Vista Sysprep ~ Sas hard disk

[louwie]

Hi There,

First of all I will explain how we worked until now.....

I our organization we use Altiris Deployment server for windows installations. We finished a project "Vista Ready". We choose to have one Vista image. This is much easier to manage.

So when I start an installation here is how it goes;

Altiris WinPE will distribute a sysprep image to the hard disk of the computer. When this is done WinPE will also copy specific drivers to c:\drivers. (Before I build the sysprep I changed the DevicePath to " %SystemRoot%\inf;c:\Drivers " ) Now the computer reboots and the mini setup of Vista automatically start. In the run once there is and command to run; rundll32.exe Syssetup.dll,UpdatePnpDeviceDrivers /f

This will install the drivers from c:\drivers to all the specific hardware.....

I was very happy about the above solution and works fine until now :-(

But now I got a new workstation to test, with a SAS hard disk. The hard disk is not automatically recognized by Vista and you need to install manually the drivers.

So the above solution will not work. c:\drivers is at a later stage. (There is a blue screen before the setup normally starts) The mini setup of the sysprep is before this and is the same stage when you manually start the installation of Windows and load the sas drivers. (I think, I am not sure)

To change the xml file is not an option, this is generated by Altiris and variable, also copied to the hard disk during Altiris WinPE.

So my question; Where can I put the SAS drivers? So sysprep can successfully start on my new workstation.

[fizban2]

you are going to have to inject the SAS drivers into your wim file. that is the only way to be able to deploy to that harddrive

[louwie]

you are going to have to inject the SAS drivers into your wim file. that is the only way to be able to deploy to that harddrive

But it's a sysprep image build on an other computer. An image file like ghost or wathever....

So there is only an install.wim on the original Vista installation disc.

Or am I wrong?

thxs...

Edited July 21, 2009 by louwie

[fizban2]

if you are using a custom WIM you have created you can still use peimg (found in the WAIK) to mount the wim (imagex) and inject drivers directly to it.

*example steps*

Copy WIM from alteris location

Mount Wim on in a folder you have created (make sure to use Mountrw)

use peimg to inject the INF file and drivers for the SAS disk

unmount and commit the WIM.

test wim file with alteris and verify success

[Tripredacus]

I see the confusion. I don't believe that Altiris actually has its own imaging component, or at least it didn't the last time I used it. You can script Altiris Notification Server to launch imaging software, such as Ghost or Imagex, or any other program.

So what program actually does the imaging from Altiris?

[louwie]

I see the confusion. I don't believe that Altiris actually has its own imaging component, or at least it didn't the last time I used it. You can script Altiris Notification Server to launch imaging software, such as Ghost or Imagex, or any other program.

So what program actually does the imaging from Altiris?

We are still using Altiris 6.xx, Deployment Solution 6.9 is using a Rdeploy. In the new version, Altiris 7 it will be ghost or imagex.

But maybe I dont unstand you guys very wel, or my explantion is bad; I used a simple computer to install Vista by hand from dvd.....after that Altiris sealed that pc for me using sysprep. The the harddisk image is taken and placed on the network. If I open this image you will see the exact content of an installed pc; c:\windows, c:\program files...etc.

For a new workstation with diferent hardware I use the same sysprep image. After the image is sent to this workstation, but before the computer restarts a driver repository is filt in with the specific drivers for that hardware. The mini-setup of sysprep wil start and during this fase c:\drivers is checked for drivers. Until now this worked fine, and is great....because you only need to manage one or two images.

But sas is not recognised by the mini-setup so it fails.....bluescreen.

To edit install.wim is no option...because installing from dvd was only once at the beginnening of building a sysprep image.

And the wim file is not on an installed computer.....

[Tripredacus]

If you have a Service Agreement with Altiris (Symantec) this question might be better suited for them. The Altiris suite is a high end and expensive product and you may find that most users here may not be in the large corporate environment that can use it. When I used Altiris 6, it launched Ghost. I do not know if Rdeploy has the ability for you to inject drivers into it, or what that process is.

I can make this workaround recommendation.

1. Deploy the image onto a known working machine. Use this as your test machine.

2. After it is deployed, do not boot or reboot.

3. Capture the image with Imagex.

4. Inject the drivers into the WIM file.

5. Reimage the computer with Imagex and your modified WIM file. Again do not boot or reboot after imaging.

6. Recapture the image on the computer with Rdeploy.

You should back up your existing Rdeploy image in case this does not work, so you can restore it easily.

Now this means you will have a fully editable version of the image as a WIM, as well as your Rdeploy copy.

[fizban2]

what is the format of the file after the sysprep occurs? i apologize, i assume that alteris was using a WIM file to push the clients machine. If alteris is not using a WIM you can do this:

1. extract the files off the DVD

2. inject the drivers into the WIM file

3. recreate your DVD

4. install your image

5. capture the image with the drivers.

[Tripredacus]

what is the format of the file after the sysprep occurs? i apologize, i assume that alteris was using a WIM file to push the clients machine.

Not to confuse you further, but not only can Altiris launch Ghost or Imagex, you can also launch Ghost from Rdeploy!

[louwie]

Hi....

It's an *.img file made by Rdeploy.....

After testing I found some more.....and maybe the solution I hope so...

-Install vista from dvd

-Inject sas drivers for new workstation "pnputil -i -a c:\sas\megasr.inf" (driver installed and add to vista repository)

-Run sysprep

-Altiris Rdeploy takes the image

Now I have a basis image....

When I want to install this on a workstation with sas this what happens.

-Altiris WinPE will start

-Copy the sysprep image to harddrive

-Before reboot, WinPE copies a directory named $WinPEDriver$ filled with the sas drivers to the root of the harddisk. After that c:\Drivers is filled with the exact drivers for the specific driver of the workstation.

-Computer reboots and mini setup starts. During this fase Vista loads critical drivers for bootdevice (sas) from $WinPEDriver$

-later on c:\drivers is checked for other hardware drivers

The above seems to work...but stil testing

I think this is the only solution for me, because of the idea to work with only one image for all hardware.