Windows 7 Lite Touch installation with MDT 2010 – Part 3

Windows 7 Lite Touch installation with MDT 2010 – Part 3: "

Meanwhile MDT 2010 has reached Update 1, time to catch up where we left in part 2.

We will configure WDS to use PXE boot, use SQL Server to retrieve the computer name and have some beer afterwards.

PXE Boot

First configure a DHCP scope to serve the clients with an IP address. Then install the Windows Deployment Service (WDS) role on your MDT box, and configure WDS. I like to have a PXE delay of 3 seconds and I’m running DHCP on the same server as WDS. So I need to check ‘Do not listen on port 67’ and ‘Configure DHCP option 60 to indicate that this server is also a PXE server’.

Now we have to import the WinPE boot images, previous generated by MDT, into WDS:

Browse to the Boot-folder in the Deployment Share, and select the LiteTouch-wim-file(s) (I’m importing the x64 version only, as I don’t use Windows 7 x86 for now):

Boot your client machine and hit F12 to boot into PXE, or choose boot from network card in the BIOS.

We still have to choose a computer name during deployment:

Using MS SQL Server (Express) you can fully automate this!

Preparing SQL Server

In my test lab I will use SQL Express 2008 SP1. Open SQL Server Configuration manager, set SQL Server Browser to automatic and start the service:

Enable Named Pipes in SQL Server Configuration Manager:

Restart the SQL Server service:

Start SQL Management Studio and create a Security Login (I’ll use my MDT domain-join-user):

Add the db_datareader and db_datawriter permissions for the domain\svc-join user to the MDT database:

Create a database

Open the Deployment Workbench and Create a new database:

We have finished creating the MDT database.

Now we have to configure CustomSettings.ini before we can use the database:

By clicking Configure Database Rules, you actually adding extra lines to CustomSettings.ini in order to make a connection to the database. Select what you need:

Take a look at your CustomSettings.ini file (by right-clicking the DeploymentShare > Properties > Rules tab):

You can modify CustomSettings.ini further. To join a domain for example:

SkipDomainMembership=YES
JoinDomain=thedspot.local
DomainAdmin=svc-join
DomainAdminDomain=thedspot.local
DomainAdminPassword=*
MachineObjectOU=OU=Computers,OU=Unmanaged,DC=thedspot,DC=local

Obtaining Computer names from the SQL database

Hit Computers > New to add a MAC address and corresponding computername (OSDComputerName):

Our LiteTouch deployment succeeded:

The computer name was retrieved from the database and domain join was successful.

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