Migrating MDT 2010 from one server to another server

It isn't as hard as it would seem. There may be other approaches to doing this, but I did a plain simple copy and paste on to the new server then edit the configuration files and update the image files and you're off to the horses!

• Copy the old share from the old server to the new server. ( Located in C:/Deploymentshare) 

• After it is finished copying, change the copied deployment share folder to be shared out. 

• Open MDT on the new server then click on Open Deployment Share and point it to the copied deployment share on your C:

• Right click your deployment share in MDT and click properties change the UNC path to reflect the new deployment share.

• Change the boot.ini to reflect your new server.

• Oh, don't forget to update your litetouch image from the deployment server then update WDS!

There you go- that's all folks!

Installing Office 2007 through MDT

Once you import office 2007 you should get different options than any other application import- and you’re able to select more options within the office products tab.

Below I’ve selected the Enterprise.WW config, you can select different configs.

• Select your config from the Drag down box
• Enter your Volume License Key, Display Basic- and suppress reboot.
• Go into Office Customization Tool and further customize your install.
• Include updates within the update folder of the actual installation folder, C:/DeploymentShare/Applications/Office 2007/Updates and include any updates such as SP1 and SP2.
• If required add another application such as SAVE AS PDF and make Office 2007 a dependency.

Using MDT to install applications if source computer is a laptop

How to create a task sequence to install a certain application if the computer is a laptop.

• Create a task sequence group (folder) named IsLaptop or Laptop.
• Click on the newly created sequence folder then go to options
• Add a rule for "Task sequence variable IsLaptop equals True"
• Now add as many install application task sequences as required into that folder.

Now you're litetouch installation will check if the deployment is a laptop and if it is- it will install the applications within that folder.

IsLaptop Task Sequence

Computer is not being renamed from customized wim image.

I had this problem and I couldn't figure out what was wrong... until I read the MDT 2010 documentation.
It took me a very long time to figure this out... I even sought for help on a forum

The problem:

I'm deploying machines after a customized captured wim machine.
Customized wim computer name is XXXXX

When I deploy I put in the computer name when it asks, continue with my deployment- once it finishes the name doesn't get changed... it's still set to the customized wim computer name (XXXX).

Not sure what to make of it... weird part is that after the deployment if I go to the logs the folder name is the correct computer name, (each log is created in a folder after the computername variable).

So somewhere during the deployment the computer is not being renamed from the customized wim to the deployment...

The Fix:

ComputerName - This property has been deprecated. Use OSDComputerName instead.

.........

Thanks for the heads up! (sarcasm)
It would be nice to see the documentation also follow this up by editing their previous examples and replacing the ComputerName Variable with OSDComputerName!!

Oh and maybe let us know when creating the boot image by running the customsettings.ini against a syntax checker also if the variable is depreciated it should let us know.

Sorry folks, just a frustrating problem...

Sample CustomSettings.ini

Here is an example of my CustomSettings.ini configuration, hope this helps someone :)

[Settings]
Priority=Default
Properties=MyCustomProperty

[Default]
SLShare=\\LogServer\Logs$
;Display Organization name as
_SMSTSOrgName=MacLAREN McCANN ITG

;Skip useless windows that remain the same during each setup...
SkipDeploymentType=NO
SkipAppsOnUpgrade=NO
SkipCapture=NO
SkipAdminPassword=YES
SkipProductKey=YES
SkipSummary=YES
SkipLocaleSelection=YES
SkipTimeZone=YES

UserLocale=en-US
KeyboardLocale=0409:00000409
UILanguage=en-US
;Set the computer name value but allow it to be changeable
ComputerName=XXXXXXX
;Set the domain value as but require my confirmation wether to add to domain or not
JoinDomain=na.corp.ipgnetwork.com
;Set Workstation Machine OU as (LDAP)
MachineObjectOU=OU=Workstations,OU=MCL,OU=10BAYS,OU=TOR,DC=na,DC=corp,DC=ipgnetwork,DC=com
JoinWorkgroup=Maclaren

OSInstall=Y
;Display Organization name as
OrgName=MacLAREN McCANN
;Set Timezone
TimeZone=35
TimeZoneName=Eastern Standard Time
;Set Password if skipped dialogue, note this is not encrypted
admin_password=If_it_was_only_that_easy
;Set Appearance
BitsPerPel=32
VRefresh=60
XResolution=1280
YResolution=1024

;Set IE Homepage
Home_page=http://home/

;Don't install these windows updates (Office Live Addin, Windows Search)
WUMU_ExcludeKB1=940157
WUMU_ExcludeID1=af5c516f-1764-4dc0-b1e9-1e20dbee815c
WUMU_ExcludeID2=9514bb43-f49d-499b-a655-9d64caf68976

Windows 7 doesn't install on Litetouch - "The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error."

