MDT Configuration Database step by step
The entire purpose of the MDT Configuration Database is to make your deployments more dynamic and your CustomSettings.ini
less complex. As dynamic has many different meanings, let's define dynamic a little bit. When using CustomSettings.ini
for configuration and selections of task sequence, you need to hardcode everything. And every change of CustomSettings.ini
means in effect rebuilding your media or, if using PXE and share, updating all shares.
If you are using MDT just to build your golden image or in a small test lab scenario, this disadvantage can be small enough. But as soon as you think about productive use/rollout, you should think twice before using MDT without the SQL database.
With the MDT database you can apply different customizations for different groups of computers based on the computer's hardware, such as the MAC address, its physical location, or manufacturer and model.
Furthermore, a configuration database gives you the...