these drivers and make Hyper-V work will all of its functionality, you must make sure that you install a newer release of Linux that includes LIS. To get the most out of FreeBSD, you must get a version after 10.0. For FreeBSD versions that are older than 10.0, Microsoft offers ports that work with BIS drivers that need to be installed. Hyper-V will work with Linux and FreeBSD without the need of any additional drivers or equipment. By having drivers and equipment that supports Linux and FreeBSD, you just get all of the Hyper-V features that your origination may need.