When creating or deploying an image on litetouch, after the installations near the end you blue screen with a message that says "Driver mistmatch... system..."  then after a reboot you get the following error in a loop

"The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error. Windows installation cannot proceed. To install windows, click "OK" to restart computer and then restart installation."

Solution:

Disable both inject driver tasks in your task sequences.

I'm not sure but I believe when creating/deploying the image litetouch injects drivers from XP into the windows 7 install causing it to fail.

If anyone has any other fixes please share!

Thanks!

MDT/LTI Crashes on XP installation iastore.sys error 4

Well... we have the nice folks at intel to thank for this- but in any case here is the fix.

Open up your deployment toolkit and click on out-of-box drivers,
Remove all the iastor.sys drivers and grab the latest ones from intel.

• Go to Intel and download the Intel Matrix Storage Manager
  http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=17882&lang=eng

• Run the downloaded file with the -a argument in command line.
  Example: IATA89ENU.exe -a

• Open MDT, Click on out-of-box drivers then click on import new drivers, point to:
• C:\program files\intel matrix storage\

• Update your litetouch image, and replace it on WDS (if running it) and you should be good to go! :)

Removing Office Live Add-in and Live Essentials from MDT

In the MDT CustomSettings.ini (Rules) include the lines:

WUMU_ExcludeID1=af5c516f-1764-4dc0-b1e9-1e20dbee815c
WUMU_ExcludeID2=9514bb43-f49d-499b-a655-9d64caf68976

This would remove both offlice live add-in and live essentials from being installed.
If you're wondering which ID is which see below:

Office Live-Add-In
ID: af5c516f-1764-4dc0-b1e9-1e20dbee815c

Windows Live Essentials
ID: 9514bb43-f49d-499b-a655-9d64caf68976

Lite Touch crashing after IE8 installation (Memory Reference errors)

This is one annoying bug. If you add the IE7 or IE8 installation to MDT and run the installer in passive or quiet mode- you will receive error messages during your deployments. These errors don't affect the outcome of the deployment, all is well and dandy but it is a bit of a piss off when you have to press okay a couple of 4 times after receiving memory access errors.

The reason this happens is because the IE8 installation will attempt to restart after installing, before notifying litetouch it is completed the install so litetouch will abruptly get closed and shutdown, causing it to spam a serveral error messages as it's being killed off.

The solution
In MDT edit Internet Explorer's command line to run with the "update-no" and "norestart" option. Then add a checkmark the restart computer after installing this application. See below for the complete command.
 

IE8-WindowsXP-x86-ENU.exe /quiet /update-no /norestart

Remove Windows Desktop Search from Lite Touch Installation

For some unknown reason the workstations here automatically get WDS (Windows Desktop Search) installed once lite touch starts grabbing updates from windows update. You would think it's a bloody optional update- apparently not!

In anycase, I've figured out two ways to remove this from the systems.

Method 1 - Create a vbscript to remove the bloody software after it gets installed.

Creating a task sequance inside your build - I called it "RemoveWDS" and selected it to be added as a run as command line sequance. This task sequance runs the following command:

cscript.exe "%SCRIPTROOT%\RemoveWindowsSearch.vbs"

Then create the actual vbs script inside %SCRIPTROOT% ( the script directory on your distribution point) containing the following code:

Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
objShell.Run("%comspec% /k %systemroot%\$NtUninstallKB940157$\spuninst\spuninst.exe /q")

Method 2 - Exclude the update from lite touch.
In the MDT CustomSettings.ini (Rules) include the line "WUMU_ExcludeKB1=940157" (this would exclude the windows search update before even installing it).

WUMU_ExcludeKB1=940157