WDS - Tips for beginners

[GrumbleDook]

Starting of a new thread for those who are either just deploying and wanting to look at WDS or those moving from RIS.

I'll start off with this article from the Technet Magizine.Windows Vista : 10 things you need to know about deploying Windows Vista

[Gatt]

Excellent GD - will have a read of that later

[GrumbleDook]

To go along with this are the Vista Deployment Step by Step Guide (as recommended by Steven Audis at Microsoft)
and not forgetting the general Desktop Deployment Center ...

It is amazing what you find when you start looking ...

This is principally Vista based ... if there are those out there that have working WDS setups for deploying existing XP images then please add comments into here (even if you have commented in the RIS sticky ... please)

[Dos_Box]

After my SP2 shock today I've got WDS up and running with RIS working in legacy mode off the Windows PE environment. I shall have more info tomorrow after I get to grips with the scripting.
I am rather distracted though. My Mac Book Pro arrived today.

[GrumbleDook]

Stop trying to throw the thread off topic ...

So legacy mode is an importnat thing to remember ... I'll look for instructions based on that too then.

[contink]

Just a thought but most of us are not using Vista at present and I'll bet the legacy issue is a killer for a number of people so if anyone can write a full on wiki that covers the SP2 upgrade so that we can at least recover the old RIS installs for XP that'd be one sorely appreciated wiki...

The idea of not paying for your beer at a meet spring to mind

[GrumbleDook]

So you would be looking for a set of instructions similar to this one then?

[contink]

Originally Posted by GrumbleDook

So you would be looking for a set of instructions similar to this one then?

That'd be the one... I just wish these sodding marketing muppets at M$ would stop shoving their new OS in our faces.. if it's WinXP relevant then they should blasted well say so... *and breath*..

Sorry... just does my nut in... ops:

Thanks GD..

[Gatt]

Anyone managed how to get images to auto partition/format drives during deployment?

I have converted a few legacy images to RIS but still have to format the drive manually or else end up with a WINDOWS.OLD folder.

Some Legacy scripts are failing with an error similar to 80360051 - which i cannot (yet) find on Google

[Quackers]

Those that have used sysprep before should be ok, but for those that have not, you create your Image as you want, then make a folder on the root of C:\ called Sysprep. In there copy sysprep.exe and setupcl.exe . Also pop in a sysprep.inf file like the one below.....

;SetupMgrTag
[Unattended]
OemSkipEula=Yes

[UserData]
ProductID=xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
FullName = "Fullname"
OrgName = "Orgname"
ComputerName = %MACHINENAME%

[RegionalSettings]
LanguageGroup=1
SystemLocale=00000809
UserLocale=00000809
InputLocale=0809:00000809

[GuiUnattended]
AdminPassword="password"
EncryptedAdminPassword=NO
OemSkipWelcome = 1
OemSkipRegional = 1
TimeZone = %TIMEZONE%

[Display]
BitsPerPel = 32
XResolution = 1024
YResolution = 768
VRefresh = 60

[Networking]

[NetServices]
MS_Server=params.MS_PSched

[Identification]
JoinDomain = %MACHINEDOMAIN%
DoOldStyleDomainJoin = Yes



then run sysprep.exe and click run mini setup and the click reseal.


Next you need to upload the image to a server, so you can either boot into the Image Capture Utility which you can create from the WDS Managment tool, or you can boot into Windows PE which again can be made from the WDS Managment tool. If you choose the Image Capture Utility follow the instructions, if you choose Windows PE you need to map a network drive to your WDS Server, go to the folder with ImageX in, and the run the following command "imagex.exe /compress fast /capture c: X:\4222A.wim "Name of the Image here" /verify" (replace X with your mapped network drive letter). Once uploaded go to the WDS Console on the server and add that image in, the boot of network and select that image.

To create the Windows Capture Utility Boot thingy, you need to go in to the WDS Console, Click Bootimages, right click your Windows Vista Image and select Create Capture Boot Image, once created add this new image in.

Thats how to do a Windows XP Image using WDS. Sorry if its a bit all over the place, i've only just got to grips with it my self. Windows Vista is the same, except you have to use the Vista version of Sysprep, and you use XML Answerfiles

[Gatt]

Ah Cheers Quackers will give that a bash later

[Uraken]

Can someone please tell me whether wds/ris can be used to deploy a complete image of a base machine ie complete with office, sims etc, i have it ris set up but its no use to me if it can't deliver prebuilt images or have to fath with msi installs etc, i'm loathed to buy ghost but other than some open source stuff this seems to be the only thing that will do this?

[GrumbleDook]

We use RIS to deploy complete images containing all relevant and required software ... and we are looking at using WDS to this this in future.

[Uraken]

great so i can stop banging my head against the wall and ask how you do it Tony, like i say i have it set up but really want to deliver complete images.

[GrumbleDook]

I can only really talk about the RIS stuff at the moment as we do not have a live WDS setup ... RIS is covered over on the RIS sticky and the transfer over to WDS is available from Quackers' post above, or the MS documentation ...

If any actually has set this up WDS from scratch I would also like to here about it ... but it will be a few weeks before we have a live setup