DeployHappiness just hit 1000 subscribers! To celebrate, all-around genius and deployment guru Johan Arwidmark has donated a copy of his latest book to one reader of this blog!
Stealing with Pride, Vol. 1: Advanced OSD Customizations for MDT 2013 and ConfigMgr 2012 R2 is the ultimate guide for customizing your environment and taking your OS deployment to a whole new level! It includes detailed instructions on numerous customizations and scripts that you can immediately use.
It makes the perfect companion to his previous book, Deployment Fundamentals, Vol. 5. This great resource includes step-by-step guides on setting up a completely automated deployment solution with MDT 2013.
But enough talking – let’s get to the giveaway:
Prize: A copy of Stealing with Pride, Vol. 1: Advanced OSD Customizations for MDT 2013 and ConfigMgr 2012 R2
How to Enter: Leave a short comment on this post related to OS deployment. Describe how you currently deploy, how you would like to deploy, an issue you have, etc. When submitting your comment, be sure to include your name and email. If you win, I need a way to contact you!
A random email will be selected (by using PowerShell) on Jan 6th 2015. The winning person will be contacted by email – their name will be added to this post.
And the Winner is: Brian Gladfelter (Tennessee, USA). Thanks to everyone who entered and a huge thank you to Johan for the book donation.
I would love to revamp the way we deploy servers. our main datacenters use 100% powershell to deploy and configure our windows VM’s. while its convenient, the process lacks insight, modularity, and on-the-fly-customization. This is exacerbated even moreso in our isolated and manufacturing environments, where regulatory requirements dictate mandatory segregation, and spanning networks (even for building) is strictly prohibited. we’re stuck with local support and manual builds in all cases. VMware Templates help, but just keeping them up to snuff is a full time job. I would love to take our automation to the next level, close the gaps left by our per-instance deployment method, and provide a cohesive, globally-scoped experience befitting of a large-scale enterprise.
Amazing blog! I’ve been going through each section and taking my time, enormous repsitory of great information for IT Pros.
Back on topic…due to most of my sites having 10+ systems with the largest at 800, deploying any software or updates must be done through GPO’s. I’m actually rolling out a new security package to one of my newer sites tomorrow and configuring the GPO to ensure it’s a silent install and the end user won’t have to worry about any prompts. I’m mostly concerned with user interaction, most of my clients will tell you straight out that they are not computer savvy and don’t want to have to concern themselves with any sort of configuration nor care to know.
At the same site I’ve come across the Dell KACE Management appliance so will begin working on knowing the system before I decide to use it as my new deployment tool. I’ve read a bit but I’m the sort that likes to be fully prepared, especially since every site is different and their data is their golden egg and will not tolerate any sort of data loss due to my own incompetence. At this moment I’m happy using GPO’s and have not heard any complaints, the opposite is true as they enjoy knowing all they have to do is reboot and they are compliant.
Keep up the great work and cannot wait to read more of your and your networked contacts knowledge and words of wisdom from experience.
Best Regards and Merry Christmas!~
Great blog! I saved me allready some time, allthough I’m just starting in our school environment to work with MDT (still catching up on my reading – that’s why this book would come in handy.
up till now I’m working hard to deploy updates through GPO’s, but I hope to automate things more, because I start working less hours next schoolyear…
I work for a large school board, and we’re still using Ghost across our 100 + sites, as we’ve moved the servers out of the schools, limiting our ability to work with WDS and MDT. I’ve played with, and deployed with MDT in my school, but trying to get buy in to move to building images in VM’s under Hyper-V is getting troublesome. We’re moving from XP to Windows 8, and running into problems with Profiles and catching up to the level of support we could provide for XP since we had years of experience with it.
I’m actually having an issue with User Driven Installation (UDI). There appears to be a bug (though not yet acknowledged.confirmed by Microsoft), when you have more than one Custom Page. When you do this, the Summary page does not list all the information as expected, but only the very last Custom Page in your wizard.
I have contacted Microsoft to confirm if it is a bug, and if there is a work-around that can be implemented (via modifying the XML or WSF file, etc.). If anyone has any thoughts, I’d appreciate hearing them. I can be contacted at Adin.Ermie@outlook.com.
I migrated from Acronis deployments to MDT after stumbling across DeployHappiness. It’s been great!
We currently use MDT but are transitioning to Config Manager in early 2015. I am excited to start using Config Manger, though I may regret moving our imaging to it. The problems I always run into are user settings and user data. I do a lot of manual tasks for each user when I setup a new machine for someone.
Thanks and good luck to me. 🙂
I would love to win this book!
