Create Windows 7 Media for Deployment

Problem: You need to deploy an OS to a computer that isn’t connected to your network.

Solution: Use MDT to create a bootable image for a DVD or external drive.

 WHAT YOU NEED: Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010, steps from last month’s Solutions Plus

SOLUTION STEPS:

Step 1: Create selection profiles.

Step 2: Create your media.

Step 3: Update your media.

Step 4: Prepare your media.

Step 5: Use your media on the client machine.

Optional: Customize or automate your media.

DIFFICULTY: Three out of five

 The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010s “Media” feature lets you deploy a complete OS, including applications, drivers, and packages from a DVD (size permitting), external hard drive, or universal flash device (UFD—a USB storage device with flash memory) without any network connectivity at all. You could mail the media to Meghan, the manager of the branch office who is also (in her spare time) the resident IT person. All she has to do is boot from the media, answer a few questions (which can be automated), and voila OS deployment completed in accordance with your corporate standards.

In this article, I’ll show you how to create a Lite Touch bootable ISO image that contains the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) components needed for an OS deployment. I’ll begin by showing you how to create a selection profile, Media, and finally how to automate the clients deployment wizard.

This article assumes you’ve performed steps one through five from April’s article, “XP to Windows 7 Migration with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010,” InstantDoc ID 103607. If you’ve completed these steps, you should have the following:

• A deployment share created by accepting all defaults (F:\DeploymentShare)
• An imported Windows 7 x64 full set of source files (accepting default settings)
• Created the following folder structure in the deployment workbench:
  Operating Systems / W7 / x86
  Operating Systems / W7 / x64 (Windows 7 full set of source files reside here)
  Task Sequences / Standard Client TS
• Created a task sequence in the Task Sequences / Standard Client TS folder
Task sequence
Name=Windows 7 64-bit (accept defaults except you should provide an Admin password)
• Updated the Deployment Share (F:\DeploymentShare)

Step 1: Create Selection Profiles

Creating media requires the use of a selection profile. A selection profile lets you group MDT components (OS, applications, drivers, packages, and task sequences) into a single container. That selection profile is specified in the media, identifying which MDT components should be included. To create a selection profile from within the MDT’s deployment workbench, follow these steps:

1. Expand the Advanced Configuration node.
2. Right-click Selection Profiles and choose New Selection Profile.
3. On the General Settings page, give the selection profile a name. (I named mine SAM—short for Stand Alone Media.) Input your comments to document what’s included in this selection profile, then click Next.
4. On the Folders page, expand Operating Systems, then W7, and choose the x64 folder. Then expand the Task Sequences node and choose the Standard Client TS folder and click Next. The Folders page should look like Figure 1.






Figure 1: Selecting the MDT components for your Selection Profile



5. The Summary page lets you review your settings (make any changes necessary by clicking the Previous button). When you’re done, click Next. The Progress page flashes by and then the Confirmation page appears. Click Finish on the Confirmation page.

Step 2: Create Media

Once you have a selection profile, you can create your new media. To create media from within MDT 2010’s deployment workbench, follow these steps:

1. From the Advanced Configuration node, right-click Media and choose New Media.
2. The New Media Wizard opens to the General Settings page. In the Media path field, type the folder name where you’d like to store the new media (the folder must already exist—MDT won’t create it for you) or click Browse and navigate to a folder. I navigated to the F:\ drive, where I created a new folder named SAM. (The selection profile name and media name don’t have to match, but I’ve found that after you have a few of each, it’s easier to track if they do.) Click OK then input your comments and choose the “SAM” selection profile you created earlier from the drop down list, as seen in Figure 2.




Figure 2: New Media General Settings Page



3. Review your settings on the Summary page. If all looks good click Next. The Progress page shows the steps performed to create the new media and when completed disappears. The Confirmation page appears. Click Finish to end the New Media Wizard.
4. The new media will be displayed in the details pane of the deployment workbench named MEDIA001. (You can rename MEDIA001 just like you rename a file in Windows Explorer.)

Step 3: Update Media

Now that you’ve created the media, you’ll need to update the media to generate a bootable ISO image containing your media. Before you update the media content, be sure you have enough hard drive space to store the new .ISO file. The Update Media Content Wizard doesn’t check for available hard drive space before it generates the Lite Touch bootable .ISO, so you can run into trouble if there isn’t enough space to store it. The size of the .ISO file is determined by which MDT components you’ve included in your selection profile. You should be safe with at least 10GB available. To update the new media from within the deployment workbench follow these steps:

1. From the Advanced Configuration / Media node, right-click MEDIA001 (in the details pane) and choose Update Media Content.
2. The Progress page displays the steps performed by the Update Media Content Wizard and when it’s done the Confirmation page appears.
3. Click Finish on the Confirmation page.

Updating Media is a little different than updating a deployment share. When you update a deployment share, you see an Options page that lets you choose how you’d like to update the deployment share (update existing files or create all new). This page is lacking when you update media. I’ll show you later how to force a new .ISO to be created instead of updating the existing .ISO, which is helpful if you ever have a corrupt .ISO that needs to be rebuilt.

The Update Media Content Wizard generates a Lite Touch bootable ISO file named LiteTouchMedia.iso in the F:\SAM folder. Now that you have the LiteTouchMedia.iso, what can you do with it?