Preben Uhrskov Posted July 27, 2007 Share Posted July 27, 2007 Hi guysMy setup is:- DHCP and DNS running on a Linux server using isc-dhcpd and bind9- DC running on a Windows 2003 Server Standard- WDS running on another Windows 2003 Server Standard with the R2 package installed - not used ... yet?I have 15 Dell 1950 servers with the exact same hardware configuration.I want them to do this:- The machine boots, I press F12 to boot from PXE, which is handled by the pxelinux manager- I choose that I want to redeploy an image with Windows XP x64 to the local harddrive- Windows PE with all the necessary drivers loads up and does the partitioning and reads an image from a network share- It logs the computer onto our domain and places the computer in a default OU with an auto generated hostname- All I need to do, is to press F12, and choose redeploy (of course drink coffee etc. etc.)Is this possible? I have made a WindowsPE boot cd which does the partitioning and reads the image off of a SMB share. This works fine, but how do I make the rest of the setup unattended?Thanks in advanceHappy sysadminday btw ... it's the last Friday of July today // preben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bj-kaiser Posted July 29, 2007 Share Posted July 29, 2007 the question is, what WinPE are you using? PE built from XP/2k3 files (1.X) or built from Vista's WAIK/Setup files (2.0).The later one is easy to chainload from pxelinux since it's fairly good documented in the WAIK docs and requires only DHCP, DNS and TFTP services. The first one is a b***h to get booted by PXE from a non-windows server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preben Uhrskov Posted July 30, 2007 Author Share Posted July 30, 2007 the question is, what WinPE are you using? PE built from XP/2k3 files (1.X) or built from Vista's WAIK/Setup files (2.0).The later one is easy to chainload from pxelinux since it's fairly good documented in the WAIK docs and requires only DHCP, DNS and TFTP services. The first one is a b***h to get booted by PXE from a non-windows server.Hi kaiser, and thank you for your reply I am using the Windows PE which comes with Windows Vista AIK, which can be downloaded from Microsoft's website. I assume that it might be version 2.0?How do I make it work like RIS, so that I can decide the computer's name? This is my biggest issue at the moment.Thank you in advance// Preben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisBaksa Posted July 30, 2007 Share Posted July 30, 2007 The answer in a nutshell is Yes.I have 2 PE images booting off Linux. 32 and 64 Bit Versions of PE.I'm using PE 1.6 (or PE 2005 as they call it). Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bj-kaiser Posted July 30, 2007 Share Posted July 30, 2007 the question is, what WinPE are you using? PE built from XP/2k3 files (1.X) or built from Vista's WAIK/Setup files (2.0).The later one is easy to chainload from pxelinux since it's fairly good documented in the WAIK docs and requires only DHCP, DNS and TFTP services. The first one is a b***h to get booted by PXE from a non-windows server.Hi kaiser, and thank you for your reply I am using the Windows PE which comes with Windows Vista AIK, which can be downloaded from Microsoft's website. I assume that it might be version 2.0?How do I make it work like RIS, so that I can decide the computer's name? This is my biggest issue at the moment.Thank you in advance// PrebenI would try to use some scripting language to modify $winnt$.inf (should be in the windows\system32 dir) after applying the image. Thats the place sysprep.inf gets copied to (IIRC, search the docs). Using a script language to modify that file would have the advantage that you dont have to wait for the reboot to be done, instead you can set the new computername directly from your WinPE session. This is all based on having a sysprepped image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preben Uhrskov Posted July 31, 2007 Author Share Posted July 31, 2007 the question is, what WinPE are you using? PE built from XP/2k3 files (1.X) or built from Vista's WAIK/Setup files (2.0).The later one is easy to chainload from pxelinux since it's fairly good documented in the WAIK docs and requires only DHCP, DNS and TFTP services. The first one is a b***h to get booted by PXE from a non-windows server.Hi kaiser, and thank you for your reply I am using the Windows PE which comes with Windows Vista AIK, which can be downloaded from Microsoft's website. I assume that it might be version 2.0?How do I make it work like RIS, so that I can decide the computer's name? This is my biggest issue at the moment.Thank you in advance// PrebenI would try to use some scripting language to modify $winnt$.inf (should be in the windows\system32 dir) after applying the image. Thats the place sysprep.inf gets copied to (IIRC, search the docs). Using a script language to modify that file would have the advantage that you dont have to wait for the reboot to be done, instead you can set the new computername directly from your WinPE session. This is all based on having a sysprepped image.I don't think I got this one right.I created the c:\sysprep-folder, and copied the windows xp deployment tools there. Then I created the sysprep.inf with the setup manager which was also placed in c:\sysprepAfter that: sysprep -mini -quiet -reseal -rebootBoot up the WinPE-image over PXE (wee, works fine now )Then I examined the c:\windows\system32\$winnt$.inf and realized that it did -not- contain any information about the computername? It took the computername from my sysprep.inf indstead. Should I just modify that file?