Deployment Solution

By default, WinPE 2.1 x86/x64 supports the e1000 NIC driver which is used with VMWare virtual machines. However, a virtual machine created with Windows 2003 x86 Standard Edition can only use the VMware Flexible NIC which is not supported by default in WinPE 2.1.

To add VMware Flexible NIC support into the WinPE 2.1 x86/x64 automation environment:

1. On the Deployment Server, copy the VMware Tool ISO file from a VMware ESX Server at /vmimages/tools-isoimages/windows.iso or create a physical CD-ROM.
2. Mount or extract the VMware Tool for ESX Server ISO/CD-ROM. ( I copied this off my vmware ESX server from /vmimages/tools-isoimages/windows.ios. You can do this by creating a samba mount to a windows box or use winscp to login and copy the file locally)
3. Run the PXE Configuration utility.
4. Select WinPE Managed boot menu option and click Edit.
5. Click Edit Boot Image. The Altiris Boot Disk Creator will run.
6. At Step 9, click Edit.
7. At Step 1, click Next.
8. At Step 2, click Have Disk.
9. Click Browse and browse to the VMware Tool for ESX Server ISO/CD-ROM contents and its \Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\Drivers\vmxnet\win2k\32bit directory.
10. Select the vmware-nic.inf file and click Open. If prompted that driver is an unsupported class type, click Yes and click Ok.
11. Repeat step 7 through 9 to select the x64 driver, vmxnet.inf, from the VMware Tool for ESX Server ISO/CD-ROM contents and its \Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\Drivers\vmxnet\win2k\64bit directory.
12. Continue with the Boot Disk Creator wizard to generate the WinPE images.
13. After the wizard completes, click Save.