Windows Deployment Services & Active Directory GPO-based software deployment

I recently spoke at a conference for IT staff working in New South Wales independent schools organised by the AIS. The topic of my presentation was managed systems and software deployment. It was quite apparent to me that there are not a lot of schools (or for that matter organisations) out there using Windows Deployment Services

To coincide with the roll out of Windows Vista almost 18 months ago now, I re-evaluated our operating system and software deployment infrastructure. It was quite apparent that we were spending too much time repeating the same processes over and over to maintain different hardware dependant images, rolling out new software manually and deploying operating systems. Windows Deployment Services and making use of the Active Directory inbuilt GPO based software deployment appeared to be the answer and in hindsight it has been wonderful, greatly reducing the man hours required to successfully deploy new hardware and software.

Some of the things you can achieve using Windows Deployment Services, AD GPO software deployment and some other mostly free tools:

• Boot computers into a Windows installation off the network using PXE boot
• Fully automate the OS installation process including rolling out custom software during installation
• Install non-included drivers (using a script and devcon.exe)
• Deploy software based on computer security groups, WMI filtering (e.g. to deploy software to only laptops, or only a specific model of computer), or organisational unit
• Edit pre-existing MSI packages (using the free Microsoft Orca utility)

If you’re going to go down the managed software path I recommend looking at     Caphyon’s Advanced Installer to repackage any legacy applications your organisation may require use of. Active Directory employs the Windows Installer framework to roll out software. Most off-the-shelf applications you purchase will come pre-packaged as MSI packages (the setup file format used by the Windows Installer Framework) however there are still a few applications out there that use “custom” installation “frameworks” that bring tears to the eyes of the steeliest system and network administrators. Its the most inexpensive MSI packaging utility I’ve come across and has a range of features comparable to more expensive solutions.