Deployment Solution

 View Only

Configuring Altiris Deployment Solution 6.9 – Advanced Setup, Part 3: SQL Server 2005 Express AS 

Aug 04, 2008 12:27 PM

In part 2 of Installing Altiris Deployment Solution 6.9 - Advanced Setup, we downloaded and installed Deployment Solution 6.9 & pre-boot operating systems, granted access to an SQL user for remote connections to Altiris, tested the Altiris Deployment Web Console, set up client access to the SQL Server and Altiris Express, remotely connected to the Deployment Console from a Client, and removed administrative rights from your Altiris user.

In part 3, we will complete the following:
• Map the Network File Shares on the Server
• Set up Boot Disk Creation
• Create a boot disk

If you will be using a PXE server, you will still want to map the network shares below, but you probably do not want to do any of the Set up Boot Disk Creation nor the Create a Boot Disk sections because you can do that as you setup the PXE server and the steps will be different.

If you want to use a boot disk (CD, DVD, USB, Floppy, Windows Installer) in addition to the PXE server, you will want to continue with the boot disk setup below. These can be used in addition to or instead of the PXE server. You may also want to use these methods if you want more control of the computers that are being imaged and booted to the network. For example, you could use the boot disks, which would require you to physically be at the computer to insert the USB or CD to start the imaging process.

Map the Network File Shares on the Server

You will need to map your file share to drive letters in two locations or three if you would like one on the actual server. These drive mappings allow your remote jobs and executions, including imaging, to access the necessary file shares. You need to map the drive in the Deployment Solution Configuration and in the Pre-boot OS (to map this one, see "Boot Disk Creation" in Part 3) for imaging to work properly. You may also want to map the drives on the server.

NOTE: Your file shares will need the same Altiris user name and password with read/write access that you created earlier (ex: "AltirisUser").

Map the File Shares on the Server

This will map the network drive for the server, but you should also do it for the Pre-boot OS and for the Altiris DS configuration.

Click on the Windows "Start" menu and click "My Computer".

Click on the "Tools" menu > "Map Network Drive".

Select the Drive letter you prefer.

Type in the Folder path to the file share.

Check the box "Reconnect at logon".

Click Connect using a "different user name" and type in the user name and password to access the file share.

Map the File Shares for the Deployment Solution

Click on the Windows "Start" menu > "All Programs" > "Altiris" > "Deployment Solution" > "Configuration".

Click "Options"

Click on the "Drive Mappings" tab.

Click "Add"

Select the desired "Drive Letter".

Type in the UNC Path of your file share for Altiris.

Click "Ok"

Click "Yes"

Set up Boot Disk Creation

Boot disk creation allows you to create bootable flash drives, CDs, and bootable partitions that may be accessed via physical media or via a network boot. You may use any of the pre-boot operating systems that were mentioned earlier. You can set up a boot disk that uses WinPE, DOS, or Linux. For this example, we will use WinPE 2.1.

Open Boot Disk Creator by clicking on the "Tools" menu and then "Boot Disk Creator" or you may click the blue disk icon

Click on the "File" menu and select "New Configuration"

Type in the Name and Description

Select the Pre-boot OS (ex: WinPE 2.1)

Click "Next"

Click "Have Disk" if you would like to add additional network drivers (new computer models). You may need to do this with each type of network card that is used on your network, including new computers you add to your network in the future.

Click "Next"

Make sure the IP address is set correctly to your server

Under the "Automation Agent Location", select "Local" if you want to use the local package or CD you created. This can be faster, but may not have the most current data/configuration. If you select "Remote", you will be downloading and using the agent on the server each time.

You should probably check "Lock Keyboard" for security reasons. Do not lock the keyboard if you will be doing a network boot with command line access (ex: if you create a network boot disk - don't lock the keyboard or your network boot disk will be useless).

Click "Next"

Type in the Workgroup or Domain to connect to

Type in your user name and password for the file server and Click "Next"

You will want to leave the F: drive, which is mapped to the eXpress share. If you have additional network shares that include jobs or images that you will be using in the pre-boot OS, you need to add those drives now. You click on the box next to "Drive" and you can add many drives.

To add an additional network or file share, do the following:

Click the "Drive" field and select the desired drive letter

Click the "Path" field and type in the file share's path

Click "Next"

Click "Next"

Click "Finish"

You may edit this configuration of the boot disk later. To edit the configuration, open Boot Disk Creator from the Altiris console by clicking on the "Tools" menu and then "Boot Disk Creator" or you may click the blue disk icon. Once you are in the Boot Disk Creator, right-click on the instance of the configuration and click "Edit Configuration."

You can also create boot disks, network boot disks, partition installers, and partition uninstallers. Right-click on the boot disk configuration and select the appropriate option.

