Hi,

We are setting up an SCCM 2012 OS deployment. MDT is integrated already.
I read somewhere it would be a good idea to set up a seperate MDT (different server) in order to test task sequences/OS deployments.

Reason for that: MDT in SCCM 2012 is zero touch, MDT seperately is light touch. If you deploy to a vmware workstation with MDT you can snapshot each step and test/troubleshoot the task sequence. Idea looks ok, but does it makes sence?

Please advise.

J.

The reason folks set up MDT/Litetouch is not for testing, it's for image build -- task sequences are not interchangeable between MDT LiteTouch and ConfigMgr (even with MDT integrated in) -- there isn't a way to export/import although you can manually migrate the TSes and have nearly equivalent functionality so testing simply doesn't make sense.

There are some (debatable) reasons why using ConfigMgr to build the image does not work well but using Litetouch does.

The reason you'd want to use MDT is for building images. Mind you, there isn't a reason why you can't build images in SCCM. I use MDT for building images but that's a personal preference. And yes, building images on a virtual machine (VMWare Workstaton, Hyper-V, etc.) is recommended.

As Jason said, MDT "standalone" would not be used for testing or troubleshooting SCCM task sequences.