NOTE: This Hydration kit has been updated, you probably want to use this one instead:
The Hydration Kit for System Center 2012 R2 is available for download
https://deploymentresearch.com/Research/tabid/62/EntryId/149/The-Hydration-Kit-for-System-Center-2012-R2-is-available-for-download.aspx
What could be more fittingly than deploying a deployment solution with a deployment solution? J
Here is a download for building a complete deployment solution based on Windows Server 2012 and MDT 2012 Update 1 (Lite Touch) in either Hyper-V or VMware. The solution is based on two virtual servers – one domain controller (DC01) and one member server (MDT01). Both servers are running Windows Server 2012.
- DC01. Domain Controller, DNS, and DHCP
- MDT01. File Server, WDS, SQL Server 2012 Express, ADK and MDT 2012 Update 1
Once configured, the total build time for the full lab environment is about 1 hour on a somewhat decent lab machine (Any machine with 4 GB RAM and a 128 GB SSD will do). In my test lab I was using a Lenovo ThinkPad T420 with a Core i5, 16 GB RAM, and a 480 GB SSD drive.
Download the Hydration Kit for Windows Server 2012 and MDT 2012 Update 1 (120 kb)
Overview
To build the lab there are three steps you need to do
- Download the necessary software
- Prepare the Hydration Environment
- Deploy the virtual machines
Detailed instructions are further down this page… see the Step-by-Step Guide section


Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1 – Download the necessary software
- On the machine (client or server) that you use to manage Hyper-V or VMware, create the C:Downloads folder.
- Download the following software:
- The Hydration Kit sample files (download)
- BGInfo
- MDT 2012 Update 1
- ADK (run the setup downloader to download the full ADK)
- SQL Server 2012 Express with Tools (SQLEXPRWT_x64_ENU.exe)
- Windows Server 2012 (trial or full version)
Step 2 – Prepare the Hydration Environment
Create the hydration deployment share
- On the Windows machine that you use to manage Hyper-V or VMware, install ADK (adksetup.exe) selecting only the following components:
- Deployment Tools
- Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE)
- Install MDT 2012 Update 1 (MicrosoftDeploymentToolkit2012_x64.msi) with the default settings.
- Extract the HydrationMDT2012U1.zip sample file to C:.
- You should now have the following folder containing a few subfolders and PowerShell scripts.
C:\HydrationMDT2012U1\Source
- In an elevated (run as Administrator) PowerShell command prompt, configure Execution Policy in PowerShell by typing the following command:
Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted –Force
- In the PowerShell command prompt, create the hydration deployment share by running the following command
C:\HydrationMDT2012U1\Source\1_CreateHydrationDeploymentShare.ps1
- Merge the hydration kit content with the new deployment share by running the following command:
C:\HydrationMDT2012U1\Source\2_MergeDeploymentShareWithHydrationKit.ps1
Populate the hydration deployment share with the downloaded files
- Copy the BGInfo file (bginfo.exe) to the following folder:
C:\HydrationMDT2012U1\DS\Applications\Install – BGInfo\Source
- Copy the ADK installation files to the following folder:
C:\HydrationMDT2012U1\DS\Applications\Install – ADK\Source
- Copy the MDT installation file (MicrosoftDeploymentToolkit2012_x64.msi) to the following folder:
C:\HydrationMDT2012U1\DS\Applications\Install – MDT 2012 Update 1\Source
- Copy the SQL Server 2012 Express installation file (SQLEXPRWT_x64_ENU.exe) to the following folder:
C:\HydrationMDT2012U1\DS\Applications\SQL Server 2012 Express\Source
- Copy the Windows Server 2012 installation files (the content of the ISO, not the actual ISO) to the following folder:
C:\HydrationMDT2012U1\DS\Operating Systems\Windows Server 2012 x64
Create the hydration ISO (MDT 2012 Update offline media item)
- Using Deployment Workbench (available on the start menu), expand Deployment Shares, and expand Hydration MDT 2012 Update 1.
- Review the various nodes. The Applications, Operating Systems and Task Sequences nodes should all have some content in them.
The Hydration deployment share, listing the task sequences. - Expand the Advanced Configuration node, and then select the Media node.
- In the right pane, right-click the MEDIA001 item, and select Update Media Content.
Note: The media update will take a while to run, a perfect time for a coffee break…
After the media update you will have a big ISO (HydrationMDT2012U1.iso) in the C:\HydrationMDT2012U1\ISO folder. The HydrationMDT2012U1.iso should be about 6.3 GB in size.

