User's Manual

Introduction 11
What’s New
The Deployment Toolkit version 1.0 was the first release of a Dell-designed and tested suite of
MS-DOS
®
—based utilities, sample script files, and best practices models to use for configuring and
deploying Dell systems in a customized, predictable, and unattended manner.
The new features for DTK version 2.3 include:
• Support for PowerEdge 2970 systems
• Support for installing
Red Hat
®
Enterprise Linux
®
Server version 5 (32- and 64-bit)
• A new utility partition image
• Support for Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) replication feature
• Support for Dell Update Packages in pre-operating system embedded Linux environment
Prerequisites and Requirements
The DTK is a collection of Windows PE- and Linux-based utilities and scripts that assist in performing
pre-operating system tasks and deploying Dell systems. An advanced knowledge of Windows PE and
Linux is required for users who want to use the DTK utilities to perform pre-operating system
configuration tasks or to run a scripted deployment in the respective environments.
A pre-operating system environment is defined as the environment used to configure system hardware
before a major operating system, such as Windows or Linux, is installed. The DTK utilities and scripts,
for example, are executed in a Windows PE or embedded Linux environment for hardware
configuration.
Because of the open nature of the utilities and scripts and the environment in which they can be used, it
is strongly recommended that DTK users have an advanced understanding of the Windows PE and
Linux environment and scripting knowledge for the respective environments. DTK users with an
advanced understanding of Windows PE and Linux can take full advantage of the utilities and exploit
their capabilities above and beyond what the sample scripts can provide.
NOTICE: Some of the DTK utilities can destroy data if used incorrectly. To avoid the potential risk of data loss, take all
necessary precautions to protect data so that mission-critical systems are not disrupted in the unlikely event of a failure.
See the Deployment Toolkit CLI Reference Guide for complete information about the capabilities of each DTK utility.
Supported Operating Systems to Run DTK Utilities
For Windows PE, the DTK utilities support Windows PE version 2005 (created using
Microsoft Windows Server
®
2003 family with Service Pack 1 [SP1]).
For embedded Linux, the DTK utilities support Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (version 4, update 4)
32-bit.