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Help needed with an rather big WDS-task.


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First of all.. I've thought a while about posting this, made the text under thise alinea in an random document constantly editing and added extra information making it as clear as possible. If anymore information is needed I'll add it to the OP. Hopefully you guys can help me out.

Personal background

Hi, I’m a student running internship and the job they gave me is build an server which deploys Windows XP (SP2) installations including software like updates, drivers and applications.

Current situation

This is what I’ve done so far:

Made an LTI-setup, WDS, BDD 2007, WAIK, AD, DNS, DHCP installed, configured and running on Windows Server 2003 SBS with SP2, the thing finally works now, didn’t realise for a long time that the annoying Windows Firewall wasn’t shutdown. The whole thing is set up BDD 2007 Quick Guide, so far it's pretty basic, it just installs Windows XP and Service Pack 2. If it’s any use mentioning: SP2 was included in the files on the Windows XP-disc.

Ran deployment a few times using Windows PE 2.0 on one or two clients, all of those deployments where successful. Maybe it’s wise to try to deploy XP to other clients with different hardware too before trying anything else? At the moment I just want to make Office 2003 be installed during the XP deployment.

Final Goal

An server that can deploy Windows XP as unattended as possible on a wide variety of client containing different hardware. Software like Office 2003, updates and drivers also have to be deployed with the XP-deployment.

Saving images of each workstation is not an option since too much different computers come by. Also using F12 instead of the WinPE 2.0 CD is something I’d like to do. ZTI seems not to be an option because SMS 2003 is too expensive for a student and without it, Office and other applications should be deployable too, right? Another reason not to use SMS is because it’s too big, not in disc space but in options, I’d probably lose any sight of the right direction I’m currently following.

Later on being able to do the same with Windows Vista and Office 2007 would be a nice extra.

Other things

On deployvista.com I’ve read something about the XP-uberbug, what’s up with that, should I actually take notice of it or just treat it like another hoax and ignore the thing?

I haven’t tried unattend-files and stuff yet, because I don’t know in what situation I should use them and I’ve no experience coding, did little stuff with html but that’s it.

Late notes/final question/summary

Where the hell should I begin, running through the documentation of BDD 2007 (over a thousand pages) and installing even more services and applications don’t seem to be the solution.

post-152639-1188303497_thumb.jpg

Edited by M0NKEYPWNAGE
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I think what you want to do is create a WIM image of a Windows XP machine and use that as an Installation image.

Seeing as you're dutch.. i'll make it easy for you :P, there's a dutch website that contains a manual for setting up Windows XP and WDS.

Linkeh

Also, if you want to Boot WinPE from WDS instead of a CD you need to create a custom WinPE image and use it as a boot image on your WDS machine.

I've created a fully automated unattended setup for Windows2003 Server Deployment for the company i'm doing part-time work at.

I've allready posted it on another forum, so i'll link it here.

Maybe it's of some use to you.

Good luck with the internship :D

Hope this helps

-Henk

Edited by Henkes
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I think what you want to do is create a WIM image of a Windows XP machine and use that as an Installation image.

Seeing as you're dutch.. i'll make it easy for you :P, there's a dutch website that contains a manual for setting up Windows XP and WDS.

Linkeh

Also, if you want to Boot WinPE from WDS instead of a CD you need to create a custom WinPE image and use it as a boot image on your WDS machine.

I've created a fully automated unattended setup for Windows2003 Server Deployment for the company i'm doing part-time work at.

I've allready posted it on another forum, so i'll link it here.

Maybe it's of some use to you.

Good luck with the internship :D

Hope this helps

-Henk

Thanks Henk, I'll run it through, not experienced at making .bat's etc. but I'll give it a try, if I get stuck somewhere you'll be the first one I'll bother, ke? :angel

Omfg (is that allowed here?), I've had that site bookmarked, never found that particular page though.. D'OH! Helped me out alot, looked at the wrong places again.

Edited by M0NKEYPWNAGE
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Sure, if you're stuck at some point with my 'method' give me a howler, I'll try to help you out.

No problem so far, just an update. Managed to add Microsoft Office to BDD, the deployment point is updating at the moment, I'm about to go home in a few minutes , then I'll read further, I think I should now make WinPE2.0 boot from the network instead of the CD, because I don't have any CD-R's left at work, lmao.

