Today we'll take a look at the Surface Deployment Accelerator
which helps simplify Surface image creation and deployment.
In the next few minutes
I will show you
how to write an easy way to create the best reference imaging Surface
how you can use this to configure your custom image
and kickoff and an automated deployment.
First I download and install Surface deployment accelerator onto a Windows Server.
This has to be Windows Server 2012 R2 or higher.
SDA comes as a single MSI package
that you can download from the Microsoft Download Center by using the link below
and then install it on a Windows server.
Since I have already downloaded the Surface deployment accelerator MSI file
I start the installation of it.
I accept the license agreement.
Press Install.
And it quickly installs Surface Deployment Accelerator on my device.
The next step is to start the actual configuration of SDA.
I press the Windows button
and you will see on the Start screen
there is now a Service Deployment Accelerator file.
I hit okay
And this is where we start the Surface Deployment Accelerator Wizard.
The very first thing you will see is the welcome experience.
On the welcome screen you can see the summary of what the accelerator does.
When you press next that's where we perform System Verification.
Within System Verification, we first check to make sure that PowerShell Execution policy is set to bypass.
As well as making sure that you have the Windows Assessment Deployment kit
and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit installed.
But don't worry
if you haven't installed it already
SDA will grab the latest files from the internet
and install that for you as well.
When you press next
that's where you can choose which operating system you want to install.
In my case, since I want to install on a Surface Pro 4
I will choose Windows 10.
I press this checkmark to enable Windows 10 support
and you will see that the below area is not active
and I can choose what I want to do with it.
So the first thing you want to do is create a Deployment Share.
So I press browse and choose a location
where I want to store my deployment share.
let's create a new folder under the system drive and call it Mechanics.
Hit okay.
And now I'm going to choose a share name.
So lets use again, Mechanics
and I will also add a dollar sign.
All that means is
when you choose a dollar sign, it's hidden from the network.
In some cases
you'll want to import the boot media
directly onto the local Windows Deployment Service.
this is the right thing to do in my case.
So I choose the checkbox
and lastly I need to define where the Windows 10 source files are.
So that's for example the ISO file for Windows 10.
I press Browse
and since I already mounted the ISO, I just simply click on my E drive.
Press Okay and hit Next.
Within the experience configuration
you can choose which Surface applications
and which Surface you want to support with SDA.
As I mentioned before since
I've chosen to deploy on a Surface Pro 4 Windows 10
I'm going to select Surface Pro 4.
And I'm going to keep the Surface app
as well as the Surface Asset Tag CU Utility present.
The cool thing about SDA is
if you don't have an internet connection that's no problem.
All you need to make sure is that the drivers and firmware
is already loaded on the server so you can make use of that.
So in the case of offline provisioning
you press copy from a local directory
and you choose where those files are.
So in my case
since I want to make sure that I have the latest and greatest
and since I have internet connection
I choose to download from the internet.
Now I press Next
and within the Summary page
it will outline all the configurations you have chosen within the wizard.
I press Finish
and now Surface Deployment Accelerator is running its own task sequence
to configure itself on your Windows Server.
Once the SDA configuration is completed
I can now open the deployment workbench
from the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit
and verify what happened in the background.
You will notice that the newly-created Mechanics
deployment share shows up here.
and for example under the operating system
you can see now Windows 10.
And within the Task Sequence
I know have two task sequences pre-configured for me.
Option one is for IT professionals
that want to start the deployment immediately.
While option two can be used
when you want to have a baseline image
and then you want to build on top of it.
That's useful for organizations that want to add additional steps.
For example, you might want to add your organization wallpaper
or want to make sure that all Windows updates are present.
Now let's move over to the Surface Pro 4 and begin the actual deployment.
what you want to have ready for that is either the Surface ether adapter
or a Surface dock attached to the device.
Once attached, you now want to power on the device.
But remember, in order to enable network boot
you want to press power and volume down at the same time.
This will enable the alterate boot order
and since the Surface ether adapter is already attached
it will detect it and boot from the network.
It will first try to find a PXE Server
and once that's done you want to press Enter
in order to get into the Windows Deployment Service.
At that point it will detect the boot media which we previously imported
and then begin the injection of the boot media.
The next thing you see is the Windows logo from the boot media.
and now you're within the WinPE environment.
Depending on your server configuration
you might be required to enter your administrator credentials.
Now within this menu
you can now choose which task sequence you want to pick.
Those are the same task sequences
I showed you earlier when I was in the deployment workbench.
In my case
because I want to start immediately deploying on the Surface Pro 4 Windows 10
I go for option one.
So that's the new Surface Deployment Accelerator.
You can learn more about Surface management and engineering
of Microsoft Mechanics.
Thank you for watching.
Microsoft Mechanics
www.microsoft.com/mechanics