Linked Deployment Shares are used to distribute and synchronize content across MDT Deployment Share, i.e., from a secondary to a parent deployment share or vice versa. When Deployment Shares are connected to other deployment shares, these are referred to as “Linked Deployment Shares”. See the following guide on how to remove an MDT Deployment Share. For more on WDS / MDT, please visit the following link. Here is a similar article: How to link a removable media to a Deployment Share: Replicate Deployment share to a removable device. In this guide, we will discuss Replicating MDT Deployment Share: How to Create a Selection Profile and Link MDT Deployment Shares.
Note: You can also copy the MDT Deployment Share to a USB (removable) device. For some articles I have written on WDS, see the articles. How to set up and install WDS role, how to configure Windows Deployment Services on Windows Server 2019. On how to add images to WDS and configure Multicast transmission via the GUI and WDSUTIL and see this guide on how to create a Windows 10 reference image.
What is a Selection Profile?
Before proceeding with the configuration of a Linked Deployment Share, Let’s discuss what a “Selection Profile” is. A selection profile simply selects folders across applications, operating systems, out-of-box drivers, packages, and task sequences, and offline media profiles. You create a selection profile in advance, and all you need to do is to choose that selection profile when you set up the Linked Deployment (replication).
These profiles can be created within the MDT Deployment Share as follow. This step should be done only when you wish to have a nice Selection Profile different from the default ones.
- Under “Advanced Configuration” in the MDT workbench,
- Right-click on the Selection Profiles and
- Click on the New Selection Profile
- In the Selection Profile Name box, enter a descriptive name for the selected profile and
- Click on Next.
- On the Folder page, select the folders that you want to include in the selection profile,
- Click on Next
- When the summary page is prompted, review it and
- Click on Next
- Click on Finish to close the Selection Profile Window
Now we are done creating a selection profile, now we can proceed with the creation of a Linked Deployment. In the test environment which you wish to replicate to the production environment (this scenario might be different for you), but the same principle applies. To link a deployment, please reproduce the following steps below.
Configure Linked Deployment Share
In this example,, I will assume you already have an MDT Deployment Share created. If you haven’t, please see this guide on how to configure and deploy Windows using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and Windows Deployment Services for Windows 10.
Under “Advanced Configuration” in the MDT workbench. Right-click on the Linked Deployment Shares and click on the New Linked Deployment Share.
On the General Settings page as shown below, enter the UNC path of the Deployment Folder you wish to replicate.
- Also, you have the possibility of selecting a Selection profile if you do not want to replicate everything.
- Then you can also choose to merge or replace your production deployment share folder if you wish. Here I will be merging the Deployment Share.
- Then click on Next as shown below.
If you wish to select a selection profile you created above, use the drop-down button to select the right selection profile. If you wish to use a UNC path, it should be like this
\\MyProductionserver\DeplyonmentshareWS2019
On the Confirmation page, click on Finish to close the New Linked Deployment Share window as shown below.
Note: This step only creates the Linked Share and does not copy the data over. In order to copy all the data from the secondary deployment share to the linked (primary) deployment share,you must perform the following below.
Please see How to Remove an MDT Deployment Share, how to Upgrade Driver Automation Tool: How to automate Windows drivers with the SCConfigMgr on Windows, How to remove an MDT Deployment Share, How to install and configure Active Directory Domain Services on Windows Server 2022, and how to import drivers in .exe format into Microsoft Deployment Toolkit.
Replicate MDT Contents
Right-click on the name of the linked deployment share and
– Select “Replicate Content” as shown below
On the Confirmation page. Click on Finish to close the Replicate To Linked Deployment Share dialog box
On the Confirmation page, click on Finish to close the Replicate To Linked Deployment Share window. The following guide will be useful if you wish to remove an MDT Deployment Share.
I hope you found this blog post helpful on Replicating MDT Deployment Share: How to Create a Selection Profile and Link MDT Deployment Shares. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment session.
