Executive Summary:
Follow this step-by-step explanation of a Zero Touch Installation (ZTI) using Business Desktop Deployment 2007 (BDD) and Systems Management Server 2003 (SMS) to distribute Windows Vista to your enterprise |
This is the final article in a three-part series exploring
the Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Business
Desktop Deployment 2007 (BDD) tool. I began
the series in October with the Required Reading article
“Planning Your Vista Deployment with BDD” (Instant-
Doc ID 96906), in which I showed you how to install and
run the BDD tools to help you with your Windows Vista
deployments. In the second article, “Using Deployment
Workbench” (November 2007, InstantDoc ID 97170), I
covered using the BDD Deployment Workbench wizards
for a Lite Touch Installation (LTI). In this article, I’ll step
you through the basics of a Zero Touch Installation (ZTI),
which uses Systems Management Server 2003 (SMS) to
distribute a Vista OS. ZTI is a BDD deployment option for
larger organizations.
About Zero Touch Installation
Before you begin the installation process, you need to know
that there are two types of ZTI. The first type requires no
administrator intervention. It supports either an upgrade
or refresh scenario in which a target machine’s OS is wiped
clean and replaced with Vista, with user data intact. Target
machines have the advanced SMS client agents installed.
You use the SMS client agents to download and install SMS
packages for deployment. The second type I call an almost
ZTI. This installation is used for bare-metal machines with
absolutely nothing installed, so you’ll need to find a way to
boot the target machines. The bare-metal ZTI is similar to
a Lite Touch Install except that it uses SMS to distribute the
new OS. In this article I cover both types of ZTI.
Before You Begin
Before you get started, download and install BDD 2007 as
“Planning Your Vista Deployment with BDD” describes. See
the Learning Path for information on the additional installations
in this paragraph. Be sure to install the Windows
Automated Installation Kit (WAIK), and, if you’re going
to save the user’s state in order to migrate, install the User
State Migration Tool (USMT 3.0). As I mentioned, SMS is
an essential component of the ZTI; you’ll need to install
SMS 2003 SP2 or later with the SMS Operating System
Deployment Feature Pack. SMS requires SQL Server (either
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP2, Microsoft SQL Server 2000
SP3a or later, or Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 SP3 or later), so
you must have a server running that as well. You’ll also need
the Windows Preinstallation Environment 2004 (WinPE).
(WinPE 2.0 isn’t supported by and won’t work with this version of BDD.) Because WinPE 2004 requires source files
from Windows XP Professional Edition SP2 (XP Pro), you’ll
need to have that as well.
You might also need a Windows Deployment Service
(WDS) server if you have clients that don’t have the SMS
advanced client agents and you want to take advantage of
the network boot option (F12). The network boot option lets
you PXE boot from the WDS server.
The amount of hard disk space necessary for deploying
a ZTI can be quite significant, so be sure there’s enough
before you get started. While BDD, SMS, and SQL Server can
all be installed on a single server, you can also install each
component on a separate server to distribute the workload.
You’ll need sufficient storage on the BDD deployment
server for the custom images (Windows Imaging Format-
WIM-files) that you create before your ZTI. The SMS server
must have enough space to store the various components
(the packages, programs, advertisements, and distribution
points that I discuss later). And if you implement the logging
feature for troubleshooting, you’ll need to ensure that
the target machines have enough hard disk space for the
logs. Using the refresh scenario requires enough space on a
server to store complete backups of the target machines.
Adding OSs and
Accompanying Files
We’ll begin our ZTI by launching the New OS Wizard and
adding three components as operating systems to the
BDD-your custom .wim files, WinPE 2004, and XP Pro SP2
source files. If you haven’t already done so, download and
install BDD 2007 as “Planning Your Vista Deployment with
BDD” describes. Next, log on as an administrator, and open
Deployment Workbench from Start, All Programs, BDD
2007, Deployment Workbench.
Expand the Distribution Share node in the Deployment
Workbench console tree, right-click Operating Systems, and
click New. The New OS Wizard appears. (For more details on
the New OS Wizard, see “Using Deployment Workbench.”)
From the wizard’s Choose the type of operating system to add
page, select Custom image file and click Next. The Custom
image file option requires you to enter the path of the .wim
file you want to use. So, on the Select operating system image
file page, locate the custom .wim you’ve previously created
and stored on a UNC path (\\Servername\Sharename)
or WDS server, select it, and click Next. Specify that
Setup and Sysprep files are not needed, then click Next.
You can either type the name of the destination directory
for your OS or accept the default destination directory name, then click Copy to add your
custom .wim files.
Now you’re ready to add either WinPE 2004
or WinPE 2005. Start the New OS Wizard again.
From the wizard’s Choose the type of operating
system to add page, select Full set of source files
and click Next. On the next page, browse to
the location where you stored WinPE 2004 or
WinPE 2005 and choose Move the files to the
distribution share instead of copying them.
Launch the New OS Wizard a third time
to add XP Pro SP2. On the Choose the type of
operating system to add page, select Full set
of source files and click Next. On the following
page, browse to the folder containing XP Pro
SP2 source files and choose Move the files to
the distribution share instead of copying them.
Creating a Build
After you’ve added your OSs, you’re ready to
create a build. Expand the Distribution Share
node, right-click Builds, and choose New. This
launches the New Build Wizard. On the Specify
general information about this build page, type
in a Build ID such as “VistaZTI” (remember
that no spaces are allowed), a descriptive build
name such as “Vista Zero Touch Installs,” any
comments documenting your build, then click
Next. On the next page, choose the custom
.wim file you added to the OSs earlier and click
Next. Choose Do not specify a product key at
this time, and click Next. On the Specify settings
about this build page, fill in a Full name, an
Organization name, and the Internet Explorer
(IE) home page you’ll use for all installations
performed from this build, then click Next.
Finally, on the Specify the local Administrator
password for this build page choose Do not
specify an Administrator password at this time,
and click Create.
Creating a Deployment
Point
Next, you’ll use the New Deployment Point
Wizard to create the deployment point, the
location to which target machines connect to
install a build. To launch the wizard, expand
the Deploy node, right-click Deployment
Points, and click New.
For the type of build, choose SMS 2003
OSD and click Next. (For a discussion of the
other types of builds, see “Using Deployment
Workbench.”) Type in a descriptive name,
such as “Vista ZTI,” and click Next. On the
Specify the location of the network share to hold
the files and folders necessary for this deployment
type page, supply the Server name,
Share name, and Path for the share (I used
Server1\OSD with a path of C:\ZTI), and click
Next. Choose Do not save data and settings on
the Specify user data defaults page, and click
Create. The last page of the wizard prompts
for the location of the SMS 2003 OSD path, so
browse to where you put the SMS 2003 OSD,
select it, and click Create (yes, you do click
Create twice).
Continued on Page 2
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