Deployment Solution

In one of my articles I explained how to package, install and configure the Windows Automated Deployment Kit. The article can be found by clicking on the link: Wise Package Studio, Part 9: Packaging the WAIK - Windows Automated Installation Kit

After you have installed the Windows Automated Installer Kit (WAIK) you are able to build Answer files to deploy Windows Vista to your master machine.

In this article we are going to create a Windows Installer Media file and catalog files to build automatic deployment files for Windows Vista.

This article will cover the following items:

• Creating an answer file by using Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM).
• Building a master installation by using the product DVD and your Answer file.
• Creating an image of the master installation by using Altiris Deployment Solution
• Deploying the image from a network share onto a destination computer using Altiris Deployment Solution.
  

  Click to view.

Make sure you have the original Windows Vista Media and a valid license key.

Insert the Windows Vista DVD in the DVD player, or copy the original media to your hard disk.

In this article I use a Microsoft Gold Partner Vista DVD That contains more versions of Vista.

Browse to the directory sources and copy the file install.wim to a directory on your computer where you have installed the Windows Automated Installation Kit. The WIM file is over 2GB, so make sure you have enough disk-space available to perform this task.

Open Install.wim with the Windows Automated Installation Kit.

Click to view.

Now it is asking for a catalog file. That is what we are going to build. So we click yes to start creating a catalog file. Select the appropriate Windows version that you want to deploy.

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I have selected Windows Vista Business. Now we have to start building the Answer file that will be used to create the unattended set-up for us. Go to Answer file and select create new answer file.

Now expand the components in Windows Image.

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Now you have to add the following components to your answering file.

• Microsoft-Windows-Setup \DiskConfiguration \Disk \CreatePartitions \CreatePartition
• Microsoft-Windows-Setup \DiskConfiguration \Disk \ModifyPartitions \ModifyPartition
• Microsoft-Windows-Setup \ImageInstall \OSImage \InstallTo
• Microsoft-Windows-Setup \UserData
• Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup \OOBE
• Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup \AutoLogon
• Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE

Go to the deepest level as stated above and add the value to the answer file by right click and add the setting.

Click to view.

• Microsoft-Windows-Setup\DiskConfiguration\Disk\CreatePartitions\CreatePartition (add to 1 Windows PE)
• Microsoft-Windows-Setup\DiskConfiguration\Disk\ModifyPartitions\ModifyPartition (add to 1 Windows PE)
• Microsoft-Windows-Setup\ImageInstall\OSImage\InstallTo (add to 1 Windows PE)
• Microsoft-Windows-Setup\UserData (add to 1 Windows PE)
• Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup\OOBE (add to 7 oobeSystem)
• Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup\AutoLogon (add to 7oobeSystem)
• Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE (add to 1 Windows PE)

Click to view.

This is now how it should be.

Next step is to add values to the various settings.

Below you will find the values:

When everything is filled in correctly it will look like below:

Click to view.

In the next step, you have to validate the settings in your answer file and then save them to a file.

1. In Windows SIM, click Tools, and then click Validate Answer File. The setting values in the Answer file are compared with the available settings in the Windows image.
2. If the Answer file validates successfully, a "success" message appears in the Messages pane; otherwise, error messages appear in the same location.
3. If an error occurs, double-click the error in the Messages pane to navigate to the incorrect setting. Change the setting to fix the error, and then revalidate.
4. On the File menu, click Save Answer File. Save the Answer file as Autounattend.xml.
5. Copy Autounattend.xml to the same location where you copied install.wim.

You now have a basic Answer file that automates Windows Set-up.

Next step is to build a DVD that contains all the files that are needed for Windows Vista and that also will include the Autounattend.xml.

In my case I build an ISO from the original Windows Vista medium. Then open the ISO with Daemon tools and copy Autounattend.XMl to the root of the ISO file.

Now you are able to burn the ISO file to a DVD again. When you insert the DVD into a blank computer and boot from DVD the whole Windows Vista installation will be performed without any user interaction.

In the example I use Windows Vista will be installed on a VMware machine. VMware has the ability to mount an ISO file like a CD player. That will prevent me from burning it to a disc right now.

When your computer or VMware image is completely up and running and everything went well, you can reseal the image. Using the following command can do this:

c:\windows\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe /oobe /generalize /shutdown

Sysprep will now prepare the image for capturing by cleaning up various user and machine settings and log files. Your master installation is complete and ready to be imaged.

Building your image:

You can build your image with the Deployment Solution, or you can use the WinPE script builder that is also delivered with the installation of the WAIK.

The complete procedure for the WinPE script is below.

1. From your computer where the WAIK is installed, run the copype.cmd script to create a local Windows PE build directory. For example, from a command prompt, type:
   

   cd Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\
   copype.cmd <arch> <destination>
   
   

   Where <arch> can be x86, amd64, or ia64 and <destination> is a path to local directory. For example,

   copype.cmd x86 c:\winpe_x86
   
   

2. Copy additional tools like ImageX into your Windows PE build directory. For example, copy "c:\program files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\imagex.exe" c:\winpe_x86\iso\
3. Optionally, create a configuration file called wimscript.ini using any text editor, for example Notepad. The configuration file will instruct ImageX to exclude certain files during the capture operation. For example,
   

   [ExclusionList]
   ntfs.log
   hiberfil.sys
   pagefile.sys
   "System Volume Information"
   RECYCLER
   Windows\CSC

   [CompressionExclusionList]
   *.mp3
   *.zip
   *.cab
   \WINDOWS\inf\*.pnf

4. Save the configuration file to the same location as ImageX as specified in the previous step. For example:
   

   c:\winpe_x86\iso\
   
   

   ImageX will automatically detect wimscript.ini if located in the same location.

5. Create an image (.iso) file by using the Oscdimg tool. For example, from a command prompt, type:
   

   cd program files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\
   oscdimg -n -bc:\winpe_x86\etfsboot.com c:\winpe_x86\ISO c:\winpe_x86\winpe_x86.iso
   
   

6. Burn the image (winpe_x86.iso) to a CD-ROM.

You now have a bootable Windows PE RAM CD with ImageX.

You now have learned how to use the Windows Automated Installation Kit to build a customized Windows Vista installation. The process is not that easy, and you have to know a lot on how Windows Vista works and looks like. When you go to the Components tab in the Windows Image you can select various options to build fully customized and eventually fully stripped Windows Vista images for your computers.

In the next article I'll guide you through an easier procedure that is more convenient because it will show you not only all the options that you can customize, but it also shows you what they mean and when you do something wrong like deleting something you need it will give you a message telling you why you need some functionality.

This document is only explaining you how to perform the tasks for Windows Vista 32 bit. You can do the same steps for Windows Vista 64 bit if you like.

Deployment Console, Part 9: The Ultimate DS 6.9 HII .bin

Deployment Console, Part 11: Use Vlite to Build a Windows Vista Image