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Use the MDT Database to Stage Windows 8.1 Deployment Information

  • Article

Applies To: Windows 8.1

This topic is designed to teach you how to use the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2013 database to pre-stage information on your Windows 8.1 deployment in a Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1 Express database, rather than include the information in a text file (CustomSettings.ini). You can use this process, for example, to add the client machines you want to deploy, specify their computer names and IP addresses, indicate applications to be deployed, and determine many additional settings for the machines.

In this topic

  • Database prerequisites

  • Create the deployment database

  • Configure database permissions

  • Create an entry in the database

See also

Database prerequisites

MDT 2013 can use either SQL Server Express or full SQL Server, but since the deployment database isn’t big, even in large enterprise environments, we recommend using the free SQL Server 2012 SP1 Express database in your environment.

Note

Be sure to enable Named Pipes when configuring the SQL Server 2012 SP1 Express database. Although it’s a legacy protocol, Named Pipes has proven to work well when connecting from Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) 5.0 to the SQL Server database.

Create the deployment database

The MDT database is by default created and managed from the Deployment Workbench. In these steps, we assume you have installed SQL Server 2012 SP1 Express on MDT01.

Note

Since SQL Server 2012 SP1 Express runs by default on a separate instance (SQLEXPRESS), the SQL Server Browser service must be running, and the firewall configured to allow traffic to it. Port 1433 TCP and port 1434 UDP need to be opened for inbound traffic on MDT01.

  1. On MDT01, using Deployment Workbench, expand the MDT Production deployment share, expand Advanced Configuration, right-click Database, and select New Database.

  2. In the New DB Wizard, on the SQL Server Details page, enter the following settings and click Next:

    1. SQL Server Name: MDT01

    2. Instance: SQLEXPRESS

    3. Port: <blank>

    4. Network Library: Named Pipes

  3. On the Database page, select Create a new database; in the Database field, type MDT and click Next.

  4. On the SQL Share page, in the SQL Share field, type Logs$ and click Next. Click Next again and then click Finish.

Figure 8. The MDT database added to MDT01.

Configure database permissions

After creating the database, you need to assign permissions to it. In MDT, the account you used to run the deployment is used to access the database. In this environment, the network access account is MDT_BA.

  1. On MDT01, start SQL Server Management Studio.

  2. In the Connect to Server dialog box, in the Server name list, select MDT01\SQLEXPRESS and click Connect.

  3. In the Object Explorer pane, expand the top-level Security node, right-click Logins, and select New Login.

    Figure 9. The top-level Security node.

  4. On the Login – New page, next to the Login name field, click Search, and search for CONTOSO\MDT_BA. Then in the left pane, select User Mapping. Select the MDT database, and assign the following roles:

    1. db_datareader

    2. public (default)

  5. Click OK, and close SQL Server Management Studio.

Figure 10. Creating the login and settings permissions to the MDT database.

Create an entry in the database

To start using the database, you add a computer entry and assign a description and computer name. Use the computer’s MAC Address as the identifier.

  1. On MDT01, using the Deployment Workbench, in the MDT Production deployment share, expand Advanced Configuration, and expand Database.

  2. Right-click Computers, select New, and add a computer entry with the following settings:

    1. Description: New York Site - PC00075

    2. MacAddress: <PC00075 MAC Address in the 00:00:00:00:00:00 format>

    3. Details Tab / OSDComputerName: PC00075

Figure 11. Adding the PC00075 computer to the database.