Create Boot Disks - needed if you don't have a PXE server set up

The boot disk type can be a windows installer, an automation boot disk (on a CD or USB drive), or a network boot disk. If you use a PXE server and have your clients boot to the network, you do not need to create boot disks. However, you can use it as a backup utility or to allow additional features and ways of imaging.

Windows Executable Boot Disk Installer

The windows executable will install and pre-boot operating system on to your drive and run it upon reboot. Bootworks was the previous name Altiris used to call this partition that is installed to boot to automation. This installer package will install a hidden partition that can be booted to.

We will do a windows installer package for this example.

Click "Next"

Click "Next"

Click "Next"

Click "Next"

Wait for it

Click "Close"

Run the executable on a client that you will be imaging.

Automation Boot Disk

The automation boot disk will install the necessary files onto a CD, USB drive, or floppy, which will allow you to boot directly to the Altiris server to image and do other pre-boot environment tasks.

In the Boot Disk Creator, right-click on your WinPE2.1 (or the pre-boot OS of your choice) configuration and select "Create Automation Boot Disk"

Select "Bootable ISO CD Image" if you will be using a CD or you can select "Bootable disk" if you will be using a floppy disk or USB drive.

Select the processor type of client computer that you will be imaging or booting from (ex: "x86)

Click "Next"

If you are asked to create the folder, click "Yes"

Wait for it

Click "Close"

This created an ISO that you can burn to a CD and will take up approximately 314 MB of space. Insert this disk into a client computer that you want to image. To image, you will need to add the computer to the Altiris console and drop a job on it. We will do this in another part.

Network Boot Disk

Note: If you create a network boot disk, when you will first want to edit the configuration of WinPE (or the OS of choice) and make sure that the keyboard lock option is not selected or your disk will be somewhat useless.

A network boot disk will create a WinPE 2.1 (or the OS of choice), which will allow you to boot a client computer to the Altiris server and have command line access.

In the Boot Disk Creator, right-click on your WinPE2.1 (or the pre-boot OS of your choice) configuration and select "Create Network Boot Disk"

Select "Bootable ISO CD Image" if you will be using a CD or you can select "Bootable disk" if you will be using a floppy disk or USB drive.

Select the processor type of client computer that you will be imaging or booting from (ex: "x86)

Click "Next"

Click "Close"

This created an ISO that you can burn to a CD and will take up approximately 311 MB of space. Insert this disk into a client computer that you want to image or run command line tasks in the pre-boot OS. To image, you will need to add the computer to the Altiris console and drop a job on it. We will do this in another part.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You finished setting up the network shares, boot disk creation, and boot disks! See Part 4 for additional setup.

Go to Part 2 of this article - Installing & Remotely Accessing Altiris Deployment Solution 6.9 - Advanced Setup, Part 2: SQL Server 2005 Express AS.

Go to Part 4 of this article - Configuring Your Deployment Solution
 

Statistics
0 Favorited
0 Views
0 Files
0 Shares
0 Downloads

Tags and Keywords

Comments

Feb 26, 2013 12:43 AM

Hi a.p.n.k

 

i am also looking for that kind of solution.. to deploy my windows 7 ghost image via cd/dvd or usb..

have you find a solution to your problem or can you enlighten me if by chance you know how to deploy ghost image via cd/dvd or usb.

 

thank you in advance!

Feb 13, 2013 09:45 PM

HI

I see this is an old post, but seems very relevant to what I am trying to do.

In our test lab we drop an Altiris job on our PC's to "Distribute Disk Image" (windows7Pro32bit.img)  to the PC's. In the "Automation pre-boot environment" WinPE 2.1 (32 bit) is selected.

The PC reboots, downloads WinPE from the server, boots to WinPE and starts the imaging process.

This all works fine.

What I am wanting to do is modify this so I can get our remote PC's to do the same, but instead of dragging the WinPE image from the server, I am wanting it to pull the WinPE file(s) from a local location, ether local partition, drive or from a local share (NAS drive that will hold the large windows 7 image file)

How can I get the PC to boot into WinPE without it dragging WinPE over the network each time? We have many remote sites and it is just impracticle to do this with the number of PC's we are wanting to reimage.

Sep 03, 2012 06:37 AM

Hi

I am a system administrator in a large company

Is it possible to add a new image to Altiris after I already installed it from an ISO file source?

Lets say of Windows 2008 R2 SP1 or Win 8.

 

Please advise

10x

 

Jul 30, 2009 02:58 PM

I added part 4. More documentation could be written, but hopefully that helps.

Feb 12, 2009 06:03 AM

Hi james,
The article is wonderful and really appreciate the effort.
But we're missing the Part 4, which is the most important part in our case...Would it be possible to let us know of the link on the last part please...
Thanks and Kind Regards,
ash

Related Entries and Links

No Related Resource entered.