Standing up your own System Center 2012 LAB -

Well I promised that this year I would start posting more of my technology adventures.  Well I have spent a ton of time with MDT 2010 Update 1 and I thought it was finally time to take a look at the upcoming release of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit.

It is currently in Beta 2 which was released around November 2011 and I am hoping this is in full RTM sometime in the next few months.

Customers out there are really struggling with a way to accelerate their Windows 7 Deployments.  Many of them cannot afford the time to even look at Zero Touch deployments now.  Most clients are going to be forced into a hybrid approach and need to get on this project ASAP.  Time is ticking – XP End of life is coming ASAP.

So I wanted to get started and noticed there were a lot of components to download – So after a bit of hunting on THE GOOGLE.  I found this nice little site:

http://mdt2012.com

Specifically – they have written a great little downloader powershell script to grab all the files required to stand up your own System Center 2012 Environment.  It is called a hydration kit – Now this has been here for a while but I love the example of how to grab to source files via this simple little script.

You can grab the script from here:

SC2012 Downloader.zip

I have to do so many repetitive projects with my customers that I am always looking for a way to fast track and standardize our client facing deployments.

I am going to customize this idea in future post to incorporate my work with other Microsoft products like Exchange and LYNC.

This is truly a little gem!

*************************

Here is their sample script to handle the downloading….

$DrivePath = Read-Host -Prompt “- Enter the destination path, eg. C:\sc2012_prereq_files\”
$DownloadSCSuite = Read-Host -Prompt “- Do you want to Download the entire SC 2012 RC Suite? If you answer N, only Config Mgr will be downloaded. <Y or N>”
Write-Host “Beginning to download required files.”
Import-Module BitsTransfer
## Prompt for the destination path

## Check that the path entered is valid
If (Test-Path “$DrivePath” -Verbose)
{
    ## If destination path is valid, create folder if it doesn’t already exist
    $DestFolder = “$DrivePath”
    New-Item -ItemType Directory $DestFolder -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}
Else
{
    Write-Warning ” – Destination path appears to be invalid.”
    Write-Host ” – Defaulting to C:\sc2012_prereq_files\ “
    $DestFolder = “i:\sc2012_prereq_files\”
}
    Try
    {
        ## Check if destination Folder already exists
        Write-Host “Verifying Destination Folder Exists, and we can write to it.”
        If (Test-Path “$DestFolder”)
        {
           
            ## Begin download
            Write-Host “Beginning Download of Pre-Req’s for Hydration”
           
            Start-BitsTransfer -Source “http://www.deploymentresearch.com/DRFiles/HydrationCM2012RC2.zip” -Destination “$DestFolder\HydrationCM2012RC2.zip” -DisplayName “Downloading `’HydrationCM2012RC2.zip`’ to $DestFolder” -Priority High -Description “From DeploymentResearch.com…” -ErrorVariable err
            Start-BitsTransfer -Source “http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/3/a/b3a89fae-f7bf-4e7c-b208-223b991e9c30/MicrosoftDeploymentToolkit2010_x64.msi” -Destination “$DestFolder\MicrosoftDeploymentToolkit2010_x64.msi” -DisplayName “Downloading `’MicrosoftDeploymentToolkit2010_x64.msi`’ to $DestFolder” -Priority High -Description “From Microsoft.com…” -ErrorVariable err
            Start-BitsTransfer -Source “http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/3/a/b3a89fae-f7bf-4e7c-b208-223b991e9c30/MicrosoftDeploymentToolkit2010_x86.msi” -Destination “$DestFolder\MicrosoftDeploymentToolkit2010_x86.msi” -DisplayName “Downloading `’MicrosoftDeploymentToolkit2010_x86.msi`’ to $DestFolder” -Priority High -Description “From Microsoft.com…” -ErrorVariable err       
            Start-BitsTransfer -Source “http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=2633146&kbln=en-us” -Destination “$DestFolder\SQLServer2008R2-KB2633146-x64.exe” -DisplayName “Downloading `’SQLServer2008R2-KB2633146-x64.exe`’ to $DestFolder” -Priority High -Description “From Microsoft.com…” -ErrorVariable err
            Start-BitsTransfer -Source “http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=41&srcfamilyid=b9aa2dba-7f20-4c0c-9afd-1eebee5a94ea&srcdisplaylang=en&u=http%3a%2f%2fdownload.microsoft.com%2fdownload%2f7%2f7%2f6%2f776727E8-57EE-4AB5-BC69-6CCDF04A2A70%2fSQLServer2008R2SP1-KB2528583-x64-ENU.exe” -Destination “$DestFolder\SQLServer2008R2SP1-KB2528583-x64-ENU.exe” -DisplayName “Downloading `’SQLServer2008R2SP1-KB2528583-x64-ENU.exe`’ to $DestFolder” -Priority High -Description “From Microsoft.com…” -ErrorVariable err
            Start-BitsTransfer -Source “http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/E/9/8E9BBC64-E6F8-457C-9B8D-F6C9A16E6D6A/KB3AIK_EN.iso” -Destination “$DestFolder\KB3AIK_EN.iso” -DisplayName “Downloading `’KB3AIK_EN.iso`’ to $DestFolder” -Priority High -Description “From Microsoft.com…” -ErrorVariable err
            Start-BitsTransfer -Source “http://care.dlservice.microsoft.com/download/D/8/0/D808E432-5AC6-4DA5-A087-21947AC4AC5F/1033/SQLFULL_x64_ENU.exe” -Destination “$DestFolder\SQLFULL_x64_ENU.exe” -DisplayName “Downloading `’SQLFULL_x64_ENU.exe`’ to $DestFolder” -Priority High -Description “From Microsoft.com…” -ErrorVariable err
            Start-BitsTransfer -Source “http://care.dlservice.microsoft.com/download/7/5/E/75EC4E54-5B02-42D6-8879-D8D3A25FBEF7/7601.17514.101119-1850_x64fre_server_eval_en-us-GRMSXEVAL_EN_DVD.iso” -Destination “$DestFolder\Server2008r2_sp1.iso” -DisplayName “Downloading `’Server2008r2_sp1.iso`’ to $DestFolder” -Priority High -Description “From Microsoft.com…” -ErrorVariable err
           
