This is possibly one of best ‘minimum effort maximum gain’ jobs you can do in your Configuration Manager installation, it’s a real no-brainer. By integrating Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) with Configuration Manager you get the best of both worlds in your deployment scenarios as MDT can extend the functionality of Configuration Manager, pretty much the only limitation becomes your imagination and best of all it’s free!

I’m not going to go into the details of what you get by integrating the products as you probably have a good idea if you’re reading this, if not you can visit the product page here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/solutionaccelerators/dd407791.aspx or simply use your favourite search engine. The best way to learn a product is to use it and get to know it, so what are you waiting for?

Go get yourself MDT 2012 from here – http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=25175

This is a screenshot step through for the install:

Run the msi installer and choose Next…

Agree to the EULA…

Make your component selection, this is the default and it only takes 70MB…

Of course you’ll want to contribute to the CEIP…

and that’s it, Install…

You’ll see the progress indicator…

Now Finish.

That’s it you’ve installed MDT 2012, told you it was easy. Now we need to integrate it with Configuration Manager, this is even easier.

Run the ‘Configure ConfigMgr Integration’ shortcut from your start menu or start screen…

If they’re not already completed, enter your Configuration Manager details and hit Next…

That’s it! If you want to save the output you can, otherwise click Finish.

Essentially that’s it you’ve now integrated MDT 2012 with Configuration Manager 2012. You’ll notice subtle additions as you look around the Configuration Manager console like so…

Adding MDT Boot images

Adding MDT task sequences

Adding MDT task sequence steps

You’ll notice in the task sequence steps that you have the ‘Use Toolkit Package’ available to you. This will allow you to utilise a number of other scripts and tools within your task sequence, to do this you’ll need to create a distribution share in MDT and add the contents of that as a package in Configuration Manager.

Here’s how…

Open Deployment Workbench from your start menu or start screen…

Right click Deployment Shares and select New Deployment Share.

Choose your preferred path for the deployment share…

Choose your share name…

Give your share a descriptive name.

Make your behaviour selections, these are the default.

Check the summary and click Next.

You’ll see the progress bar…

Then confirmation of success. Click Finish.

If you now go take a look at the folder you specified you will see the following files and folders…

Now all you need to do is add a new package to Configuration Manager and specify this folder (or a copy) as the source files. You can then use that package in your task sequence step for ‘Use Toolkit Package’.

That should be enough to get you started with MDT and Configuration Manager, so go explore and see what you can create!