Deployment Solution

HI,

I have never used WinPE and have some questions:

First off we do not use PXE. We all use bootable CD's/DVD's to run rdeploy and make images.
I have 6.9 sp2 with win2008 and sql 2008. I downloaded the WinPE install and it is 348 mbs in size.

I am a little hestant to install this OS on my deployment server. I am used to running dos and the smalll size that installs for boot disk creator.

I ran boot disk creator and pointed it to the winpe exe file but it wants to run the entire 348mb file. Is this what I should do or run the application then point to the folder to get the files when running boot disk creator? Or should I install on a DVD and then browse to the dvd and install from there like we do with DOS and a win98 cd.

Or since we do not use PXE should I be interested in WinPE at all?

Any help  will be appreciated.

Thanks,

 Hi Tmaides,

Some new and interesting features of Deployment Solution 6.9, wich are implemented at SP1, only can be used with WinPE Environment... for example: DeployAnyWhere (https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=44315&p=1).

To install the WinPE you really need to point to this winpe.exe.. and it will run the entire 348 MB file.

Some advantanges to use WinPE:

• large driver support and
• ghost clones faster under Winpe

Regards

I see you use a CD/DVD to create images, so as long as you don't use PXE to deploy them as well, why bother? You don't need to mess with WinPE if you aren't using PXE services. I don't know if you need any of the built in tools mentioned above? Maybe someone else can correct me if they can think of some odd scenario as to why you would install it if you don't utilize PXE.

We use WinPE to re-image systems remotely.  Our company provides tech support for 5 sites with a total of about 1500 systems.  We do not have, nor can we use  DHCP or PXE.  We have to create a WinPE (Boot Works executable or ISO) file for each system.  When we first started using Altiris (about 4 years ago), we tested DOS and Linux for the PE, but found that we had various issues as well as getting software approval from our IA team.  Since WinPE is a Microsoft product and we only use Microsoft O/Ss, it was easy to get this one approved.  It took me a little bit to wrap my head around WinPE and its usage, but I don't think I would use anything else.  It is easy to add drivers to and it is easy to find the drivers.  It can be on the large side (126 MB for the executable and 128 MB for the ISO) but since these reside on local servers, this is really no issue for us.

To answer your question, point the Boot Disk Creator to this file.  It will extract what it needs.

Which file are you taking about?   Do you mean the winPE exe?

Yes.  The file should be called something like:  Altiris_DS_Preboot_WinPE_2.1_x86.exe.  This file has everything that the Boot Disk Creator application needs to create WinPE executables and/or ISO images for boot CDs.