Deployment Fundamentals, Vol. 6: Deploying Windows 10 Using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit

I think this is a good introduction to get your feet wet in server administration and deployment solutions. If you follow the instructions in the book you shouldn't have any problem setting up their simulated lab environment. I didn't seem to find any typos or major misprints. The book is great to get a broad glance and experience using different Windows Server roles.My main issue with this book is that it isn't as in depth for my taste. There are a lot of "Real World Notes" that give advice for real world scenarios which are nice and useful. However I can only really classify this book as a "good introduction" because much of it is accomplished by using their previously created Powershell scripts. While these are awesome to get your lab environment setup quickly, and while I'm sure SysAdmins use scripts in the real world to automate lots of setup/configuration processes, from a learning perspective there is something missing here. While you can in-fact review all the scripts of course and dissect them to figure out what's going on, it's still not enough at that point to truly understand everything, since the scripts are just accomplishing a task, and don't really teach in depth concepts.Example, networking: Scripts to setup DHCP server or DNS server don't really teach you networking or what you need to know to understand what's going on, they just get it done. I had an issue where my DHCP server wasn't authorized (easy fix) but I was confused why my PC on the internal VLAN switch wasn't able to connect to the deployment share. I pushed F8 to launch a cmd instance and ran ipconfig. I then realized it had an APIPA address and therefore determined it wasn't getting an IP address from the DHCP server. But I was only able to troubleshoot this quickly/effectively from previous networking knowledge.You do quite a bit of the MDT server manually and learn a lot, but the other servers are mostly automated setups. It's still great to learn the concepts of why they are there though and what they do. More of the MDT server is done manually, but still quite a bit is done with their powershell scripts. I'll be planning to do a very similar lab setup myself from scratch following a similar format without using any powershell scripts. I think then I'll learn a lot more.I did like this book a lot though to "get my feet wet" and would recommend it, especially if you're new to VMs, Windows Server, and deployment solutions. You'll learn a lot, but not everything you'll need to know for the real world.Edit: Case and point of needing to do things manually to really learn. I created a new deployment share from scratch loosely following the general steps in the book but doing it all myself from scratch. I came across a strange issue after entering credentials at the start of MDT wizard it would just freeze and do nothing. This was because the MDT_BA account did not have permissions in the deployment share. After a couple hours researching why it would be stuck there (because the wizard gave 0 error info) I found a suggestion to check User/NTFS permissions and added the account after noticing it wasn't there (and it made sense) and then it worked. But when running the scripts in the book it automatically takes care of things like that for you. You don't have to think of things like that or even if it mentions them you could easily forget since you didn't have to manually do it. I'd definitely recommend a second run through of this entire book, without using any scripts, and just using the book at a general guideline of steps and reference, while doing everything yourself from scratch. You'll be far better equip to understand and troubleshoot problems on your own.

Despite what other reviewers have said I really enjoyed this book. The title says it, FUNDAMENTALS, meaning the base with which you build upon. Over the years, doing Windows deployments, I always end up looking at the blogs or reading the books from one or both of these authors. This book, and all the previous books in their series, teach about a system of deployment which, when implemented, is easily modified and optimized for any environment of almost any size. To realize that system of deployment you must see through the step by step processes defined in the book to what they are trying to accomplish, which is teaching the reader about a dynamic windows deployment method. They then give you everything, except the hardware, to build it.This book clearly lays out the options for deploying Windows 10 in an enterprise network. [and so much more]Powershell is your friend. The PS scripts available with the book are designed to get your test environment (everyone should have one) up and running quickly. The PS scripts are a fully tested and implemented model from which you can develop your own automation processes surrounding windows deployments to suit your or any environment. The PS scripts are easy to read and are clear in what they do. They are also part of the learning model in the book. If you are not using powershell today as a windows client admin, you should be. Whether you are new to IT or have been doing IT for a long time, powershell is the future in windows management so don't get left behind.

I own all the Deployment Fundamentals books and to be honest, I found this books teach you all you need to know to get the job done. Personally, I needed to learn MDT in less than 2 months. Before coming across Johan's books I purchased 8 different books including Microsoft Windows 7 which briefly talks about MDT (it only has one chapter on MDT). I purchase the Deployment Fundamentals and it really enjoyed the book. These books are targeted for professionals that need a crash course on MDT. I found scripts useful to quickly create a lab and a working environment. I created an environment in the past and took me days (Install OS, patches, configuration, etc). I find the script useful in which I can create a test environment and start testing.

I can't pick at the expertise of the authors, but I have a general dislike for custom scripts unless they're presented as an "option B" to the manual process. I would rather learn the stick shift before the automatic, but that's just me. The book is thorough and does provide a lot of great tips.

I bought the kindle version of the book to help us to get MDT set up at work and begin utilizing it for images for all of our windows 10 machines. It does rely fairly heavily on the scripts that they provide from one of their websites. However there is still enough information in the book to allow you to understand the process of setting it up. I would say 75% of the scripts are used to help automate some of the more mundane and time consuming tasks. As for myself I didn't use them as I wanted to see how each individual setting was done in the gui so that I have a knowledge of how to do it for any one off additions in the future. I also noticed there are some Microsoft technet articles that are EXTREMELY similiar to the book almost down to the notes. However the book was more up to date on Office 2016 and Windows 10 whereas the articles were still dealing with 2013 and Windows 8 (and there are some big differences there). All in all I think for 10 dollars it was helpful in giving me a reference to walk me through setup and answer a lot of the questions I had during set up. I don't know however that I would spend more than that for the hard cover edition.

I really liked this book. It was a very fundamental book. It was useful for getting the concepts quick. But if you're interested in knowing more I definitely recommend taking notes and doing research. It was definitely a good book but just want more detail next time

Very useful book allowing you to set up a complete deployment environment from scratch. The authors are truly experts in this field, yet this guide is accessible for every sysadmin with an interest in deployment technology. I would like to have seen a bit more explanation on the reasons why certain choices are made though, so "only" 4 stars.The authors offer various scripts on their website that complement the book and allow you to follow along with your own (virtual) deployment setup.

A very dry subject - plenty of coffee on standby! Does what it claims on the cover. Has been extremely useful during our build and deployment of Windows 10.

Phenomenal book. You can learn all the theory you like, but this puts it in perspective for the real world. Especially when you've been dropped in the deep end and have to set up ConfigMgr OSD from scratch in a new environment.

very educational

as a expected.