theforce Posted May 23, 2012 Posted May 23, 2012 Hi, I'm hoping someone can help here. I have a couple of issues with automating WDS using unattended.xml. Firstly, My server is Windows 2008 R2 64bit, I am trying to automate the WinPE phase of WDS. I have associated the the following unattended.xml file to the x86 boot images. However the language is not selected and the username and password is not entered (I have to perform both these tasks manually). The only thing the xml seems to do is choose the partition for where the installation will occour. Here is the xml for the winPe phase OnError wdsadmin myschool wdspassword OnError Windows 7 Professional SP1 x86 Images Windows7proSP1.wim 0 1 OnError 1 Primary true true false NTFS OS C 1 1 0 true OnError en-UK en-UK Does anyone know what the issue might be? Secondly, with regards to syspreping a windows 7 machine, I have created an unattended.xml file (from a thread on this website, which I can't find now), using mysysprep and sysprep.cmd, I sysprep the machine and reboot, upon reboot the syprep process asks me to enter a machine name. Once the machine name is supplied, the computer is then added to the domain using the name I supplied, and everything is fine. However, If I run sysprep and then restart the computer, boot into winpe and take an image of the machine. I then load the image on another machine using wds, the process happens exactly the same, i.e. it asks me for a name for the computer. However, regardless of what name I supply (name that is less then 16 characters), the computer is joined to the domain using the username I supplied during the WinPE process of WDS. i.e. at the WinPE stage if I use the account WDSAdmin, my computers will be joined to the domain as WDSAdmin1, WDSAdmin2 etc.. whereas if i use the account administrator it names the machine administrator1 administrator2 etc.. This happens regardless of wheather I try to associate an unattended.xml to the winpe process or not. Here is my xml for the Windows 7 image. en-GB en-GB en-US en-GB en-GB true Work 1 dwBlAGwAYwBvAG0AZQBQAGEAcwBzAHcAbwByAGQA false Local User Teacher administrators Teacher GMT Standard Time myschool myschool false xxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx %Please input a computer name% myschool myschool false GMT Standard Time myschool.local WDSADMIN WDSpassword myschool.local Thanks in advance, if anyone can help shed some light into what I'm doing wrong. kind regards, Afzal.
DMcCoy Posted May 23, 2012 Posted May 23, 2012 You need to use en-US for the PE phase (en-GB is fine for the unattended file for the image) en-US Never en-US The boot WIM does not contain en-GB so it is not a valid language choice at that time.
theforce Posted May 24, 2012 Author Posted May 24, 2012 im using the boot.wim from the windows 7 sp1 cd. It requires me to manually provide the language setting, the the en-uk (en-gb) option available. Also this is one aspect of the xml that isn't working, the other one is supplying the username and password. this part also does not work. Many thanks.
JOrdan01070 Posted May 24, 2012 Posted May 24, 2012 (edited) Hi This is mine and it works just change xxxxxxxxxxxxxx to what every yours is en-US 0809:00000809 en-GB en-GB 1 Primary true 1 true false NTFS xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx C 1 0 true 0 1 xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx Edited May 24, 2012 by JOrdan01070 1
theforce Posted May 25, 2012 Author Posted May 25, 2012 the unattend.xml for pe worked a treat. are you automating joing computers to the domain. The second phase of my deployment is running a syspreped widnows 7 image an unattend.xml that asks for the machine name before joining the machine with the supplied name. The prompt for a machine name comes up but regardless of what I type it joings the domain using username# (with username being the one supplied in unattend.xml for pe). thanks in advance.
JOrdan01070 Posted May 25, 2012 Posted May 25, 2012 I have automated the computers joining the domain but i am using the install.wim image below is my ImageUnattend.xml. just replace xxxxxxxxxxxxx with your own. xxxxx xxxxx GMT Standard Time false xxxxxxxxxxx true 0809:00000809 en-GB en-US en-GB true true Work 1 true true xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx false xxxxxxxxxx Administrators xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx false xxxxxxxxxxxx Domain Admins xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxx false GMT Standard Time
theforce Posted May 28, 2012 Author Posted May 28, 2012 Hi J0rdan01070, couple of questions if you didn't mind, 1. How are you adding your product key, I'm assuming you do this manually becuase you haven't added the product key field to your xml. 2. Is it prompting you for a computer name during the installation? I read on ms technet website that if you remove computer name feild, it will prompt you for a compater name. Thanks in advance.
JOrdan01070 Posted May 28, 2012 Posted May 28, 2012 I am using a KMS server so don't need to add the product key, as for the computer name that is done through WDS in the AD DS tab in properties.
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