            Write-Host “Beginning Download of System Center 2012 Components”
           
            IF ($DownloadSCSuite=”Y”)
                {
                Start-BitsTransfer -Source “http://care.dlservice.microsoft.com/dl/download/8/C/4/8C4F744E-0F2C-438C-8786-362D687B2517/SCOM2012RC.exe” -Destination “$DestFolder\SCOM2012RC.exe” -DisplayName “Downloading `’SCOM2012RC.exe`’ to $DestFolder” -Priority High -Description “From Microsoft.com…” -ErrorVariable err
                Start-BitsTransfer -Source “http://care.dlservice.microsoft.com/dl/download/3/4/C/34C7656A-F89E-473C-8CE0-21DA5DB0717C/ConfigMgr_2012_RC2_ENU_7703.exe” -Destination “$DestFolder\ConfigMgr_2012_RC2_ENU_7703.exe” -DisplayName “Downloading `’ConfigMgr_2012_RC2_ENU_7703.exe`’ to $DestFolder” -Priority High -Description “From Microsoft.com…” -ErrorVariable err
                Start-BitsTransfer -Source “http://care.dlservice.microsoft.com/dl/download/A/9/5/A956026A-18AB-4046-B47E-301AFABF9E34/System_Center_2012_Orchestrator_RC.EXE” -Destination “$DestFolder\System_Center_2012_Orchestrator_RC.EXE” -DisplayName “Downloading `’System_Center_2012_Orchestrator_RC.EXE`’ to $DestFolder” -Priority High -Description “From Microsoft.com…” -ErrorVariable err
                Start-BitsTransfer -Source “http://care.dlservice.microsoft.com/dl/download/0/F/6/0F6679F0-9E9C-432A-B44C-7BCCBB36D82E/DPM_EVAL_RC.zip” -Destination “$DestFolder\DPM_EVAL_RC.zip” -DisplayName “Downloading `’DPM_EVAL_RC.zip`’ to $DestFolder” -Priority High -Description “From Microsoft.com…” -ErrorVariable err
                Start-BitsTransfer -Source “http://care.dlservice.microsoft.com/dl/download/0/6/8/068DBD4A-6544-4CC7-966A-810FC0D89E4D/VMM.EVAL.RC.exe” -Destination “$DestFolder\VMM.EVAL.RC.exe” -DisplayName “Downloading `’VMM.EVAL.RC.exe`’ to $DestFolder” -Priority High -Description “From Microsoft.com…” -ErrorVariable err
                Start-BitsTransfer -Source “http://care.dlservice.microsoft.com/dl/download/F/5/F/F5F22F42-7566-4246-A0C6-FF81FD5CA250/SCSM2012_RC.exe” -Destination “$DestFolder\SCSM2012_RC.exe” -DisplayName “Downloading `’SCSM2012_RC.exe`’ to $DestFolder” -Priority High -Description “From Microsoft.com…” -ErrorVariable err
                Start-BitsTransfer -Source “http://care.dlservice.microsoft.com/dl/download/5/0/A/50AFAC54-781E-4711-B85C-BE064B423C58/SC2012_UnifiedInstaller_RC.exe” -Destination “$DestFolder\SC2012_UnifiedInstaller_RC.exe” -DisplayName “Downloading `’SC2012_UnifiedInstaller_RC.exe`’ to $DestFolder” -Priority High -Description “From Microsoft.com…” -ErrorVariable err
                Start-BitsTransfer -Source “http://care.dlservice.microsoft.com/dl/download/7/A/C/7AC5564B-DB1A-47B3-8F7E-E464445EE5B6/AppController.Beta.exe” -Destination “$DestFolder\AppController.Beta.exe” -DisplayName “Downloading `’AppController.Beta.exe`’ to $DestFolder” -Priority High -Description “From Microsoft.com…” -ErrorVariable err
                }
               
                ELSE
               
                {
                Start-BitsTransfer -Source “http://care.dlservice.microsoft.com/dl/download/3/4/C/34C7656A-F89E-473C-8CE0-21DA5DB0717C/ConfigMgr_2012_RC2_ENU_7703.exe” -Destination “$DestFolder\ConfigMgr_2012_RC2_ENU_7703.exe” -DisplayName “Downloading `’ConfigMgr_2012_RC2_ENU_7703.exe`’ to $DestFolder” -Priority High -Description “From Microsoft.com…” -ErrorVariable err
                }
           
            If ($err) {Throw “”}
        }
        Else
        {
            Write-Host ” – Folder does not exist, Cancelling…”
        }
    }
    Catch
    {
        Write-Warning ” – An error occurred downloading files”
        break
    }
## View the downloaded files in Windows Explorer
Invoke-Item $DestFolder
Write-Host “Finished downloading required files.”

******************