Imaging tools
The following tools are used for imaging:
- MDT: The toolset covered in this book. MDT is a collection of visual basic and PowerShell scripts used for different deployment tasks all wrapped together in a management console UI and sequencing engine used to call the scripts in stages for deploying Windows or performing other tasks related to Windows imaging (such as patching or servicing a current installation, capturing an image for later deployment, or modifying the image in some manner).
- Task Sequence: A task sequence is a series of commands executed by MDT's task sequencer. This is the heart of MDT, where the administrator can configure deployment steps, capturing the user state for later migration, servicing, and patching and other tasks.
- Task Sequencer: The name of the process MDT uses to manage its tasks. This is almost analogous to a computer virus in that the task sequencer, depending on the commands being performed, can modify the boot environment, boot over a network, collect additional task sequence commands from a central remote share, and boot off of media. It keeps track of a task's progress in a central store known as
variables.datand logs to a set of log files for troubleshooting and audit purposes. - variables.dat: A flat file db format used to store data for an executing task sequence. It will contain metadata such as the chassis type of the machine the task is executing, how much RAM is installed, and many other variables that are queried to the hardware, PnP bus, and BIOS/firmware.