// preben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preben Uhrskov Posted July 31, 2007 Author Share Posted July 31, 2007 Oh, I forgot this:I found a nice tutorial on getting tftpd-hpa on linux to work with windows pe ... it's in swedish, but it helped mehttp://www.itproffs.se/forumv2/tm.aspx?m=8...key= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bj-kaiser Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 I don't think I got this one right.I created the c:\sysprep-folder, and copied the windows xp deployment tools there. Then I created the sysprep.inf with the setup manager which was also placed in c:\sysprepAfter that: sysprep -mini -quiet -reseal -rebootBoot up the WinPE-image over PXE (wee, works fine now )Then I examined the c:\windows\system32\$winnt$.inf and realized that it did -not- contain any information about the computername? It took the computername from my sysprep.inf indstead. Should I just modify that file?// prebenhm, maybe i misread something in the docs. I supposed since Sysprep copies its Sysprep.inf to $winnt$.inf upon execution, it would use the later file for mini-setup. As you found out you seem to still be able to use sysprep.inf after running sysprep. Way to go i suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preben Uhrskov Posted July 31, 2007 Author Share Posted July 31, 2007 In one of your first posts, you mention that I can make use of "some scripting language" to modify the hostname. I made a PHP-script, which is able to change the file content, but the problem is that I can't get php.exe to run under WinPE. It is probably some x64-issue?What scripting language do you prefer for WinPE tricks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zorphnog Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 Use VBScript. Make sure you add the scripting package to your PE image (peimg /install=*script* /image=C:\MyPE\mount\Windows). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bj-kaiser Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 In one of your first posts, you mention that I can make use of "some scripting language" to modify the hostname. I made a PHP-script, which is able to change the file content, but the problem is that I can't get php.exe to run under WinPE. It is probably some x64-issue?What scripting language do you prefer for WinPE tricks?I prefer AutoIt3 (beat me, was the first scripting language i stumbled upon). It should be easy to get a grasp of it since it's BASIC like and some stuff works similar to PHP. AND: All you need (if you dont use include files) is the 300KB autoit3.exe. I have that running within WinPE 2.0 without much tricks.The next option is VBscript as zorphnog supposed. Has the advantage that it's from Microsoft and shipped with the OS so you won't get asked what weird stuff your autoit3.exe is (or get beaten upon if you have policies that forbid downloading executables ...).One sidenote, I don't know if autoit3 runs on X64. Didn't have to try it yet. In case it doesn't just go with VBscript.btw: they have a Beta version for X64http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/files/beta/autoit/x64/This is only the interpreter. You will still need the standard package for documentation and customized Scite editor.http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/scite/downloads.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazkal Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 I can verify that AutoIt does work under WinPE x64 (both v1.6 and 2.0). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preben Uhrskov Posted August 1, 2007 Author Share Posted August 1, 2007 OK guys, i've managed to code my first VBScript \o/What it does:Run ipconfig -> tempfilestrip out ipaddressRun nslookup on that result -> tempfilestrip out the hostname from fqdnsearch sysprep.inf for "ComputerName=default" and replace it with "ComputerName=" & sHostnameIt works like a charm ... in Windows XP because there is no f***** nslookup in WinPE ... ?Dudes, how do you solve this one?Anyone interested in a copy of the script?// preben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazkal Posted August 1, 2007 Share Posted August 1, 2007 copy the nslookup.exe to your winpe build before it is finished building.I just tested nslookup in WinPE v1.6, and it seemed to work. Didn't do full testing on it though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preben Uhrskov Posted August 1, 2007 Author Share Posted August 1, 2007 copy the nslookup.exe to your winpe build before it is finished building.I just tested nslookup in WinPE v1.6, and it seemed to work. Didn't do full testing on it though.Ok, the x86 version of nslookup.exe won't run under winpe x64, but i fixed it by adding a "copy c:\windows\system32\nslookup.exe x:\windows\system32\nslookup.exe /Y" after applying the image on the harddrive. Cool Can I make a dynamic image that will fit all my x64 machines, or do I have to do some code to determine which image i should apply?// preben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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