fairm010 Posted January 11, 2013 Posted January 11, 2013 Ive tried and failed numerous time to get an unattended WDS installation working and cannot do it. Always get errors about unatend.xml. Please can somebody send me their working unnattend.xml file? Much appreciated, Matt.
DT2 Posted January 11, 2013 Posted January 11, 2013 Unattend.zip Here you go buddy, it's for w7 enterprise 32 bit. Post up the errors you're getting. DT 1
fairm010 Posted January 11, 2013 Author Posted January 11, 2013 Thanks DT. Will this work for Win 7 Pro?
DT2 Posted January 11, 2013 Posted January 11, 2013 You need to build your answer file with packages from the OS disk, as packages/components used might be slightly different across the versions, likely not. But you could build your own answer file using this as a guideline, just add the corresponding package from pro. This one will prompt you only for computer name.
fairm010 Posted January 11, 2013 Author Posted January 11, 2013 Brilliant, thanks. You may want to delete the post with the attatchment as it has your product key in it!
TechieWils Posted January 13, 2013 Posted January 13, 2013 I haven't checked as I'm on my phone but it's probably the public kms key so no need to worry.
fairm010 Posted January 14, 2013 Author Posted January 14, 2013 Finally! A working unnatended install. Is there any way though to automate the deletion of any existing partitions and then install? Matt
Duke5A Posted January 14, 2013 Posted January 14, 2013 Finally! A working unnatended install. Is there any way though to automate the deletion of any existing partitions and then install? Matt I created a separate XML used to automated the questions WDS asks it starts up. This should do it... OnError 1 Primary true true NTFS Local Disk C 1 1 0 true OnError 0 1
fairm010 Posted January 14, 2013 Author Posted January 14, 2013 Duke5A thats exactly what im looking for, but where would I put / what would I do with this .xml file?
Arthur Posted January 14, 2013 Posted January 14, 2013 Here's an XML file which is a combination of DT2's and Duke5A's. I have changed the time zone and locales to what they should be for the UK. OnError 1 Primary true true NTFS Local Disk C 1 1 0 true OnError 0 1 1 true GMT Standard Time true false 1 net user administrator /active:yes en-GB en-GB 0809:00000809 0809:00000809 password true Administrator true 5 cscript /b c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ipk 33PXH-7Y6KF-2VJC9-XBBR8-HVTHH 1 false cscript /b c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ato 2 false true Work 1 password true McCain Foods McCain Foods
DMcCoy Posted January 14, 2013 Posted January 14, 2013 (edited) Here's an XML file which is a combination of DT2's and Duke5A's. I have changed the time zone and locales to what they should be for the UK. You'd be better of using the WDS way, you use Windows PE unattended to set the image and format the disk, and attach it to the server properties unattended section, then have the post deployment unattended xml attached to the image itself. If you want to automate more than one image you can use the pre-stage option, or slightly more involved MDT. Edit you also can't set the UI language to en-gb during the PE phase, it's not present. You need to leave the locale as en-gb so detected printers end up as A4 Edited January 14, 2013 by DMcCoy
fairm010 Posted January 14, 2013 Author Posted January 14, 2013 Im quite new to WDS. I have it set up and working, taking and deploying images with no problem. But I want to be able to start a machine off PXE booting and leave it. Today i used the XML DT2 gave me and it worked a treat but i'd like to automate the deletion of partitions and continue (and any other steps). Would I just use the XML Arthur has provided in place of the XML DT2 provided? "You'd be better of using the WDS way, you use Windows PE unattended to set the image and format the disk, and attach it to the server properties unattended section, then have the post deployment unattended xml attached to the image itself." - Is this what Arthurs XML would do? Matt
DMcCoy Posted January 14, 2013 Posted January 14, 2013 (edited) For the PE unattended (formats, picks the image and deploys OnError 1 Primary true true NTFS SYSTEM C 1 1 0 true domain.name password WDSUser Student.WIM Student Student 0 1 Never en-US Never en-US en-GB en-GB You combine this with the unattended file that is selected on the *image* which is copied over during the WDS deployment phase and continues the setup once the image is on the drive. Edited January 14, 2013 by DMcCoy
fairm010 Posted January 14, 2013 Author Posted January 14, 2013 Thanks, and i'd use that instead of my current unnatend.xml?
