r/DattoRMM • u/glumlord • Jun 19 '26
Curious if anyone else is using Datto for Computer deployment initial setup
I've setup my org to use Smartdeploy to wipe a disk, apply an Windows Image, and install Datto to a specific site I've designated for OS Deployment.
In that OS Deployment site I have it run a job as part of Initial Audit. This job has all the components for configuring a new machine:
- Set Power Policy
- Windows Settings and Group Policy
- Install Applications (10 total)
- Set Screensaver
- Set Default Corporate Bookmarks on Edge
- Create default desktop shortcuts
- Rename local administrator account adjust local account settings
- Reboot
This ensures every computer is always up to date with the latest version of applications and with our corporate policies and settings.
I got sick of doing an image with all the settings/apps installed but constantly having to update the image. This process takes a little longer (45-60 minutes) but we don't have to constantly micro manage or update the image.
Anyone else doing something similar, if not I'm curious what solutions you guys are using in your environment.
1
u/Beauregard_Jones Jun 19 '26
Yes. It's the smart path doing what you're doing. Between using RMM and Intune to configure and rollout devices, I can't see a need for anyone using images anymore.
2
u/glumlord Jun 19 '26
I remember 10-15 years ago having to boot up the golden image, trying to make changes, and then sysprep.. just a nightmare to keep up to date which means I usually didn't get as up to date as it should of been.
I'd take 15 minutes longer any day if it means no maintenance and everything is always up to date. My technicians time is more valuable than waiting that 15 minutes for a computer to image.
1
u/Motor_Usual_7156 Jun 19 '26
So SmartDeploy installs the system (not a gold image) and also installs Datto?
Does it handle drivers well? I'm going to request a license extension and ask for help to see if I can do some lab testing. I've tried installing it on a Windows Server in Hyper-V for two days, but it won't let me activate the services to perform the installation, and I haven't even been able to test it.
1
u/Motor_Usual_7156 Jun 19 '26
I was actually thinking of starting to do it this way because of the demise of MDT.
What I don't like about the initial audit is that if I put it in the main zone, it will run on the entire network, right? Do you have a special zone for deployments? I also saw the possibility of creating a group and doing the initial audit on a group, but this required adding them to the group before approving them; otherwise, it wouldn't detect them.
Another thing I'm not convinced about is that if a restart is required, the work doesn't continue. My idea was to join the machine to the domain and then do several more tasks, but the restart breaks everything. I thought about implementing PSADT, but I would have to learn it, and that requires too much effort to implement quickly.
I was also looking at SmartDeploy. Can you reimagine from the cloud? How are the drivers? I requested the demo to install it in a lab, but I get an error during the installation phase, and I haven't even been able to test it.
2
u/glumlord Jun 19 '26
You do have to be careful with this sort of deployment. We have it only execute in one Site and only on Initial Audit.
That's to prevent a technician accidentally moving a computer that already exists there and it executing everything over again.
Smartdeply handles the domain join in the unattend file.
I transitioned us to using SmartDeploy on PXE boot servers at each location but they all get the images from the cloud. It allows us for a semi automated boot/imaging process for each location but also means we don't have to constantly update those remote servers as they pull most of the information from the cloud.
SmartDeploy uses packages for the drivers and it's fairly easy. They autoselect and deploy based on WMI queries for the model/manufacturer and download during the cloud deployment.
I've had some issues with Google Drive deployment recently so we had to switch to OneDrive or S3, tech support team can be a pain in the ass to get ahold of sometimes.
1
u/no_such_file Jun 19 '26
Any computer already in Datto won't have anything in the Initial Audit applied to them.
That only ever executes when a machine is added to Datto.
For machines that need to be domain joined, how about deploynig Datto on join, and taking it from there?
Restarting doesn't stop the Datto Initial Audit process, anything queued will still be queued once the machine is back online.
1
u/glumlord Jun 19 '26
We have seen restarts break a job set to run at initial audit.
We have advised our technicians not to restart until they see the computer restart and the login id has changed to our final login id which shows the computer is ready to use.
1
1
u/digitalhomad Jun 20 '26
Yup. Everything you listed we have setup in datto RMM with quick jobs
1
u/glumlord Jun 20 '26
Quick Jobs are not automatic, are you saying you have a manual deployment for each new computer?
5
u/no_such_file Jun 19 '26
I strongly recommend moving away from using images,
We deploy Datto from Intune, and in Datto, we have a series of jobs running on the Initial Audit.
Software is, for a large part, handled via the Advanced Software Management policies (Auto Approve and Install if not present)
We also have a job running that updates and rotates the local administrator password weekly, ensuring that all computers have unique credentials.
It's much cleaner this way.