Currently I run msadministrator.com – a blog about MDT and other IT related tasks. I have setup MDT 2012 and 2013 in mutliple environments; total about 7,000 machines. We currently use MDT 2013, WDS, and some use SCCM 2012 R2.
We our image is the basic Windows 7, 8, and 10 OS Enterprise iso’s with all customization coming after/during the installation of the operating system. We update all drivers (Dell, Microsoft, and HP) utilizing MDT, as well as all customization (Start Menu, Backgrounds, settings, registry, etc.) through scripts/applications when the OS installs.
Our biggest issue with MDT is updating our core image (we currently update every 3 months). I’m working on an automated script that will launch our images in Hyper-V, update the image, capture the image, and email when it’s complete – but I haven’t had much time of late.
I love your blog (not sure how you have time with your day job) and I hope you continue to post!
This would be an amazing book to win!
Currently I run msadministrator.com and primarily deal with OS Deployment utilizing MDT 2013, as well as SCCM 2012 R2 and WDS. I’ve written extensively on setting up MDT over years and currently have two MDT servers setup that are deploying over 7,000 machines on a yearly basis.
msadministrator.com – MDT 2012 Walkthrough (http://msadministrator.com/guides/mdt-2012-step-by-step-guide/)
In one of my MDT setups, they are using the basic winpe.iso and imaging Dell and Microsoft systems with Windows 7 x64 Enterprise. We utilize Dell’s Bios configuration utility as well as all customization’s are being post install instead of in the image itself.
The second MDT setup, we utilize MDT 2013, WDS, and SCCM 2012 R2. We are imaging Dell, Microsoft, and HP systems using precise drivers for each system as well as deploying Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10.
I do not deal with MDT as much as I used to because my job has changed from an IT Pro to a Security Analyst working in Incident Response.
I’ve followed your blog for awhile and find the information great for IT Pro’s (especially in a Higher ED environment – this is where I am). Continue the great work!
Sounds like a very nice setup, Josh! Impressed that you are already deploying Windows 10! 🙂
Right now we are stuck in the Stone Ages concerning OS deployment. We use a Norton Ghost like utility to clone hard drives and we manually swap drives out. I have just started installing ConfigMan 2012 R2 and hope to implement that with MDT 2013 to create images and this book would help greatly. Regardless thanks for all the great info that you share with us through your blogs.
No problem at all Jamie. Personally, I found it easier to start with MDT and then move to SCCM+MDT.
As a Systems Administrator of 1330 Windows computers in a 5 school district, the variety of desktops, laptops and software used by students, teachers, food service, office staff and administrators is immense! Deploying images with MDT 2013 this year has been a great learning curve. Deployhappiness.com has been my go to website for a wealth of information!
Thank you,
K.Couillard
Thanks! It seems we have a lot more education/higher education admins here than I thought!
Currently we deploy base configs from whoever the computer manufacturer happens to be(generally Dell), manually install things we know everyone needs and hope we get all personal/departmental specific things installed and fix anything left over for after the fact. Obviously this is far from ideal. We should have a better standard image for deployments(clean of bloatware and pre-installed with all company critical applications) and also have standard builds for every department. For now it’ s a pipe dream but maybe MDT is a way out?
MDT can certainly help – it is very customizable! How often are the critical apps updated? If relatively often, you might want to deploy them with Group Policy Software Installation (or something similar).
Ah, the dream team (Johan and Mikael) inspired me to deploy MDT many years ago. My biggest problem is finding the hours in the day to refine my solution. Still only doing clean builds, but really want to get to USMT working, so I can do a 1 hour rebuild – Lunchtime rebuild? Oh yes.
The concepts around USMT took me a while to understand – I ended up redirecting most of the user profile and running UE-V to avoid it. 🙂
I am down for a lunchtime rebuild! My last deployment setup could have a machine completely ready in 25-30 minutes. I am a bit more limited by the network infrastructure at my new location so it takes a bit longer.
Hello,
Congrats for this achievement. Thats was indeed a great work behind.
i’ve deployed system centre suite for a client comprising of nearly 5000 workstations and servers.I’ve faced various problems with customizations; some of them have been solved using the guidelines from DeployHappiness.
I’m just scrolling around to find better ways to deploy.
Thanks
Mehsar
I’ve been following the path of both of you (You and Johan) for many yars now and you’ve made my deployment life so much easier
Thanks David! Johan is a personal hero of mine – he was one of the few who inspired me into the deployment path.
Don’t forget his partner in crime Mkael
I just bought Deployment Fundamentals – hopefully I will win Stealing with Pride!