Step 3 – Deploy the virtual machines
Deploying DC01
- Using Hyper-V Manager or VMware Sphere, create a virtual machine with the following settings:
- Name: DC01
- Hard drive: 100 GB (dynamic disk)
- Memory: 1 GB
- Network: Your lab network
- Image file (ISO): C:\HydrationMDT2012U1\ISO\HydrationMDT2012U1.iso
- Start the DC01 virtual machine. After booting from HydrationMDT2012U1.iso, and after WinPE has loaded, select the DC01 task sequence.
- Wait until the setup is complete and you see the Hydration Complete message in the final summary.
- Leave DC01 running while deploying the other virtual machine (MDT01).

Deploying MDT01
- Using Hyper-V Manager or VMware Sphere, create a virtual machine with the following settings:
- Name: MDT01
- Hard drive: 300 GB (dynamic disk)
- Memory: 2 GB
- Network: Your lab network
- Image file (ISO): C:\HydrationMDT2012U1\ISO\HydrationMDT2012U1.iso
- Start the MDT01 virtual machine. After booting from HydrationMDT2012U1.iso, and after WinPE has loaded, select the MDT01 task sequence.
- Wait until the setup is complete and you see the Hydration Complete message in the final summary.

Done! You now have a deployment solution based on MDT 2012 Update 1 that is just begging to be used 🙂
Additional Configuration Notes:
The default administrator password is P@ssw0rd
If you need to change server names, passwords, IP addresses, domain names etc. in the environment, the main configuration is stored in the four .ini files in the ISO\Content\Deploy\Control folder. You also need to update the following file in the DS\Applications folder.
- Configure – Create AD Structure
- Configure-CreateADStructures.vbs
/ Johan
Hi Johan.
Thank you for a great hydration kit. But shouldn't there be a WSUS in here somewhere? I thought I've read somewhere that you recommend to have a WSUS server paired with MDT to make sure that all the windows updates succeeds.
Ofthen when dcpromo fails it's because one of the following reasons:
1. missing nic in the virtual machine
2. too small disk in the DC01 virtual machine (100 GB minimum)
3. missing to copy the Control files (e.g did not run C:HydrationMDT2012U1Source2_MergeDeploymentShareWithHydrationKit.ps1)
If you send me an email (alias is my last name, and I'm using gmail), I can help you offline.
/ Johan
DC01 deployment stopped to the same error as Karl reported earlier..dcpromo failed to run. In fact before the dcpromo is trying to run there is an message saying: The dcpromo unattended operation is being replaced by the ADDSDeployment module for Windows Powershell. Its not an actuall error message but rather than an info for depricated method…i guess. Only the final configuration of promoting to DC fails…and other tasks after it.
DC01 deployment stopped to the same error as Karl reported earlier..dcpromo failed to run. In fact before the dcpromo is trying to run there is an message saying: The dcpromo unattended operation is being replaced by the ADDSDeployment module for Windows Powershell. Its not an actuall error message but rather than an info for depricated method…i guess. Only the final configuration of promoting to DC fails…and other tasks after it.
DC01 deployment stopped to the same error as Karl reported earlier..dcpromo failed to run. In fact before the dcpromo is trying to run there is an message saying: The dcpromo unattended operation is being replaced by the ADDSDeployment module for Windows Powershell. Its not an actuall error message but rather than an info for depricated method…i guess. Only the final configuration of promoting to DC fails…and other tasks after it.
Hi Karl,
Send me the logs (alias is my last name, and I'm using gmail).
Zip up all the MDT logs, the dcpromo.log, the dcpromoui.log, and the AD_answer.txt
/ Johan
Hi Johan!
Have some problem with the DC01.
Problem: is that ADDS role configuration with DCpromo failed, rc =22
ZTI Error – non-zero resturn code by ZTIConfigure ADDS, rc = 22
and due to this the rest fails.
Karl
Thank you. Great Hydration Kit. I wanted to know if anyone else are unable to WDS/pxe boot a Vmware Workstation 9 machine using a boot image generated by the new Windows ADK. It works fine when booting from an iso file.
Henrik
I love this site and all the helpful stuff you post.
I am trying this out now using Hyper-V but confess to having used VMware in the past. Really want to get into Hyper-V so am giving it a go.
However I am at the point where I need to use the ISO created to boot the two virtual servers from. The doc says to point the boot CD tot he ISo on the machine running Hyper-V manager but it won't let me do that.
Have I missed something?
Any advice appreciated.
Rob
The default password is P@ssw0rd. It's set via the customsettings.ini file
/ Johan
Hello Johan, great article. Everything worked, no details where left out 🙂
I installed using VMware Workstation and after VMware Tools installation, server reboots and autologin is not in use anymore. I found the SafeModeAdminPassword so i guess i can force entry, but i havent found any info regarding default admin password anywhere?
Sounds good!
What about a Hydration Kit without SP1 beta? 😉
/Thomas
Yes, as soon as the ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 beta is out, and I had time to verify it actually works 🙂
/ Johan
Hi Johan,
Great work!
Any plans of creating a Hydration Kit for Windows Server 2012 and ConfigMgr 2012?
/Thomas