The goal of UDI administration is to configure the user experience in the UDI Wizard and ultimately control the deployment of Windows operating systems and applications to target computers. You configure the UDI user experience by using the UDI Wizard Designer and by customizing the Configuration Manager task sequences used with UDI in the Configuration Manager Console.

The primary tool for administering UDI is the UDI Wizard designer. The UDI Wizard Designer is installed as a part of MDT, which is installed on the same computer at the Configuration Manager Console. Because UDI is built-on the OSD feature in Configuration Manager, you will also use the Configuration Manager Console to administer specific aspects of UDI deployments.

Figure 6 illustrates the high-level overview of the UDI administrative process.

Figure 6. Overview of UDI administration process

The UDI administration process, as illustrated in Figure 6, is performed as follows:

1.   Create a UDI task sequence based on the task sequence templates built-in to MDT.

As a part of creating the task sequence, the Create MDT Task Sequence wizard creates an MDT toolkit package that contains the contents of the installation_folder\Templates\Distribution folder (where installation_folder is the folder where you installed MDT). The toolkit package is referenced by the Use Toolkit Package task sequence step.

For more information about the built-in UDI tasks sequence templates in MDT, see Identify the UDI Task Sequence Templates in MDT.

2.   Distribute the MDT toolkit package to Configuration Manager distribution points.

The UDI Wizard and UDI Wizard configuration file are contained in the package. The UDI Wizard (UDIWizard.exe) is in the Tools folder in the package. The UDI Wizard configuration file (UDIWizard_Config.xml) is in the Scripts folder in the package.

3.   Customize the UDI Wizard configuration file and application information file using the UDI Wizard Designer.

The UDI Wizard configuration file (UDIWizard_Config.xml) and application information file (UDIWizard_Config.xml.app) are stored in the Scripts folder in the MDT toolkit package.

4.   Update the distribution points with the modified version of the UDI Wizard configuration file and corresponding application information file in the MDT toolkit package.

5.   The target computers initiate the UDI task sequence which runs the UDI Wizard at the appropriate point in the task sequence.

The UDI Wizard is initiated using the UDI Wizard task sequence step.

6.   The UDI Wizard runs and the deployment configuration information is collected from the user.

The UDI Wizard reads the UDI Wizard configuration file to determine the wizard pages to display and the sequence of the pages. The user completes the UDI Wizard by providing the necessary deployment information. The UDI Wizard updates task sequence variables based on the information provided. The updated task sequence variables are used by the UDI task sequence to perform the balance of the deployment.

7.   The remainder of the task sequence steps in the UDI task sequence complete and the OSD Results dialog is displayed at the end of the deployment. Any applications installed during the task sequences are identified the first time a user logs in using AppInstaller.

AppInstaller enables Configuration Manager 2012 to identify any applications installed using the Application model during the task sequence. This allows Configuration Manager 2012 to use features such as the monitoring feature.

Related Topics

Managing UDI Deployments