DMcCoy Posted January 14, 2013 Posted January 14, 2013 For the unattended on the properties of the wds *server* not the image There are two phases Deploy Image (unattended from server properties) Configure image (unattended from image properties) The are similar, but not all properties are available for both phases
DMcCoy Posted January 14, 2013 Posted January 14, 2013 An example of an image unattended file I've used: School PC https://helpdesk.school true true true false false %MACHINENAME% true false true School ICT false GMT Standard Time 1 true true en-GB en-GB en-GB en-GB en-GB School PC https://helpdesk.school true true true Work 1 Administrators SysAdmin Users domain.name ClearType true true true false false true School ICT false GMT Standard Time encrypted pass here false true 1 Administrator rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation Lock Machine 1 false shutdown /r /t 300 Shutdown 2 false net user administrator /active:no Disable Admin Account 3 false %ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4\Photoshop.exe Activate Adobe 4 false
fairm010 Posted January 14, 2013 Author Posted January 14, 2013 For the unattended on the properties of the wds *server* not the image There are two phases Deploy Image (unattended from server properties) Configure image (unattended from image properties) The are similar, but not all properties are available for both phases I see! OK, ill give these a go, thanks!
DMcCoy Posted January 14, 2013 Posted January 14, 2013 (edited) FYI You can only have *ONE* server default unattended file which picks the image and deploys automatically. However if you prestage the machines, you can pick another unattended file with different image settings: wdsutil /Add-Device /Device:L1120 /ID:001CC0693380 /ReferralServer:10.0.8.1 /WdsClientUnattend:WdsClientUnattend\Staff.xml /User:DOMAIN\WDS /JoinRights:Full /JoinDomain:Yes /OU:"OU=L11,OU=Students,OU=Computers,OU=domain,DC=name,DC=school" Once machines are prestaged they will always use that file until the computer object created is deleted. Means you can reimage the next year with an updated image with the same name, with just F12 Images can all have their own unattended file Edited January 14, 2013 by DMcCoy
fairm010 Posted January 14, 2013 Author Posted January 14, 2013 Actually id prefer to pick the image the normal way on the client, would I just remove the domain.name password WDSUser Student.WIM Student Student 0 1 Never from the server unnatend?
DMcCoy Posted January 14, 2013 Posted January 14, 2013 (edited) Actually id prefer to pick the image the normal way on the client, would I just remove the It's all or nothing, pick the image and username/password and partitioning is all manual input. You have to use MDT for anything more flexible. Edited January 14, 2013 by DMcCoy
Arthur Posted January 15, 2013 Posted January 15, 2013 You have to use MDT for anything more flexible. MDT is definitely the way to go. Even Microsoft MVP Johan Arwidmark agrees... Yes, I know: Technically you can use plain vanilla Windows Deployment Services (WDS) and ADK to deploy Windows, but that's not a deployment solution. WDS and ADK are only plumbing tools for deployment, not a deployment solution, and MDT 2012 Update 1 will use them in the background anyway. Please do not waste your time trying to build a deployment solution on WDS and ADK, Microsoft has already done it for you: It's named MDT 2012 Update 1! (Source)
fairm010 Posted January 16, 2013 Author Posted January 16, 2013 MDT is definitely the way to go. Even Microsoft MVP Johan Arwidmark agrees... Is MDT free? ie is it the same as WDS, just a role on the server? Does it have to be licensed?
Arthur Posted January 16, 2013 Posted January 16, 2013 Is MDT free? It is free. is it the same as WDS, just a role on the server? You have to download MDT (and the Windows ADK) from Microsoft's website. Does it have to be licensed? No.
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