Deployment Guru wanted :)

Afternoon to you fine people. I am in the process of setting up WDS on 2008 R2 server, I have a few obstacles which I wish to overcome I am not asking for you guys to hold my hand but need a few pointers in the art of deployment

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Firstly with WDS if I use a standard Vista / 7 image when I sometimes connect a client it asks me for a network driver so the question I first propose to you guys, is there a way of injecting loads of different network drivers into a image? Instead of having loads of seperate images for each individual driver change.

Capturing Windows 7 images, Vista not a problem I will be using the WAIK for imaging But XP this is different ball game, Now I have noticed that with XP there is no Wim file? prepare yourself guys here come the numerous XP questions

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RomBUS

Firstly with WDS if I use a standard Vista / 7 image when I sometimes connect a client it asks me for a network driver so the question I first propose to you guys, is there a way of injecting loads of different network drivers into a image? Instead of having loads of seperate images for each individual driver change.

Yes you can inject drivers by using the DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management) command prompt...you first off mount the WIM image you wish to inject drivers with by using the DISM commands and commit the changes

Here's a good article regarding DISM commands for injecting drivers (DISM comes with the Windows Automated Installation Kit or WAIK): Add and Remove Drivers Offline

Capturing Windows 7 images, Vista not a problem I will be using the WAIK for imaging But XP this is different ball game, Now I have noticed that with XP there is no Wim file? prepare yourself guys here come the numerous XP questions

Universal XP image is it possible? for different types of hardware? and if so can it be deployed through WDS?
The Image wouldn't be fully automated as each machine would have different product keys, What is the best way to deal with the different HAL's?

I believe in my test scenarios I was able to capture Windows XP images by using ImageX commands manually (manually meaning downloading Sysprep for Windows XP...make sure the Sysprep is SP2, booting into Windows PE, and typing the ImageX capture command....although you can deploy using WDS but MDT might be a different story for XP...I dont believe its compatible. Also, for injecting drivers I don't think it would either and better off capturing for different HALs/models for this

Windows Updates can these been slipstreamed into the image?
Yes, again by using DISM you can inject updates to your image...though a more manual process than using WSUS.

I was looking at a Acronis deployment solution but it's rather costly but eliminates the issue of XP having different HAL's and enables you to deploy XP to any machine.

Lastly MDT or WDS? which is the best and what is the difference

MDT can be used in conjunction with WDS, you can use MDT 2010 to setup your LTI (Lite Touch Deployment...which is a way to speed up deployment of images) by using the Task Sequences (Task Sequences are used to automate the deployment...depending on what scenario). WDS can be used to house all of your images in a central place and for multicasting the image deployment. You can use either/or or use both depending on your needs

Hope this helps in a way. I am not a guru but I do have experience in deployment

ally_uk

Fantastic thank you for the response most helpful