Hello,
I have MDT 2008 installed and it seems to running just fine to install any
wim OS,
but I cannot get it to install ANY applications. I have followed the
instructions included in the documentation that accompanies MDT and have
posted questions on several newsgroups and have still not been able to get
MDT to serve the applications after the OS install and reboot.

As I understand it, there is a script that needs to run after the OS install
and it logs into the new install and then runs the app install that was
requested during WinPE setup. This never happens on my installs. If I
manually fire up the script, then it works, but not otherwise. What am I not
doing / doing wrong. I have spent way too much time on this and it seems
that no one else in the groups has the same issue. TIA

I've read some of the other posts but still don't find the answer.
Steve

My hunch is that you captured the wim manually not using MDT. As a result,
the OS will deploy fine. The MDT process adds a GUIRUNONCE command in the
sysprep.inf or unattend.xml to start the task sequencer.

You can manually mount the wim and edit the sysprep.inf to include the
GUIRUNONCE command or simply allow MDT to deploy and capture the image. If
you look in the control folder\%YourBuildName%, you will see a sample
sysprep.inf and can obtain the command line syntax.

Dave Guenthner [MSFT]
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Thanks Dave,

When you say "captured the WIM manually", I don't think I did. In a
nutshell, here's how I create my images. They are thin, OS only images and
apps are added as needed.
1. I image the sample machine, make any adjustments, drivers, updates etc.
2. I run sysprep on the machine and reboot into WinPE and select Capture
Image
3. After the image is captured, I move it to the MDT server and add it as
and OS and add a Task Sequence and update the Lab distribution
4. When I test the image, I can see it in the WinPE GUI and it installs
fine, but never reboots to add applications.
Am I doing something wrong when I create the images? If so, please let me
know so I can correct the ones I have currently (about 15 or so) and make
new ones in the proper fashion.

You mention mounting the image, is there some guidance on how to do this?
Sorry for being so lame, but I got thrown into this without much background.
TIA
"Dave Guenthner [MSFT]" <guenthner> wrote in message
news:1388
[..]

On Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:08:57 -0400, "Steve P" <stevep321> wrote:

>Thanks Dave,
>
>When you say "captured the WIM manually", I don't think I did. In a
>nutshell, here's how I create my images. They are thin, OS only images and
>apps are added as needed.
>1. I image the sample machine, make any adjustments, drivers, updates etc.
>2. I run sysprep on the machine and reboot into WinPE and select Capture
>Image
>3. After the image is captured, I move it to the MDT server and add it as
>and OS and add a Task Sequence and update the Lab distribution

I think the above describe a manual capture.

My understanding of this is that with MDT you add the OS CD image to MDT and MDT
deploys this to the client and then automatically captures this as a Master
Image. i.e. step 1 to 3 above.
[..]

Dave's response is correct. Your running sysprep manually, creating the
image manually. Why. I would think about having MDT contain at a minimum 2
task sequences. The first is the install of Windows from source, meaning
you add the OS by inserting the CD/DVD. Boot LitTouch, install select
workgroup, you will be presented with a wizard to capture an image. After
Windows has been deployed, MDT will stage a sysprep.inf file for you, copy
the needed files, add mass storage drivers apply WinPE to the drive, reboot
and create wim for you.

Take the gold.wim it staged in the capture folder and add as a new OS,
create a new task sequence to reference this captured image.

In the example, you create a empty folder on the drive called mount from
which imagex and extract the files like a mount point.

image.exe /mountrw gold.wim 1 c:\mount
cd c:\mount

Unmount
========
imagex /unmount c:\mount

unmount commit
==============
imagex /unmount /commit c:\mount

Dave Guenthner [MSFT]
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Hello,

I have tried to follow your procedure, and I was totally successful!!! ;)

But my question now is: If I select the "Only copy the required files but
don't start sysprep" option, and I configure the deployed image adding
applications, software, registry keys, etc... how am I supossed to capture
the .WIM file afterwards???

I guess I should run sysprep manually, then boot with Win PE, and capture
the .WIM file with Imagex using command line.

Am I right???

Thank you!



"Dave Guenthner [MSFT]" wrote:
[..]

Glad that worked. Why not incorporate the line of business applications
and registry keys into your task sequence and allow MDT to capture the
image?
You can certainly do it your way and select the option to stage the sysprep
files only but you are not getting the benefit from mass storage injection
for XP. MDT will populate your sysprep.inf for you.
If you don't have many different types of machines then your plan should
work fine.

Dave Guenthner [MSFT]
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

If you don't like manual, you can use this automated Task Sequence
that does a capture only... It stages winpe to disk, runs sysprep,
reboots into winpe, captures the machine (except the WinPE image of
course)

Capture only Task Sequence for MDT 2008 (Lite Touch)
[url down]

Regards

Johan Arwidmark
Microsoft MVP - Setup / Deployment
[url down]



On Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:14:00 -0700, Pshylocke
<Pshylocke> wrote:
[..]

As I'm new in the deployment jungle, I'll start to deploy, manually
configure, and capture the .WIM file doing a manual sysprep :)

Thanks for the automatic TS Johan, I'll try it as soon as possible.

And thanks also Dave for your quick answer; I guess as I become more used to
the process, I'll fully automate the first deploy with the apps, registry
keys, etc...

Regards,
Pshy


"Johan Arwidmark" wrote:
[..]