Mastering the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit

Key Features

Learn Microsoft Deployment Toolkit best practices and how to adopt them into your deployment project
Troubleshoot task sequence errors and quickly resolve deployment blockers
An easy-to-follow, in-depth guide to image creation, customization, and deployment of Windows

Book Description

The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) provides a comprehensive collection of tools, processes, and guidance for automating desktop and server deployments. It considerably reduces deployment time and standardizes desktop and server images. Moreover, MDT offers improved security and ongoing configuration management. Microsoft Deployment Toolkit is the official supported method of creating and customizing Windows images for deployment.

Starting from scratch, this book walks you through the MDT setup, task sequence creation, and image deployment steps in detail. Breaking down the various MDT concepts, this book will give you a thorough understanding of the deployment process.

Beginning with imaging concepts and theory, you will go on to build a Microsoft Deployment Toolkit environment. You will understand the intricacies of customizing the default user profile in different versions of Windows. Driver handling can be a challenge for larger organizations; we’ll cover various driver concepts including mandatory driver profiles. ]Other important topics like the User State Migration Tool (USMT), configuration of XML files, and how to troubleshoot the USMT are also discussed in the book.

We will cover the verifier and Windows Performance Toolkit for image validation scenarios. Furthermore, you will learn about MDT web frontend implementation as well as how to utilize the database capabilities of MDT for deeper deployment options. We’ll wrap it all up with some links to resources for more information, blogs to watch, and useful Twitter handles.

What you will learn

Build a production-ready MDT environment
Administer the environment for multiple users
Customize your reference image with an MDT Task Sequence
Create standalone media for offline deployments
Customize the default user profile according to the version of Windows
Get to grips with some troubleshooting steps and processes to reduce the time for recovery of a failed image
Customize and create Windows images for deployment
Discover useful tips and tricks to help save time in your deployment projects

About the Author

Jeff Stokes is a deployment and performance specialist for Windows operating systems. Jeff has a passion for the user experience in enterprise environment. As an avid public speaker, podcaster, blogger, and mentor, Jeff started his IT career at Digital in the 90s, and has been hard at work ever since. Currently, employed at Microsoft, he is expanding his horizons with projects in big data and data analytics.

When not working, he enjoys spending time with his family and friends. His hobbies are gaming, music, and writing.

Table of Contents

Imaging Concepts and Theory
Setting Up Your Environment
Creating Reference Images
Default User Profile Customization
CustomSettings.ini and Task Sequence
Drivers
Image Deployment
USMT – The User State Migration Tool
Troubleshooting Deployment Logs
Validating the Image
Database, UserExit Scripts, and Web Services
Additional Enterprise Configuration Items