Physical topology for MDT Zero Touch? (Full Version)

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bmcknight -> Physical topology for MDT Zero Touch? (5/14/2008 10:10:10 AM)

I need to begin planning for an eventual Vista deployment and would like to begin re-engineering the deployment infrastucture that we have using MDT (which I can use to maintain our current XP environment as well). Ideally, I would want to have a dedicated deployment server with MDT installed seperate from our existing SMS 2003 site server so I can begin experimenting with Lite Touch with the option to convert to Zero Touch down the line. My question is this: is there any way to integtate a seperate dedicated MDT "deployment server" with an SMS 2003 site server for Zero-Touch or does MDT and SMS (with OSD Feature Pack) need to reside on the same physical server in order to Zero Touch to work properly?



jsandys -> RE: Physical topology for MDT Zero Touch? (5/14/2008 1:35:46 PM)

Zero touch functionality is provided by SMS via the OSD feature pack, it's functionality is not seperable.  You could create a seperate DP that is exclusive to OSD though.  What is your motivation for "seperate dedicated MDT "deployment server""?  Also, if you haven't started looking/planning yet, I would first move to ConfigMgr 07.  OSD is leaps and bounds better.



bmcknight -> RE: Physical topology for MDT Zero Touch? (5/14/2008 2:11:20 PM)

Basically, I wanted to start off by building/playing with an MDT server in a lab setting and then bring it into production when the time came.  Since we already have an SMS 2003 primary site server, I wanted to incorporate what we have with what I am building. . .but later on.   

Maybe I am getting ahead of myself and it will come to me once I start playing around with the technology as opposed to just reading and asking about it.  I just do not want to do a ton of work for Lite Touch (in a lab setting or eventually production) that I would then have to duplicate when/if I decide to upgrade to Zero Touch.

I guess the problem then revolves around how to convert from LTI to ZTI when you already have an LTI-based MDT environment and an SMS 2003 Site Server seperate from one another. 

RBennett806 responded to me in another thread saying that he had MDT on one box and SMS/OSD on another with the Distribution Point set up on a clustered SAN space.  This sounded good, and he has a document explaining his process on this site, but the document described installing OSD on what he referred to as his "OS Deployment Management Machine" that was not the SMS site server but did have the SMS Administrator's console installed.  I am not really sure that this is possible however (could be wrong. . .looking for some more input).

I was thinking that another way could be a VLAN exisiting parallel to the physical LAN.  This could avoid the Deployment Server (which I read somewhere else needs DHCP enabled for LTI) from giving out rogue leases and it could also provide for a seperate SMS primary site just for deployment.   I think that this could work but I am not knowledgeable enough about VLAN technology to be really sure.



jsandys -> RE: Physical topology for MDT Zero Touch? (5/14/2008 2:56:42 PM)

Although there is some overlap between the functionality and process of ZTI (using SMS 2003) and LTI in MDT, they are deployed differently.  With SMS 2003 OSD, you can't even share the WIM files.  There isn't a straight-forward technical migration path from one to the other; they are essentially two ways to get the same things done with some overlap (the driver catalog is actually shared between OSD 2003 and LTI).  Although the actual product of your LTI installation isn't directly transferable, the process and knowledge of getting that product is transferable; i.e., it won't be throw away work and is worth the exercise.

As for his OS Deployment Management Machine, with SMS 2003, you had to install the OSD feature pack seperately.  This feature pack didn't really change any underlying SMS functionality, it just added a node to the SMS console to control the OSD packages and advertisements and perform OSD specific tasks.  Thus, you are actually installing the OSD feature pack on the SMS console and not SMS itself.



rbennett806 -> RE: Physical topology for MDT Zero Touch? (5/18/2008 6:54:13 PM)

My "OS Deployment Management Machine" machine is a Windows Server 2003 machine that is not an SMS server and that just has the SMS Admin console installed on it (I couldn't get the earlier MDT and SMS consoles to work on the same XP or Vista box, so the only stable OS for me was Server 2003). This way I can use Remote Desktop to access the Server and either crack open the SMS Admin console, or use MDT.

The main thing with MDT you have to watch is your OS .WIM image file, and where you put your DPs (which in my case I use as a data source file location for SMS 2003 OSD).

Oh, and I'd also suggest getting onto SCCM 2007 instead of SMS 2003 if you can. Things are a LOT more streamlined (I'll be tossing a guide up on here sometime when I get the chance - free time is a valuable commodity these days).

I hope that helps...



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