Jun 12
Deploying and Servicing Windows with Master Images and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit
Creating, maintaining, and deploying the Windows Operating System is often a very time consuming task.
Image processes are often not as automated as they could be, and always seem to include some manual tweaking when all is said and done. Each time an image is manually updated for new hardware or software, issues can be introduced and often aren’t discovered until it’s too late and the image is deployed.
The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) is an ever evolving suite of tools for creating and servicing images. It provides a framework for automating each step of the image process using a defined set of tools. Using this framework, an image can be created and serviced by administrators using standardized methods that are easily adapted to meet unique requirements. This is especially important if there are multiple people working with images, as they are often “passed-on” as staffing changes or hardware and software evolve.
Using MDT, each phase of the image creation and deployment process is mapped out into a task sequence. The key to the task based model is that individual components or phases can be swapped out. For example, Windows XP SP2 can be swapped for Windows XP SP3 in the task sequence, without the need to recreate image tweaks. The key to this methodology is that you don’t need to recreate the wheel each time you need to service an image, just swap out the impacted parts.
Using MDT, it is completely possible to create a single master image that will work across all hardware types in an organization… the holy grail of image deployment! As new hardware or software is acquired or upgraded, drivers and applications can quickly be added to the process, without recreating the underlying components.
The MDT has seen very large adoption, with over 300,000 downloads since its release… if you aren’t using it, maybe you should take a look! C/D/H has been working with our clients on imaging and deployment since the days of Windows 95 Beta 2; let us show you how these new tools from Microsoft can ramp up your deployment efforts whether they are for XP, Vista, Server 2003, or Server 2008!