Many people are interested in the utilities and features offered in Windows Vista deployment tools. They are also very interested in the new BDD framework. What many people don't realize is that you can use many of the Vista deployment tools to manage and configure Windows XP images.
The following guide will get you on your way to automated greatness of BDD.
The first thing you need to do is copy the OS files into the BDD infrastructure.
To do this open the BDD workbench MMC.
Next click on "Operating Systems" and click "New" in the Actions Pane.
In the wizard choose "Full set of source Files" and Click next.
Insert the Windows XP SP2 CD or mount an ISO image on your BDD server. Browse to the appropriate drive and select it. Click Next
Type in the name you wish to use for the directory and click copy.
The operation to copy all the files will take a few minutes you'll see a progress bar similar to the following:
This is actually just copying the source files into a directory in your distribution share. You can see the folder if you open your distribution share and browse to the Operating System folder. Note: The distribution share would have been created when you installed BDD. By default it will be on c:\distribution.
Now that we have the source files we want to create a build. The build is the part where we specify custom options we want to automate.
- Click on the "Builds" branch in the BDD MMC. In the Actions pane click "New"
- Type in the Build ID, Build Name, and if needed Build Comments. click "Next"
- Select the Windows XP source files you wish to use to build your install, click "Next":
- Type in your VLK license key from your Microsoft Volume License Agreement. click "Next".
- In the next screen you need to provide a Full Name, Organization, and an IE home page. Then click Next. (don't forget to use "http://" when entering in the web URL)
- Specify a local Administrator Password and click Create.
Now you should see your build in the Builds details pane (middle pane). If you double click on the build you will see some options that can be adjusted.
In the General Tab you can adjust the operating system Source, Build names and Version number. You can also adjust comments.
The Setting Tab allows you to fix any mistakes or allows for adjustments in the information you entered during the wizard. It also allows you to access the Sysprep.inf and Unattend.txt files.
We are still dealing with Windows XP so we still have to sometimes manipulate these files manually. A good example is the case where we need to add SATA drivers to a build. The majority of SATA drivers were released after Windows XP. So even in the SP2 release many new hard disk controllers are not in the Windows XP source files by default. (We deal with this manually by pressing F6 during the text mode setup)
To lay down some context here is the usual startup process for Windows XP install:
Boot Computer -> Start Windows XP install from CD or network -> Start Text Based install -> Load Mass Storage Drivers -> Detect Hard Drives ->Select install Options-> Reboot in the GUI Install Mode.
If there is a problem with the Mass storage Driver you will often get a blue screen when loading the XP GUI installer.
We will cover integrating mass storage drivers into the Sysprep.inf files and Unattend.txt files in a future article.
Finally there is the Task Sequence Tab. The tasks that you find on this tab are all the steps BDD takes to build the image. This is an extremely flexible and easy way to customize your build.
This brings us to another issue with Windows XP and BDD 2007. Due to the way BDD 2007 partitions drives it causes that partition to not be compatible with Windows XP. This has been called the BDD Uber bug in some circles. Thanks to the fellows at www.deployvista.com there is a workaround to patch this bug.
First you need to create a text file with a .reg file extension. next past the following line of text (without the dashed line):
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES\VDS\ALIGNMENT]
"LessThan4GB"=dword:00000000
"Between4_8GB"=dword:00000000
"Between8_32GB"=dword:00000000
"GreaterThan32GB"=dword:00000000
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Save the file to the Distributions\Scripts folder.
Next in the Task Sequence dialog box seen above Click "Preinstall" Then click Add.
You will see a "New task" appear in the list. Use the "UP" Arrow button to move the custom task to the beginning of the list.
Name the task: Fix WinPE 2.0 Bug.
Then enter the following in the command line: reg import %SCRIPTROOT%\YOUR_REG_FILE.reg
This fix will make sure that Windows PE uses the correct settings when setting up the Windows XP partition.
Finally you're ready to build your deployment point, and kick off your XP install. In the Deploy->Deployment Points branch in the BDD workbench click "New" Choos a lab deployment point. Accept the default options in the Deployment Point wizard. At the the end click "Create". Once your Lab deployment point has been created, click on it in the Information pane, and then in the actions pane click Update. This will build a new deployment point and create the necessary files you need to boot up Windows PE.
Using the WDS server or the LiteTouchPE_x86.iso file found in [Drive]\Distribution\Boot. start WinPE 2.0 (See how to configure WDS For information on booting up over a network)
Once PE is booted up and initialized you will be presented with the Windows Deployment Wizard:
- Choose the correct Keyboard layout for your needs, and click "Next"
- You will be presented with a screen asking for an account with permissions to access the Distribution share you set up on your BDD server.
- Next you will be asked for a computer name.
- Next you will be asked for a domain name. If you want to capture this install to a base Wim Image you must leave the setting to the default "Join A workgroup" Click "Next".
- The following screen prompts you to specify where your user settings are being stored. As are preparing a base image, leave the default setting as is and click "Next".
- Choose the Windows XP SP2 Build Files, Click "Next".
- Choose your Time Zone Click "Next".
- Choose any applications you added. (For base images, and first time installs it's fine if you haven't added any applications yet) click "Next".
- accept the default setting for capturing the image. (Rename the image file should you want another name) Click "Next".
- In the final screen you may review details about the install. When you are satisfied with the results click "Begin".
This Window will pop up and detail the installation progress. If all went well WindowsXP should be installed in a fully automated fashion. The end product will be a Windows XP Wim image in your Distributions\Capture directory.
This concludes part one. In Part 2 we will pickup where we left off here, and will explain how to use the Wim image to quickly deploy Windows XP desktops.