Server 2008 PE unattended disk partition

[kai4785]

I'll start by admitting that my only experience with windows outside of what it takes to make my video games work on my XP pro version at home has been to create unattended installations for work. I am a Redhat Linux administrator being asked to do with windows what I have been doing with linux for a while now.

I've been successful with windows server 2003 web and standard editions by following the tutorials here:

http://www.aerospacesoftware.com/ris-howto.html

There aren't any problems I haven't solved with the help of this forum and other resources, and am happy with it.

I have followed the tutorial here for Server 2008:

http://sysadminman.net/blog/archives/8

I have created a windows PE image, and it does everything exactly as I want it to, with the exception of the exclusion of the ability to partition and format a disk using the unattended.xml file. To give you a run down, the only things I have done different than the instructions on the tutorial give are:

1) Fixed a few case-sensitive and path problems with the tutorial's setup and my own.

2) Added a mac.bat script and modified the startnet.cmd file. Here's the contents of each file:

\Windows\System32\startnet.cmd

winpeinit
mac.bat

\Windows\System32\mac.bat

@echo on

rem Here we have the initial ipconfiguration
ipconfig /all

rem We want to check every 5 seconds to see if we can ping the pxe server.
rem If we can't, we want to wait another 5 seconds.
rem I hate GOTOs. They suck. Pray this works.

GOTO PXE

:PING
echo Waiting 5 seconds
ping 1.1.1.1 -n 5 -w 1000 >NUL
:PXE
ping -n 1 pxe | FIND "TTL" >NUL
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO PING

rem Here is the ipconfig /all that we will be parsing. Pray it's correct.
ipconfig /all

ipconfig /all | FIND /I "Physical" > ip.txt
FOR /F " tokens=11* delims=, " %%i in (ip.txt) DO SET mac=%%j

ipconfig /all | FIND /I "Default Gateway" > gateway.txt
FOR /F " tokens=12* delims=, " %%i in (gateway.txt) DO SET gateway=%%j

ipconfig /all | FIND /I "DNS SERVERS" > dns.txt
FOR /F " tokens=14* delims=, " %%i in (dns.txt) DO SET dns=%%j

echo MAC: %mac% GATEWAY: %gateway% DNS: %dns%

rem Are you still praying? You should be
ping -n 1 %dns%
ping -n 1 %gateway%
ping -n 1 pxe

rem This will work if you prayed hard enough.
NET USE Y: \\pxe\reminst /Persistent:Yes
Y:
cd \images\win2k8_standard
setup /unattend:\Boot\%mac%.xml

You need to know that the reminst share is rooted in /tftpboot/ which is my tftpd's root directory.

When I deploy a server, I already know what it's mac address is, so I can create the unattended xml file with the mac address as the name so each server gets it's own unattended script.

This should satisfy questions about my setup. Now the real problem is the XML code to create and format a partition is clearly documented, but does not work with my winpe.wim image. If I use WAIK to open the \sources\install.wim file from the cd, I can add the component 'x86_Microsoft-Windows-Setup_neutral' to my unattended file. Under that is 'DiskConfiguration' and so forth. When I use WAIK to open my winpe.wim image that I created using 'copype' I no longer have that component listed in my 'Windows Image' section. I also used the install.wim file from the cd to create an unattended xml file. When I load that xml file while I have the winpe.wim image loaded, the validation fails because it can't find the 'x86_Microsoft-Windows-Setup_neutral' component.

Everything else from my unattended.xml file works properly. When I boot from this image, all I have to do is partition and format the disk, and the rest completes perfectly. Why is the disk partitioner component missing from the winpe.wim image, and can I add it in?

Edited September 17, 2008 by kai4785

[docmarten]

Sorry i hope this is what you were looking for.

If I understand correctly you want to edit a WIM file?

But when you try to install it doesnt list one of your edits?

I think this will help - maybe you missed outsomething

http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/...eployments.html

Please forgive me if I didnt understand

Edited September 18, 2008 by docmarten

[kai4785]

I have been able to successfully modify the .wim image. That article describes the same method I used to make changes to the startnet.cmd file, and create my custom mac.bat batch file.

My problem is that I don't know what I need to change on the .wim image in order to have the desired effects. The only way I know to describe my problem is with what I see in the Windows Automated Installer Kit (WAIK). It lists a component in the lower left hand window in the install.wim file on the CD that is not listed in the winpe.wim file that is created with copype.

If you know how to change, modify, add, or remove one of these components, you would have a very eager listener.

[Guest Odi719]

So if I understand your question right, all you need is to know what the xml code is to add to the config/answer file that will automatically format/partition the hard drive, then install Windows Server 2008?

Or do you have the code but it doesn't work being that your using a winpe.wim image?

It sounds like it takes you to the Format/Partition Utility, but you need it to just format and partition automatically?

[kai4785]

Really? Was my original post that ambiguous? Or is there just nobody here who has used WAIK to create a WINPE image, and used it to build an unattended install?

Odin719: No, I don't need the xml syntax for the unattended.xml file. I have an xml file that works fine when the installation is done from CD. The problem is in the WINPE pxe image somewhere. The only name I can find for what is missing is from the WAIK, and it's called a 'component' there.