Deploying 275+ XP w/ SP2 Images, What is the best solution

[clodhoppers18]

Ahh well we are certainly open to that.

[clodhoppers18]

I would still like to find out a little bit more about siginet's utilities. We have thought about RIS/WDS but the admins at work aren't so hot for it. If someone that has used Siginet's utils or Siginet himself could tell me how to use it, etc. I would really appreciate it.

[emerica243]

Hey all, im, kind of in the same boat. I have 300 bare metal systems i have to deploy a system out to. Heres how im doing it and here are some problems and suggestions im hoping you can provide.

We will be using Acronis Snap Deploy and TrueImage. Not all the systems are the same hardware. So far this is what we've done. We've setup a pc with how we want it. We then made a image of it. This is the master image. Now we did a test scenario using Snap Deploy. We deployed the image to a pc of the same hardware and different. For the different hardware we used the Universal Deploy and included the specific driver inf files from dells exe setups.(R9454.exe for example). The problem is when the images were deployed, the system with different hardware didnt have any of the device drivers installed that we told it to. What ive learnt from acronis is that the universal deploy isnt for pnp devices like vga,nic,sound, but only for devices with the HAL, mass storage usb, etc.

So heres my idea. Im thinking of just dropping all the drivers files into the master images C:\Windows\INF folder? That way when the image is deployed and windows boots, windows should take care of those devices by finding the right drivers in the inf folder. will this work?

The next issue is, im wondering if this is the best way to do this. Using this image is only needed once. For the mass network deploy. My boss also wants to have a image on a usb HD for further down the road problems. Like if a system needs re-imaged he just can boot trueimage and restore the image from the usbhd. Now the problem here is that image has to be different then this one time one we make for network deployment. Thats because via network deployment, snap deploy lets us change sid/pc name, etc. But true image does not.

So what i figured is for this usb hd image we could just sysprep it to change sid, and also we would be able to input the pc name upon reboot.

Hope this all makes sense and i can get some input.

Edited November 19, 2007 by emerica243

[clodhoppers18]

We have tried using Snap Deploy, and havent had much luck. We always syprep all of our machines, and then load the image for that model of hardware, let it load the minisetup, then use the machine as normal. However, I am wanting to change the way its done so it is much more efficient. Have one image for all the PCs or maybe 2 images as oppossed to 8.

We have tried taking Dell's inf folder that is created from their CD and putting it in a subfolder in the inf folder of that the Window's Volume License version makes when it goes thru setup, so that we didnt have to use the driver disk for each and every install. However, that didnt work for us for some reason. We also tried adding a folder C:\Windows\dellinf to the registry as a place to look for drivers for PnP devices., that also did not work.

Is what we are going to try this week (tommorow) is to take a machine, load the Volume Licensed version of Windows XP onto one machine, get all the drivers working, sysprep it, and copy that image to another pc type then install the drivers it needs, then sysprep it and continue going on down the line. Once we get all the drivers into one standard image, we are going to then go back and test that image on each PC and ensure that everything works as planned.

I hope that someone can help both of us in our needs. If anyone has tried that and if it is possible to do.

[emerica243]

Windows wont read from subfolders for drivers. the drivers have to be right in C:\Windows\INF\*.inf Also same goes for any other structure you tried doing like dellinf\.infs have to be here in the root. Cant be ANY subs unless you're also specifying them in the regsitry DevicePath key i think it is or the oem line in hte sysprep.inf. What youre trying about going down the line of systems is a good idea. You could also use Driver Genius, which extracts driver files from systems, then u acn run them all on the master image system then create your image, so theyre all in there. If youre not using a mass deployment application. How are you mass deploying all of your images out?

[clodhoppers18]

About the Driver Genius, would we have it import each driver set into the main build machine, or would we have it run the exe that you can have it create for each driver set after the minisetup was complete?

Also to answer your question, we are basicly dropping the standard image on certain PCs then placing a customer service image on other PCs. The difference being some programs, and the setup of the user account (admin privliges etc.) There will be a certain amount of customization that needs to occur with every machine (i.e. copying 2000 user profiles over to the post setup XP machine)

If there is a way to automate the transfer of user profiles from 2000 to XP, that would be good. We are needing to transfer email setup, desktop background, links/favorites, shorcuts. There are also some places on the hard drive that some users store their info that is not typical (example: C:\{username}\docs) these are not setup by us (the admins) they are usually created inadvertantly when the user cannot access the network, but needs to save a file. I understand that the extraneous files/folders will need to be copied by hand, but we would like to automate everything as much as possible, so having the user profile copy over automatically would be good. We have looked into the User State Migration Tool, and think that this may very well be a viable option, however I would like some input from other people that may have gone through this situation.

Thanks all,

Dustin

Edited November 19, 2007 by clodhoppers18

[nmX.Memnoch]

If there is a way to automate the transfer of user profiles from 2000 to XP, that would be good.

Windows User State Migration Tool 3.0.1 (Documentation)

Edited November 19, 2007 by nmX.Memnoch

[emerica243]

were basically doign the same exact thing, Today i was rather successful. My master image was a DELL 745. I included drivers for the Dell GX260 and pointed the registry DevicePath key to them. Happily when deploying that image to the Dell gx260, it picked up the drivers and installed them successfully. The annoying part is i did the same thing with a HP d220MT it installed all the drivers and everything, but after you login and it loads the desktop, the system just reboots. The only thing i can think of is Different hardware,,(even though Universal Restore/deploy SHOULD of taken care of that). So right now im stuck with just making a separate image of the HP.

[clodhoppers18]

is there a way to create a multi boot disk that has several different sysprepped images on it? or must the disk have images that were nlite setup with the application installers running at minisetup?

[kickarse]

There's always my guide here...

http://forum.driverpacks.net/viewtopic.php?id=2034

Edited November 23, 2007 by kickarse

[clodhoppers18]

There's always my guide here...

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...20&start=20

Is that link supposed to point to a guide? it just points to this forum post.

Now just to clarify everything, this will allow me to make a multiboot CD so that we can place it in the CD tray and select the image, then it loads sysprep minisetup for that particular image, and tada it installs just like if I had copied an image file from one HDD to another?

[kickarse]

It was working, possibly because it's down it relinks to the forum post...

[chiners_68]

Your best way is RIS/WDS. & you want your XP images as RISSetups not actual images.

to do this you will need to install RIS & create 1 RISSETUP image, then upgrade to WDS mixed mode.

modify your RIS image with Roguespears "Autoimage" which you can then use to integrate software updates"ryanVM updates" & Driverpacks"BTS Driverpacks". There is also the facility for scripts to help automate your installs after XP is installed.

I use the above i can do a full base install with RIS & All my software packages in 50mins without touching a thing once its started.

[kickarse]

I just updated my link above...