Automating the LTI Process

You can use LTI to automate much of the deployment process. ZTI provides full deployment automation using the MDT 2010 scripts, System Center Configuration Manager 2007, and Windows Deployment Services. However, LTI is designed to work with fewer infrastructure requirements.

You can reduce (or eliminate) the wizard pages that are displayed in the Windows Deployment Wizard during the LTI deployment process. You can also skip the entire Windows Deployment Wizard by specifying the SkipWizard property in CustomSettings.ini. To skip individual wizard pages, use the following properties (see the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Reference in MDT 2010 for a description of each property):

• SkipAdminPassword
• SkipApplications
• SkipAppsOnUpgrade
• SkipBDDWelcome
• SkipBitLocker
• SkipBitLockerDetails
• SkipTaskSequence
• SkipCapture
• SkipComputerBackup
• SkipComputerName
• SkipDeploymentType
• SkipDomainMembership
• SkipFinalSummary
• SkipLocaleSelection
• SkipPackageDisplay
• SkipProductKey
• SkipSummary
• SkipTimeZone
• SkipUserData

Note A utomating LTI by using CustomSettings.ini alone is not realistic. Defining custom settings for each computer by using CustomSettings.ini is difficult. The ideal tool to use for fully automating LTI is the MDT 2010 database, which enables you to easily associate settings with individual computers and define settings that apply to groups of computers. For more information about using the MDT 2010 database, see the section titled "Using the MDT 2010 Database" later in the tutorial.

For each wizard page that you skip, provide the values for the corresponding properties that normally are collected through the wizard page in the CustomSettings.ini and BootStrap. ini files (or by using the MDT 2010 database). For more information on the properties that you need to configure in the CustomSettings.ini and BootStrap.ini files, see the MDT 2010 documentation.

The following listing illustrates a CustomSettings.ini file used for a Refresh Computer scenario to skip all Windows Deployment Wizard pages. In this sample, the properties to provide when skipping the wizard page are immediately beneath the property that skips the wizard page.

[Settings]
Priority=Default
Properties=MyCustomProperty

[Default]
OSInstall=Y
ScanStateArgs=/v:5 /o /c
LoadStateArgs=/v:5 /c /lac /lae
SkipAppsOnUpgrade=Yes
SkipCapture=Yes
SkipAdminPassword=YES
SkipProductKey=YES

SkipDeploymentType=Yes
DeploymentType=REFRESH

SkipDomainMembership=Yes
JoinDomain=Americas
DomainAdmin=Administrator
DomainAdminDomain=Americas
DomainAdminPassword=

SkipUserData=yes
UserDataLocation=AUTO
UDShare=\\nyc-am-dep-01\Dellimage\OSDUsmt
UDDir=%ComputerName%

SkipComputerBackup=yes
ComputerBackuplocation=AUTO
BackupShare=\\nyc-am-dep-01\Dellimage\OSDBackup
BackupDir=%ComputerName%

SkipTaskSequence=Yes
TaskSequenceID=Enterprise

SkipComputerName=Yes
ComputerName=%ComputerName%

SkipPackageDisplay=Yes
LanguagePacks1={3af4e3ce-8122-41a2-9cf9-892145521660}
LanguagePacks2={84fc70d4-db4b-40dc-a660-d546a50bf226}

SkipLocaleSelection=Yes
UILanguage=en-US
UserLocale=en-CA
KeyboardLocale=0409:00000409

SkipTimeZone=Yes
TimeZoneName=China Standard Time

SkipApplications=Yes
Applications1={a26c6358-8db9-4615-90ff-d4511dc2feff}
Applications2={7e9d10a0-42ef-4a0a-9ee2-90eb2f4e4b98}
UserID=Administrator
UserDomain=Americas
UserPassword=P@ssw0rd

SkipBitLocker=Yes
SkipSummary=Yes
Powerusers1=Americas\JoinRis