I am new to this deployment stuff so I haven’t heard of deployment research. His blog looks really useful so thanks!
Awesome! We’re using an older MDT… And it works ok. We’d like to start leveraging SCCM (which we already have!) to do more of the work for us!
Thanks for all the great articles!
I have been following Johan since I first saw him present on OS deployment at TechEd 2008 NA- There always seems to be something I can learn from him or some technique he is presenting that will improve my company’s deployment strategies…. 6+ years and over 300K system builds later, I still find his blogs and conference presentations worth paying attention to.
1000! Great accomplishment! Just joined a couple of months ago to get the basics of PowerShell. WOW, did I get more than I came for. I am new to ConfigMGR and where I work my company uses it quite a bit. It is nice to know there is a place to come to learn he basics and get great information on advanced techniques. Keep up the great work!
Thank you Matt! I really appreciate that!
We are almost completely automated and using a single task sequence in SCCM 2012 R2 to handle all of our deployment scenarios (new/OOB, in-place, side-by-side, and split-destination). One of the current problems we’re working through (and we’ll get there) is dealing with non-standard OS partitions, like Windows installed on D: (common with major manufactures when some recovery environment is installed on C: and the computer was never imaged) when trying to do an in-place migration, or scenarios where content needs to be downloaded to do some prerequisite work but no NTFS partitions exist (alternate OS installed or new hard drive). Other than that, our skeleton school district IT department is doing a great job. Love the blog!
You are doing a great job Kevin! With new machines, do you normally wipe them and reinstall with your image or roll out the existing machine with the existing factory OS?
We always, always, alllllways wipe them and apply our image. I’m very particular about our machines being as consistent as possible, and as we’ll be approaching the 7,000 mark in the next couple of years, it’s becoming increasingly important that we maintain a consistent configuration. As I said in my original post, most major manufacturers send PCs out with a recovery partition and Windows installed on D:, which has caused issues when trying to do an in-place migration w/ hard-linking. Plus, with it being as streamlined as it is to reconfigure a machine, there is no point in a dedicated recovery system installed on each machine. Thanks Joseph!
Dang! My work just bought this for me. Oh well, I’m still going to enter. We aren’t using any imaging software yet. Going to MDT after Jan.
Congrats Joseph! You put out some great stuff!
We are using MDT but everything isn’t automated yet.
Hello, I dream about this book. Acctualy i already bought 2 book about Mdt and Sccm. I really like Johan, but your blog I am reading always. We deploy Os using Mdt,by my scenarious, in all organisatoin, aproximatly 600 pcs. Now am learning how to deploy Os by Sccm. I have many questions about SCCM and MDT. For example if Sccm admin delegate me rights for deploynig OS were have to be installed MDT on Sccm admin pc or it doesnt matter,for example on my pc were installed Sccm console?
Glad to see I wasn’t the only one! 🙂
The MDT integration does have to be installed on each machine that will be creating the MDT task sequence.
Hi, first of all – great blog, learned a quite bit on it. Looking at previous post – funny i am working for IT department at school also, to be more specific small UNI.
Our deployment had couple of iterations:
1. Deployed manually
2. Make master image with 3rd party software and deploy it, also manually (it was better than the all manual way)
3. Now we are using WDS and PXE boot, and we are still solving some specifics how to tailor it to our needs
Problems – it can be said that it is custom labs deploying, i am looking at windows/vagrant kinda setup for rapid virtual lab deployments
How i would like to deploy – hmm i can say that i am really looking forward to windows 10 package manager 🙂 , You know make PS session to 20 and something lab machines and re-configure, install/uninstall using powershell only 😀
Until that day comes heavy investigating application of chocolatey.
Interesting app deployment path! I often wonder whether PowerShell will be the future of app deployment/management or if it just a fad.
Well, I’m sort of new to this as far as large enterprise environments are concerned, and I am trying to learn all I can. I recently starting working in the IT department of a school system. How do we currently deploy? Ha, by loading a custom image made with 3rd party software to each computer and yes it requires touching each machine. :/ How would I like to deploy? In a more automated fashion with better administrative control. Even software patches are handled by either physically touching or remoting in to the machines. Sad day.
Current additional problem? WMI seems to be upset. Many machines’ repositories are corrupted which seems to be causing extreme log on delays. I seem to have a fix, but what is causing it is currently a mystery to me.
Thank you! Awesome blog by the way!
That sounds rough, Brandon! Do you have a server that you could run WSUS on? It can be setup in a few hours of actual work – most of the time is spent waiting on updates to download.