BANGALORE, INDIA: The  new version of MDT was released recently is  meant to automate deployment of Windows 2008 and Windows 7 in large environments.

MDT 2010 supports two ways to remotely deploy Windows -Lite Touch Installation (LTI) and Zero Touch Installation (ZTI). The ZTI mode requires System Configuration Manager 2007, while LTI uses deployment workbench to deploy images. With LTI, remote deployment of Windows can be performed over a network using a shared folder and removable storage, i.e. CD or DVD. 

LTI does not require System Configuration Manager and all deployment processes can be initiated manually or automatically with Windows deployment services. Through LTI, both partially automated as well as fully automated deployment of Windows can be performed.

Prerequisites
To get started, download  MDT 2010 toolkit from http://tinyurl.com/2n3mrx  and Windows Automated Installation toolkit (Windows AIK) from http://tinyurl.com/l8d7bn. You would  need source files for Windows 7 as well as drivers for the target machine and of course a D.C should be present in the network with Windows 2003 or 2008. Here, we have used Windows 2008. MDT 2010 supports Windows 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and Windows Vista with SP1 and SP2.

Before going ahead and installing MDT 2010, you also need to plan your storage space.

Once you have downloaded all the components, install MDT 2010 as well as Windows AIK. Once you have Installed Windows AIK, open 'Deployment Workbench' from Start Menu, under MDT 2010. Now in 'Deployment Workbench' console, browse to details, go to installed and check if Windows automated installation toolkit is shown as installed.

Configuring MDT 2010
To configure MDT 2010, first you need to  create a deployment share. To do this,  open 'Deployment Workbench', right click on the deployment shares and choose the option 'New Deployment Shares'. This will launch 'New Deployment Share Wizard'. Here the wizard will ask you to browse to folder, where you plan to keep Windows deployment images, this can be a local folder or a network shared folder.

The wizard will ask you, whether it should ask user for a product key as well as admin password during the installation; choose according to your scenario. Once the wizard has finished, a deployment share will be created. Next step is to add operating system files to the deployment share.

To do this, select the share we just created and from the actions pane, choose the option Import Operating System. This will launch 'Import Operating System' wizard. Here, select the option Full set of source files and in the next step, provide the path where the source files of OS i.e. Windows 7 reside.

Once 'Import operating system' wizard has finished, you can view them under operating systems. Also, if the source contains multiple operating systems, then also all versions will be visible.

This can be your Windows official DVD or if you already have files on a network share. Once you finish the wizard, it will start copying files to deployment share, this could take a while.