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Please note that this guide is designed to get you Deploying Windows Server 2008 with SCCM in a LAB Environment as quickly as possible. This guide is provided as is, if you find any errors please report them in the forums.



In a production environment please consult Technet for best practise, see below links:

Operating System Deployment:

Operating System Deployment in Configuration Manager
Overview of Operating System Deployment

Configuration:

System Center Configuration Manager 2007

Best Practices:

Configuring Configuration Manager Sites for Best Performance
Checklist for Security Best Practices
Best Practices for Central and Primary Site Hardware and Software Configuration
Best Practices for Operating System Deployment




Add Operating System Image

In System Center Configuration Manager 2007 expand Operating System Deployment and right click on Operating System images, choose Add operating System image.


Note: Some versions of the Server 2008 DVD may end up placing the OS on D:\ when you add the image using the origional ISO or DVD.If you want to avoid the OS ending up on D:\ instead of C:\ then please do a Build And Capture Task Sequence of the OS and use the captured WIM file as the file (operating system image) I use below.




Having previously copied the Windows Server 2008 DVD to a network share, when the Add Operating System image wizard appears, point it to the path where the Windows Server 2008 install.wim file can be found

eg:

\\WIN-AE2V1IRN067\iso\Server 2008\sources\install.wim

fill in the operating system details and review the summary



click close when done.



Create Distribution Point for the Image

Now that we have added the install.wim file to our available operating systems, we need to create a new distribution point for it so let's do that.

Expand the newly added Server 2008 image you just added in Operating System Images and right click on Distribution Points, select New Distribution Points.



when the wizard appears click next, then select only the first of the two distribution points (do not select the PXE one as this is not a PXE boot image....)



click close at the confirmation screen.





Add new Operating System Install Package


Next we will make an Operating System install package, this package will contain the files necessary to support the installation of the Windows Server 2008 install image we created above.

In SCCM ConfigMgr expand the Operating System Deployment node and select Operating System Install Package from the list of available options., right click and choose Add Operating System Install Package



point to the UNC path of the root of our Windows Server 2008 DVD (which we copied to a network share earlier)

eg:

\\WIN-AE2V1IRN067\iso\Server 2008

fill in the details



click next and review the summary and then click close



now that we've added this package, we again need to distribute it to our distribution point, however we will add it only to the normal distribution point and not the pxe one.

Expand the Operating System Install Package node we've just added, right click on Distribution Points and choose New Distribution Points.



click next when the wizard appears and select the first of the two dist points, then next again



click close when done.

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Import new Task Sequence

In the Operating System Deployment node of ConfigMgr, select Task Sequence, right-click and choose Import Microsoft Deployment Task Sequence from the options



when the wizard appears select Server task sequence from the drop down menu and click next,



fill in the general details, click next...



on the next screen you need to fill in the workgroup or domain joining details (I chose to join the w2k8 domain), plus provide details of a user with that permission, and enter your product key, in addition you must specify the UNC path of where to store the captured WIM file which we will call server2008.wim.

eg:

\\WIN-AE2V1IRN067\captures\server2008.wim

for boot image you can specify which one you require by clicking on the Browse button and selecting the boot.wim file that we created earlier (32 bit boot.wim),



Next we will create the MDT server source files package (which will contain all of the scripts and supporting files needed for the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit).


In explorer, create an empty folder called MDTserverfiles and share it.



fill in the details...




on the OS Image screen, choose to Specify an existing OS install package



click on the Browse button and select the Server 2008 installation Package we created earlier



click next when ready



for the client package we can specify the one we created earlier from a predefined package




Settings Package

next we will create the Settings package (Contains the unattend.xml file used for an automated installation of Windows Server 2008 as well as the customsettings.ini file used with the Microsoft Deployment
Toolkit), so create a folder in explorer called MDTserverSettings and share it as MDTserverSettings

click on create a new settings package and browse to our network share

eg:

\\WIN-AE2V1IRN067\MDTserverSettings

fill in the descriptive details



For the Sysprep Package, choose No Sysprep Files required, and click Next, at this point it will create/update all package and settings we specified.



when copying is complete, you can now browse the MDT Server files and MDT Server Settings folders we created and then shared, they are now populated with files



and here is where our customisations will be stored...





continue to >> Part 2