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Hi Henk, it's me, kid Trouble again. :P

Next obstacle I ran across is about the quietinstall line from beheerportal.nl, I've got an Office 2003 AIO VLK CD, with 2 serials, one for the regular office apps, and another one for Frontpage, Visio, Project and OneNote. I found this on Google http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=20970:

look for \FILES\SETUP\setup.ini and add this:

[Options]

; The option section is used for specifying individual Installer Properties.

;USERNAME=Customer

;COMPANYNAME=my company

;INSTALLLOCATION=C:\Program Files\MyApp

PIDKEY=SERIAL

Note space before "The option.." that shouldn't be there, right? Anyhow, I thought doing the following per application edit the SETUP.INI:

So I'm having the following in my CD:

K:\FRONTPAGE\FILES\SETUP\SETUP.INI

K:\ONENOTE\FILES\SETUP\SETUP.INI

K:\PROJECT\SETUP\SETUP.INI

K:\VISIO\SETUP\SETUP.INI

Should these all be edited?

[Options]

PIDKEY=SERIAL

Maybe even the general package itself: K:\OFFICE\FILES\SETUPSETUP.INI.

Edit: Took al look the files:

[Options]

; The option section is used for specifying individual Installer Properties.

;USERNAME=Customer

;COMPANYNAME=my company

;INSTALLLOCATION=C:\Program Files\MyApp

Seems that the extra space ain't an typo after all and I just have to place the PIDKEY. :)

Edit 2:

Alle bestanden van de ISO naar een mapje gekopieerd, daar die zinnen er in gezet. Nu een ISO maken vinden. :P

Forgot it was an English forum, sigh.. The above means: Copied all files from the ISO to an map, inserted all lines. Just have to find an ISO-maker now. :P

Edit 3:

No need for an ISO, just copied the files to the server and had BDD 2007 pick them out, just having the setup.exe /i Pro11.msi line now, I hope it's enough, I doubt it tho, because the Setup.exe is rather abstract.

Edited by M0NKEYPWNAGE
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If you add Office 2007 to BDD, you should be able to specify serial number and installation path etc for the application.

Look for tabs in the Add application Wizard when you Add Office 2007.

Alternatively, you could always make a .MST file for Office, and use that.

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If you add Office 2007 to BDD, you should be able to specify serial number and installation path etc for the application.

Look for tabs in the Add application Wizard when you Add Office 2007.

Alternatively, you could always make a .MST file for Office, and use that.

Finally I can respond, IE7 is giving some troubles with the lay-out, anyhow, here's what I wanted to say:

I guess I try more when at home again, tried different things with the AIO, but I think making different 'programs' is better, I'll give you more info later on that. The problem I had at work was adding drivers, I try stuff at a small IBM-PC, now after adding Office the connection couldn't be made because of the missing LAN-driver. Added a bilion drivers which happen to give an error during the deployments I currently am trying. Do I need to rewrap the build or what?

In the mean while I'm gonna try some stuff, here's the error:

ZTI-Error Undhandled error returned by Z:\Drivers: Object required (424)

ZTI-Error Undhandled error returned by Z:\Drivers: Object required (424)

Non-zero return code executing command "X:\Deploy\Tools\X86

\TsmBootstrap.exe" /env:SaStart, rc=-2147467259

No more Error.

Edited by M0NKEYPWNAGE
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  • 2 weeks later...

Got drivers working, got my first app working. Now finding a solution for Office 2003, Microsoft doesn't support deploying Office 2003 because BDD and Windows are targeting their latest product: Vista and Office 2007, rather frustrating. BDD SE (standars edition) doesn't even have the deployment bench so I'm stuck with BDD2007. Anyhow, I'm still very glad that I managed to add Adobe Reader 8, a big step into the right direction. :)

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Can't you make a tut?

Think more people like to know how you fixed this.

Sure, but here's two links: Google for lazyadmin(.com probably) and deployvista.com, the second sites has 4 tuts. There's also something from Iowa or something but there's just too many things done in it without explaining any of 'em so I don't recommend that one. I'll see what I can do before and during this weekend.

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