Installing Windows OS in an office setup

[DannyM]

I've had the fortune of been able to help a company get set up by supporting them with IT, this has gained me experience and a good reference.

The company has expanded exponentially since then and now requires a new setup, I've sourced a Windows Server and intend to get that setup over the coming week, this is going to be a learning curve for me personally but I've done a fair bit of reading and some playing around in VMs.

However I'm looking for advice on the best way to get their current fleet of computers set up (around 10 devices) I really want to reinstall Windows on all the machines which is still my intention but the devices are so fragmented. Most of these were purchased before I arrived to help out. So cloning is out of the window. One of the solutions I currently see is to go round to each machine one by one. Some have Windows 7 some have Windows 8, some are HP, some are Lenovo, one is Dell.

Any other suggestions?

If I'm missing something simple please let me know

Thanks

[Smudger]

You could try MDT 2013. Just import a reference OS build, then import all the drivers for each machine, and set up Selection Profiles for each machine, and create a Image task for each Selection Profile.

Might be a bit of overkill for 10 machines, but if they expand more, it'll still be in place for future builds

[shaithis]

I was going to say WDS, which is easy to setup but a standard image won't work too well with licensing as you need 25 workstations to use KMS (IIRC) and as you have a mix of OSes, there is no "one size fits all" for licensing them.....and by the sound of it all the licenses you have so far are OEM, which aren't very flexible!

Maybe, it's time to do some legwork now, rather then after the company has grown further and the job gets bigger? If so, you could upgrade all those licenses to Windows 10 (AFAIK, you will need to do an upgrade on each machine ) and then make Windows 10 the standard going forward and then rustle-up a WDS Windows 10 image and blank each machine and redeploy.

While it is a fair amount of work, it would leave you in the situation of having a standard build and the ability to keep OS continuity as new machines come in to stock and/or get re-imaged.

[DannyM]

I need to cost some of these options, thanks for your input so far

[GoNz0]

you could upgrade all those licenses to Windows 10 (AFAIK, you will need to do an upgrade on each machine )

The latest build of 10 means you can just use the win7/8 licence to install and activate.

[Splash]

OEM licenses don't come with reimaging rights: you only get these rights with Volume Licensing. You can buy VL with a minimum of 5 licenses from your preferred reseller.

I can put people in touch with MS licensing specialists at the company I work for (who I will not name publicly, because I'm not trying to advertise them) if people are interested, but any reseller worth their salt will be able to help in this - more info at https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/Lice...ow-to-buy.aspx

[Kumagoro]

The easiest way is to just manually do them all if it needs to be done in a short account of time. Then make a clone back up of each just in case.

If you want to make use of the chance to learn something then MDT (Microsoft Deployment Toolkit) as suggested by Smudger is the way to go. The problem is the learning curve and getting it to work can be fiddly. you can use a WDS to serve the MDT boot pe to do bare metal imaging with MDT. otherwise you do in place upgrades.

I assume that the versions of Windows are legit and all the same level I home our pro etc. If so like the others say upgrade to win 10



--
You could create a universal image once they are all win 10 I.e. create a base image you can use across all machines for ease of later deployment and re imaging.


Build the base image in a VM (keep a win only version too) which has the programs which are common to all. Then inject the drivers directly into the driver store for all machines you have.

note the drivers need to be certified drivers for them to go in automatically on imaging. Then create a sysprepped image using for example an acronis boot iso which you can then image to whatever Machines you have. Remember to keep a back up of the vhd etc as you can only sysprepa few times.

I actually don't Sysprep the image as the vbox drivers seem to work across all models from modern to Pentium 4. However I am not sure if it would work on amd stuff as I have never tried.

This allows me to keep the images up-to-date and only have a few for the different sets of programs and not different pc's.it's easy to manage as it's in a VM.

If you want to know how to inject drivers and do it all in a VM let me know.

[Smudger]

To add to the above, You can keep the image WIM as a bare image - no apps installed or just core apps, then use the MDT to install the apps as part of the imaging process. Handy for keeping the size of the WIM down and tuning the apps per user. If all users are going to have all apps, and portability is not an issue, put them in the core image.
And the advantage of MDT is that it's free. You just need the MDT download, and the appropriate ADK. Which at the moment is Win 10, but can be used for Win 8 and Win 7 deployments.

[mycarsavw]

What OS are you putting on the server?

Assuming it's Windows you can configure it to take a backup of each client machine on a regular basis.

I took one of all my newly configured machines (after the initial ballache of setting each one up individually - similar scenario to you, multiple sites, OSes, OEMs etc) and set it to never delete. I then take a new backup periodically (currently every quarter) and replace the previous one. I've had three failures so far and all have been restored within the hour.

[DannyM]

It'll be Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard.

I'm going to inquire about the prices for volume licencing, however failing that, I'll just go the OEM route for now and look at volume licencing later down the road. I do like the idea of getting the machines right and just backing each one up.

As for apps that are required, I've still got to do some leg work on that front, I'm at the office today so I'll be doing some planning, but from my knowledge it is just office apps and some odd apps here and there.

[mycarsavw]

Ah, no central/automated client backups in Standard unfortunately You can add it!

Any reason you're going for Standard over Essentials?

[GoNz0]

The standard I have has the option to install "windows server essentials experience"
that has all the backup stuff on it.

[DannyM]

I managed to get a deal with the Standard OS and a good spec server for £430 so I found it hard to turn down. Also I wouldn't have thought it wouldn't have the features that the lower OSs have.

[DannyM]

I sound like a noob here, but I guess I am I didn't realise that essentials gives you 25 users free. I'd have to buy 10 CALs for the standard OS. I'll just get it returned and get essentials it more then covers my requirements and it's about the same price.

[mycarsavw]

I didn't want to pee on your campfire but yup, that's the route I'd take (and have taken). The pricing of the CALs alone was too much to swallow when we were starting out. I almost hit the 25 user limit a few times but I'm fairly confident I can get a few more years out of it before I have to upgrade to something more robust.

The only issues you may have is the lack of an Exchange sever - I solved that with Office365 though.

WSUS would have been an issue if you were on 2011 Essentials but 2012 Essentials has WSUS as standard.

It's really very simple to configure if you map the whole thing out before you start.