Finally it’s done!

I’m very happy to announce the release of version 1.0 of the MDT Web FrontEnd. It took a bit longer than expected since the last Beta from November 2009 but a lot of nice things needed to be added.

But first, what is the MDT Web FrontEnd?

The MDT Web FrontEnd is a web based alternative for the MDT configuration database. It is 100% compatible to current MDT 2008, MDT 2008 Update 1 and MDT 2010 database installations running on SQL 2005 or 2008. Optionally (and recommended) it is possible to extend existing databases to add a lot of new useful features while still maintaining full compatibility to the original MDT Deployment Workbench.

Let’s have a quick overview about the features (bold ones have been added after Beta 2)

• Role-based security Model
• customized Groups of Settings including Custom Settings
• create custom settings
• custom Lists to choose from predefined values (single or multiple items)
• searching for Locations / MakeModels / Computers / Roles
• input validation for common fields (MAC, UUID, Gateway, …)
• browsing for Packages directly on a SCCM Server
• select multiple packages from SCCM at the same time
• Drag&Drop reordering of Applications, Packages, and Roles
• Editing/Deleting of all Instances of a specific Application, Package, or Administrator
• List all references for a specific Application, Package, Administrator
• Import Applications.xml file from the MDT Workbench to easily select applications 
• manage PackageMappings/RoleMappings
• configure the FrontEnd directly from the browser (No need to use IIS)
• create and upgrade MDT Databases directly from the FrontEnd

The main purpose is to ease the database handling. Using this Web FrontEnd you can easily configure what a User can see and edit. Think of giving local Site Admins access to their Site(s) only, or enabling the Helpdesk staff to manage all computers while not messing around with your Role configuration. Additionally reduce the amount of available settings to the ones they really need. Create additional custom settings specific for your environment and combine them into some customized views. Create custom lists so that Users can pick from different values to avoid errors by typos. You don’t want to give all your IT Users full access to the MDT database and install the full Deployment workbench on all their computers? You don’t want to overwhelm them with 215+ settings? Then give the MDT Web FrontEnd a try.

Find the download on Codeplex with a (still growing) online documentation. It includes a detailed Installation Guide for new installations and also upgrades from current Beta 2 users. Also have a look on some HowTos published already on this blog. Expect a couple more during the next few weeks getting into more details of some new features.

A special Thank You goes to Jason Scheffelmaer, who has been testing this FrontEnd since the very early versions helping me to get (hopefully) most of the bugs out of it. Also thanks to all the people already using this FrontEnd in their Test and Production environments and for all the feedback I got so far and that haven’t been mentioned here. Not all ideas and requests made it into this version but be sure that this won’t be the last one. If you would like to participate, please get in contact to me. It would be really great to get some support on extending the current documentation and quite obvious I also need help on the optical part ;-). If you are using the FrontEnd in your environment and found a good way to solve some common issues with it, just blog about it to help others solving their issues or to give them new ideas on how to ease certain parts. This year will probably be stamped by a lot of large upgrades from XP/Vista to Windows 7. So having real-world experience available is a key to success. And I hope (actually I’m pretty sure) the MDT Web FrontEnd will become a nice piece in your Deployment solution.

As always, I appreciate all your comments and thoughts.

Be aware, the MDT Web FrontEnd is provided “AS IS” without express or implied warranty of any kind. So you use it on your own risk. Be sure to test it before using it in a production environment.