A Geeks Guide for upgrading to MDT 8450

In this post you learn to upgrade an existing MDT 8443 environment, with or without ConfigMgr integration, to MDT 8450. The guide is divided in two parts:

  • Upgrading to MDT 8450 Lite Touch (standalone)
  • Upgrading to MDT 8450 Zero Touch (integrated with ConfigMgr Current Branch 1710)

MDT 8450 Release
http://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/msdeployment/2017/12/21/mdt-8450-now-available/

MDT 8450 download link: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54259

mdt8450
As with the previous release, the MDT 8450 arrived just before Christmas.

New Features at a glance in MTD 8450

Please read the release notes for a full list of new features, but the most important features are:

  • Support for the Windows ADK 10 v1709
  • Support for Windows 10 v1709
  • Support for ConfigMgr Current Branch 1710
  • Improvements to deployment and upgrade of Windows 10

Now, back to the upgrade guides!

Upgrading to MDT 8450 Lite Touch (standalone)

Worth mentioning is that there are no changes in the MDT 8450 task sequence templates compared to the 8443 release, so if you upgrade from that one, you don't need to create new task sequence. Very nice.

Upgrading to MDT 8450 is quite straight forward, simple follow these steps:

  1. Make a backup complete copy of your deployment share(s)  
  2. Yes, really, make a backup copy of your deployment share(s) 🙂  
  3. Check if there is a pending reboot, use the http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Get-PendingReboot-Query-bdb79542 from TechNet Gallery, written by Brian Wilhite. To run the cmdlet, first load the script as a function by "dot sourcing" the Get-PendingReboot.ps1 script. Run . .\Get-PendingReboot.ps1, and then run the Get-PendingReboot command.

    Note: The script also supports the -ComputerName parameter if you want to run it on remote machines.

    image
    Running the Get-PendingReboot command after "dot sourcing" the Get-PendingReboot.ps1 script.

  4. If you're not using Windows ADK 10 v1709 already, uninstall the version you have, and then install Windows ADK 10 v1709 (requirement for MDT 8450). Select the following components:

Deployment Tools
Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE)
Imaging and Configuration Designer (ICD)
Configuration Designer
User State Migration Tool (USMT)

  1. Reboot the machine (to make sure the wimgapi driver is registered)  
  2. Install MDT 8450 (automatically uninstalls earlier versions)  
  3. Using Deployment Workbench, right-click the deployment share and select Upgrade Deployment Share.

    Upgrade
    Upgrading a deployment share.

  4. Repeat step 6 if you have more deployment shares.  
  5. After upgrading the deployment share, using Deployment Workbench, right-click the deployment share and select Update Deployment Share. This will create new boot images.

    image
    New boot images created in the deployment share Boot folder.

  6. Repeat step 8 if you have more deployment shares.  
  7. If using WDS for PXE booting MDT boot images, replace the boot images with the new ones.

    image
    Existing boot image replaced with the MDT 8450 version.  

  8. If upgrading from earlier version than MDT 8443, you also need to re-create all task sequences and copy over your customizations. But if you upgraded from MDT 8443, you don't have since the MDT Lite Touch task sequences templates are the same in MDT 8443 and MDT 8450.

Done 🙂

Upgrading to MDT 8450 Zero Touch (integrated with ConfigMgr Current Branch 1710)

Before you start, make sure you have upgraded to Windows ADK 10 v1709 on your site server, and updated the two default boot images to WinPE 10 v1709 (netboot files are typically extracted from these, and you want to have the latest version). Also worth mentioning, there are only minor changes in the MDT task sequence templates for ConfigMgr, but to take advantage of those changes, you either need to do the same modifications to existing task sequences, or create new ones.

  1. Install MDT 8450 (automatically uninstalls earlier versions)  
  2. The ConfigMgr Integration extensions have not been updated from MDT 8443, so there is no need to re-run the Configure ConfigMgr Integration wizard.
  3. Create a new dummy task sequence using the Create MDT Task Sequence wizard, and select to create a new MDT package during that wizard.

    Creating the new MDT 8450 package.

  4. Create new boot image(s) using the Create MDT Boot image wizard, and configure your task sequence(s) to use them.  
  5. Since the MDT package has changed together with the MDT task sequence templates for ConfigMgr, you need to either:

    Option #1: Create new task sequences, and copy over any customization you have from the existing task sequences.


    Option #2: Modify the existing task sequence to use the new MDT package (typically 5 – 7 changes in every task sequence) , and modify the partition steps that was changed, below is an example, but you need to modify them all. There are four of them in every task sequence.

    8443
    The MDT 8443 Task Sequence template in ConfigMgr.
     

    8450
    The MDT 8450 Task Sequence template in ConfigMgr.

Done 🙂

Written by Johan Arwidmark.

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Johan Arwidmark

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