Configure MDT deployment share rules
In this article, you'll learn how to configure the MDT rules engine to reach out to other resources, including external scripts, databases, and web services, for additional information instead of storing settings directly in the rules engine. The rules engine in MDT is powerful: most of the settings used for operating system deployments are retrieved and assigned via the rules engine. In its simplest form, the rules engine is the CustomSettings.ini text file.
Assign settings
When using MDT, you can assign setting in three distinct ways:
- You can pre-stage the information before deployment.
- You can prompt the user or technician for information.
- You can have MDT generate the settings automatically.
In order to illustrate these three options, let's look at some sample configurations.
Sample configurations
Before adding the more advanced components like scripts, databases, and web services, consider the commonly used configurations below; they demonstrate the power of the rules engine.
Set computer name by MAC Address
If you have a small test environment, or simply want to assign settings to a limited number of machines, you can edit the rules to assign settings directly for a given MAC Address. When you have many machines, it makes sense to use the database instead.
[Settings]
Priority=MacAddress, Default
[Default]
OSInstall=YES
[00:15:5D:85:6B:00]
OSDComputerName=PC00075
In the preceding sample, you set the PC00075 computer name for a machine with a MAC Address of 00:15:5D:85:6B:00.
Set computer name by serial number
Another way to assign a computer name is to identify the machine via its serial number.
[Settings]
Priority=SerialNumber, Default
[Default]
OSInstall=YES
[CND0370RJ7]
OSDComputerName=PC00075
In this sample, you set the PC00075 computer name for a machine with a serial number of CND0370RJ7.
Generate a computer name based on a serial number
You also can configure the rules engine to use a known property, like a serial number, to generate a computer name on the fly.
[Settings]
Priority=Default
[Default]
OSInstall=YES
OSDComputerName=PC-%SerialNumber%
In this sample, you configure the rules to set the computer name to a prefix (PC-) and then the serial number. If the serial number of the machine is CND0370RJ7, the preceding configuration sets the computer name to PC-CND0370RJ7.
Note
Be careful when using the serial number to assign computer names. A serial number can contain more than 15 characters, but the Windows setup limits a computer name to 15 characters.
Generate a limited computer name based on a serial number
To avoid assigning a computer name longer than 15 characters, you can configure the rules in more detail by adding VBScript functions, as follows:
[Settings]
Priority=Default
[Default]
OSInstall=YES
OSDComputerName=PC-#Left("%SerialNumber%",12)#
In the preceding sample, you still configure the rules to set the computer name to a prefix (PC-) followed by the serial number. However, by adding the Left VBScript function, you configure the rule to use only the first 12 serial-number characters for the name.
Add laptops to a different organizational unit (OU) in Active Directory
In the rules, you find built-in properties that use a Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) query to determine whether the machine you're deploying is a laptop, desktop, or server. In this sample, we assume you want to add laptops to different OUs in Active Directory. Note that ByLaptopType isn't a reserved word; rather, it's the name of the section to read.
[Settings]
Priority=ByLaptopType, Default
[Default]
MachineObjectOU=OU=Workstations,OU=Contoso,DC=contoso,DC=com
[ByLaptopType]
Subsection=Laptop-%IsLaptop%
[Laptop-True]
MachineObjectOU=OU=Laptops,OU=Contoso,DC=contoso,DC=com