MDT | Todd's Blog

Customizing Bootstrap.ini in MDT

posted on February 8, 2010

As I showed in my last post, you can make changes to customsettings.ini to really make your deployments go easier and quicker. Another file you can make changes to is the bootstrap.ini file.

This file basically has tells the Deployment wizard where to find the information it needs on the network. The file looks like this.

[Settings]
Priority=Default

[Default]
DeployRoot=\\SERVER01\DeploymentShare$

You can modify this file to point to a different location, so a different server and enter in credentials.

[Settings]
Priority=Default

[Default]
DeployRoot=\\%WDSServer%\DeploymentShare$

UserID=MDTAccount
UserDomain=yourdomain
UserPassword=Password123

SkipBDDWelcome=YES

Looking at the above file, I have done a few things. The first was to change the deployment root to point to the WDS Server that the boot.wim booted from. %WDSSERVER% is a variable that will populate with the WDS server name at launch time. If I have a specific server I want to run MDT from, then I would enter it in on DeployRoot instead. So if I wanted to use Server1, the line would be DeployRoot=\\Server1\DeploymentShare$

Another thing you can do is set the deployment share based on the default gateway. I seen the information on how to do that at the TechNet forums. Here is the URL -> http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/mdt/thread/62809d7e-553d-41b7-a92e-93ba3b1972c7

The next three lines show the user credentials used to connect to the deployment share.
The last line, self-explanatory, skips the BDD Welcome information.

Editing CustomSettings.ini in MDT

posted on January 26, 2010

One of the neat things you can do with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 is you can customize it to show or hide screens when running through the deployment wizard.

Lets have a look at my customsettings.ini file, the file is found in the Control folder. This file is on my memory stick and installs my Patron computer builds. What I do is block all pages except the computer name field. I manually enter the computer name and I am off to the races. It also will give me the final summary letting me know if everything worked or not.

[Settings]

Priority=Default

Properties=MyCustomProperty

[Default]

OSInstall=YES

SkipAdminPassword=YES

SkipApplications=YES

SkipAppsOnUpgrade=YES

SkipBDDWelcome=YES

SkipBitLocker=YES

SkipCapture=YES

SkipComputerName=No

SkipComputerBackup=YES

SkipDeploymentType=YES

DeploymentType=NEWCOMPUTER

SkipDomainMembership=YES

JoinDomain=yourdomain.local

DomainAdmin=Deployment_Account

DomainAdminDomain=yourdomain

DomainAdminPassword=Pa$$w0rd

SkipFinalSummary=No

SkipLocaleSelection=YES

KeyboardLocale=en-US

UserLocale=en-US

UILanguage=en-US

SkipPackageDisplay=YES

SkipProductKey=YES

SkipSummary=YES

SkipTaskSequence=YES

TaskSequenceID=VISTAPATRON

SkipTimeZone=Yes

TimeZone=035

TimeZoneName=Eastern Standard Time

SkipUserData=Yes

In order for this to work properly, we need ensure we modified our task sequences to install software we want installed. We also need to ensure when setting up the task sequence we entered in a license key (if needed) and the admin password.

I’ll be covering these customizations of a few blog posts. I am also going to be creating some instructional podcasts around MDT as well, so this could be included in that.

For more information on this as well, check out fellow MVP Mitch Tulloch’s posts on the subject at http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Deploying-Windows-7-Part7.html. He has a whole series dedicated to Windows 7 Deployment.

Pause Task Sequence in MDT 2010

posted on January 6, 2010

With a new year comes new images for my MDT servers. At TechDays in Ottawa, I presented the MDT session in the client track on Day 1. Afterwards, I had some great discussions with a few people from major Canadian government offices. One of my challenges has been how to add extra software to an image which doesn’t have a great silent install. What I had been doing was building the machine using MDT, then when it was done, adding unfriendly software, patches, etc. to the build after. This is a pain as you have to then Sysprep the image, boot into a Windows PE environment then capture the image using ImageX.

The people I met spend the majority of their day building images. For me, I do this a couple of times of year. They had some great experiences which they shared and one of those things was a pause task sequence routine they are using. What it is a call to pause the machine sequence build. Some of them are using a VBscript which essential calls notepad and leaves it open while you do all the extra work you need to do. When you close notepad, MDT continues on with its task sequence. Also new to MDT 2010 is a script called LTISuspend.wsf.

The method I chose was to create a batch file called pausetask.bat with one line:

START /WAIT Notepad.exe .\SomeTextFile.txt

Then, I saved it in a folder and created a new application called Pause Task Sequence – Notepad. Here is a snapshot of the properties of the application.

Next thing you want to do is ensure that the pause task runs on your fresh builds. On my Windows 7 install task (and I should note, this works with all versions of Windows you can deploy with MDT, even Windows XP), I added an install application task to my task sequence. To do this, click Add and general and Install Application. I add the new task sequence right after I install my applications.

As long as I keep notepad open, the task sequence pauses to let me do other things. I was able to install some custom line of business applications to my builds yesterday and install Windows Updates prior to capturing the image. You can even reboot the computer and as long as you don’t manually close notepad, the computer reboots and notepad pops back up, continuing to pause the MDT task sequence.

If you want to use the new method of calling LTISuspend.wsf in MDT 2010 then add a command line task instead of an install application task.

In the command line enter

cscript.exe %SCRIPTROOT%\LTISuspend.wsf

Then when this one executes, the LTI process suspends, you do what ever you need to do and then when you are ready to continue on, you click a desktop shortcut to resume the process.

While there is a capture image task sequence now part of MDT 2010 as well, capturing the image while building the computer is the preferred option.

A couple of articles to check out on this subject:

http://blogs.technet.com/deploymentguys/archive/2008/07/07/useful-script-number-6-pausing-the-task-sequence.aspx

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/33524765/how-to-pause-the-capture.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/mniehaus/archive/2009/06/27/mdt-2010-new-feature-3-suspend-and-resume-a-lite-touch-task-sequence.aspx