Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Overview

 MDT 2010  No Responses »
Apr 072010
 

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 is Microsoft’s preferred method for deploying both client and server operating systems.  The latest release of MDT occurred September of 2009.   The new release was a huge improvement over the previous version.  The current version also supports the deployment of Windows 7  and Server 2008 R2.

I have been working with the product now for a few months with deploying Server 2008 R2.  I have also deployed a few Windows 7 clients using it.  I have been really impressed so far how easy it is to deploy a server image.  I also know that I am using just a fraction of this tool and look forward to learning more about it over the next several months.  I will try to share my experiences so other people can learn from my trial and error.  I have included some links below that are some good resources if you are just learning about this great tool.  The next few posts will cover the installation of MDT 2010 and AIK.

MDT 2010 TechNet Site
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/dd407791.aspx

MDT Team Blog
http://blogs.technet.com/msdeployment/default.aspx

MDT TechNet Forums
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/mdt/threads

Michael Niehaus Blog
http://blogs.technet.com/mniehaus/default.aspx

Deployment Guys
http://blogs.technet.com/deploymentguys/default.aspx

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Rebuild Performance Counters

 IT Admin Tips  No Responses »
Mar 302010
 

Performance counters can be a great insight to how your server is performing.  The only problem is that sometimes the counters can become corrupt.  The first time I ran across this it took me a little while to find the solution.  There is a very good KB article on how to rebuild that counters that is listed below.  The easiest way I have found is to to run lodctr /R at the command prompt on the server having the issue.  You will need to have administrative rights to run the command.  This command will rebuild all of the performance counters including extensible and third-party counters in Windows Server 2003. If you are running into this problem on a cluster fully read the KB article as there are a couple extra steps.

Rebuild Performance Counters
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300956

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Core Configurator 2.0 Is A Must Have Tool

 Tools  No Responses »
Mar 012010
 

Windows Server 2008 R2 Core Edition is a great product for the command line driven administrators.  The only problem is it is hard to find a team where everybody is willing to learn this skill.  This makes is hard to deploy the new core edition of server 2008 R2.  That is until core configurator was developed over at codeplex.  Some of taks that can be completed through the tool are ISCSI settings, server roles, server features, joining a domain, add/remove programs, and WinRM.  This is just a few of the tasks that can be completed with a few clicks.  If you are thinking about deploying Windows Server Core 2008 R2 I suggest you check out the tool to make it easier to administrate server core 2008 R2.

Core Configurator 2.0
http://coreconfig.codeplex.com/

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