RTM – MAP 4.0 Released!

Microsoft Assessment and Panning  Toolkit 4.0

Microsoft Assessment and Panning Toolkit 4.0

According to the MAP Team Blog, MAP 4.0 moved out of Beta yesterday :)

Download MAP 4.0

What’s New with v4.0?
Version 4.0 of this toolkit has the following new features:
• Windows 7 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment
• Virtualization Candidates Assessment for Hyper-V R2 Server Consolidation
• Integration with the Microsoft Integrated Virtualization ROI Calculator
• Inventory of VMware Server Hosts and Guests
• User Interface and Proposal Customization for Partner co-branding
• Enhanced Usability and Improved Inventory Performance

Additional Features
• Virtualization Candidates Assessment for Hyper-V Server Consolidation
• Windows Vista Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment
• Windows Server 2008 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment
• 2007 Microsoft Office Readiness Assessment
• SQL Server Instance Discovery
• Desktop Security Assessment for Anti-virus and Anti-malware Programs Installation
• Forefront Client Security/NAP Readiness Assessment
• App-V Infrastructure Readiness Assessment
• Power Savings “Green IT” Calculator

More infromation on this excellent tool is available on TechNet.

WAIK Beta Oddities

In the last post I talked about a first look at Microsoft’s MDT 2010 Beta 2.

My inplace upgrade from Beta 1 “apeared” to be successful. However when I went to update the deployment share, I received the following error:

Update Deployment Share - Failed

Update Deployment Share - Failed

This appears to be caused by a directory structure change in the WAIK between Beta and RC. Uninstalling WAIK, and resinstalling with the RC version will resolve this, but which version is the RC version? The WAIK RC is available from here as per Michael’s recent post

I have two ISO’s that I’ve downloaded recently from Microsoft:

en_windows_automated_installation_kit_x86_x64_ia64_dvd_349519.iso
KB3AIK_EN.iso

So according to the filename on the link on Michael’s blog I should be using KB3AIK_EN.iso. Except that this is the one that I did install when I built the server for MDT Beta 1.

Looking at the readme.htm in both ISO’s provides no clue either as neither are clearly marked as Beta or RC. Using Orca from the MSI SDK 4.5 I took a look at the ProductVersion and ProductName from the Property Table in the wAIKAMD64.msi. The values were the same for both:

ProductVersion = 2.0.0.0
ProductName = Windows Automated Installation Kit

In the end the only way I able to differenciate them was by the PackageCode in the Summary Information Stream:

Beta = {7FB35EC9-03A9-49AF-B0A1-81BDBA3949F5}
RC = {3BD5A1BF-F520-4BAA-9C7E-FAA12EF37AAF}

Restarting the MDT 2010 Beta 2 Workbench after the correct version of WAIK is installed, caused the following prompt:

Follow the steps as described to resolve the issue.

Follow the steps as described to resolve the issue.

I don’t know how the filenames got reversed because I’m pretty sure I didn’t rename either of the WAIK ISO’s, but it provided for an entertaining half hour!

First look at MDT 2010 Beta 2

Michael has been firing out a lot posts about the new features of MDT 2010 recently, and as this is a tool I do quite a lot with I figured it was time to start playing :)

I have a test server with the Beta 1 MDT 2010 already installed. I wanted to see if any issues are encountered if I just installed over the top.

The installation process didn’t notify me of any previous version, but it selected the installation directory of the existing MDT. I let it install to the same location, and it completed without any errors.

The new and improved workbench.

The new and improved workbench.


I like the new shiny icons, but more importantly I like how I can organise things in folders :)

My existing MDT items were all still available, with the exception of the deployment share. Selecting to open an existing share and selecting the upgrade check box appears to have brought everything up to date.

Property page has been updated

Property page has been updated

One of my minor annoyances for a long time has been resolved. You can now tab through the fields, though you have to tab through both sides *grrr*.

From a PowerShell perspective a quick look reveals that we have one snapin to play with: microsoft.bdd.PSsnapin.

The PowerShell Snapin for MDT 2010

The PowerShell Snapin for MDT 2010

16 cmdlets are provided by the MDT snapin

16 cmdlets are provided by the MDT snapin

I haven’t played with these yet, but they look to be promising.