MDT bundle

Usage and Config
1

(imported topic written by imsoconfused91)

I understand it needs to be created - can I get some more information as to the purpose of the bundle and why it is only required to be created once. Does it matter on what machine the bundle is created? If I don’t add mass storage drivers now, can I add them later?

2

(imported comment written by DTan)

  1. MDT Bundle is a collection of scripts/OS resource files/Folders that are required for Re-image or Capture. You only need to do this once. You can think of this as “the software”. Other required files will be dynamically created when a re-image or capture job is sent to the targeted endpoint.

  2. It doesn’t matter what machine the bundle is created on, as long as that machine has the required software installed (WAIK, MDT2010, PowerShell, 7Zip), and it has access to the required ISOs.

  3. If mass storage drivers are not added during MDT bundle creation, you will not be able to deploy an XP image to WinXP machines unless either (1) the XP Image is captured from the same hardware as targeted machines for re-imaging, or (2) the mass storage drivers for the target hardware are native to Windows XP (included in Windows XP).

3

(imported comment written by imsoconfused91)

For clarity - I can add drivers manually to the folder structure or by recreating and uploading the bundle to the server whenever I need to, correct?

4

(imported comment written by eric_pernice91)

There are two different types of drivers that are handled differently.

  1. Windows XP mass storage drivers - These cannot be added manually. XP mass storage drivers can only be added through the bundle creation process. Any time you wish to add new XP mass storage drivers, you must recreate and re-upload the bundle.

  2. Everything else - All other drivers are independent from the bundle, and are added manually to the folder structure on your relay (BFDriverRepository$ share). This share (or a subdirectory of it) is then specified when you do a reimage, and the drivers are injected during the reimage.

One other thing to note about Windows XP mass storage drivers is that they are actually installed on machines during capture, rather than during reimage. This way, Windows XP images have the mass storage drivers built in to them. However, this means that if you do add new XP mass storage drivers to your bundle, you will need to recapture your Windows XP images with the new bundle in order to take advantage of your new XP mass storage drivers.

5

(imported comment written by SystemAdmin)

imsoconfused - after having just gone through this setup over the last few days I have to say that your questions were most helpful. Although we are looking at Win7 and a way to deploy to bare metal - this info is good to know.

FWIW - you can update a wim’s details (Manufacturer, Hardware, Size, etc.) after the fact by editing the resource file it places in the same directory as the .wim file on the OSD deployment share (probably not supported but we didn’t see any other way to do it). We found this out after we moved a previous .wim image to the deployment shares without entering in the info. There is no way to go back and edit it that we can see.

BigFix - We only spent a few days with the product, but the OSD docs could use some clarification and addition details. There are some very vague areas and we got through them with trial and error.

6

(imported comment written by JackCoates91)

thanks Jon, we’ve got some ideas for the next revision that should help.

The imageinfo file is used to track WIM details, as you note; if you delete it entirely the WIM will show up in the Activate Images dashboard where you can create a new one. This requires credentials as it’s written to the network path instead of the share path.