Microsoft Surface 3 - Manual (Page 27)

© 2014 Microsoft Page 27
Note: MDT provides full support for the management and sideloading of Windows Store apps (APPX). Sideloading is the
process of installing modern apps without downloading from the Windows Store. Chapter 4 shows how to manage
Windows Store apps with your Windows deployments.
Package Management
Note: The MDT deployment share package management section is, perhaps surprisingly, not provided for management
of application packages. Application management is performed by the applications section of the deployment share.
The package management section of a deployment share is provided for management of files provided in the Windows
Update Standalone Installer format, .MSU. This can include Windows Updates, language packs, and features such as
Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) or Internet Explorer. For management of Windows Updates, there are four
potential solutions:
1. Windows Update
2. Windows Server Update Service (WSUS)
3. MDT package management
4. Up-to-date images
The least complex method for update management is to allow updates to be provided directly through Windows Update
to each computer. This ensures that each environment will receive the full set of applicable updates and management
of the process is not required. Though the management effort is reduced when using Windows Update directly on the
client computer, the update traffic for each computer is separate and can tax internet connectivity. Downloading
updates at the end of the deployment will also increase the deployment time and may require several reboots.
Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) is a feature of Windows Server that provides central management for updates
in your organization. This method is recommended in most environments as it provides benefit not only for computers
during deployment, but ongoing maintenance. The default deployment process through MDT includes steps that will
ensure that updates are applied. Although WSUS aggregates Windows Update traffic on the local network, each
computer will still seek to individually communicate with the WSUS server, which does increase demand on the
network.
An alternative is to use the package management functionality supplied by MDT to inject the updates into the reference
image at the time of deployment. This includes the update packages in the image when it is transferred to the target
computer(s) and therefore reduces network traffic. Upon booting of the image the offline injected packages are
processed and installed.
The enhance performance, you may want to avoid the installation of offline packages. Instead, the updates can be
installed and incorporated into the image by allowing the update process to run and then capturing the image along
with updates. This avoids the installation process for each update package, eliminating the time required to run each
installation, and reduces network traffic by eliminating duplicate files.