Portable RIS Server

[stuffman]

Hello,

I'm trying to figure out the best way to approach a company-wide reimage that has to take place soon. I was thinking about loading 2000 Server on our MIS dept. Laptop and bringing it with me to the individual branch offices so I can spend the day there reimaging all of their computers, rather than lug each one back to corporate with me, load them, then return at a later time to put it back on the desk (1 reimage=1 visit to site). I'm already using RIS to load machines in my organization, between RIS itself and the countless batchfiles I'm using it's worked out very well for me.

Does anyone know how making RIS portable would affect my current setup, or anything I should take into consideration before experimenting with this? Have any of you done something similar? I guess I should also say that the reason I'm loading RIS onto a laptop is to avoid having that information crossing the WAN, which would not be a good option for us, as our links are at best T1. Thanks,

Stuff

[RogueSpear]

As you're probably already aware, 2000 RIS servers need to be explicitly authorized in the DHCP snap-in (I believe 2003 does this for you). So you need to take into consideration DHCP. Where do these clients obtain their lease from? Are your remote sites part of the same forest? Same domain? At your earliest possible convenience prior to actually setting out to do this, take the time to visit a remote site and do a dry run. Bring along another computer with you if there aren't any appropriate sacrificial lambs at the remote site.

A wise man once told me to always remember the seven P's - Proper Prior Planning Prevents p*** Poor Performance. It may sound like a joke, but there's a lot of truth to it. There are so many unforseen things that could go wrong. Better to find out what they are ahead of time.

[stuffman]

Very true RogueSpear,

We've looked into the DHCP issues and I think that's going the be the major hurdle, or the first of many... Have you (or anyone else reading this) ever run more than a single RIS server simultaneously? I'm trying to figure out what mechanisms Microsoft has put in place to make the clients "prefer" a RIS server that is on the same subnet, as opposed to one on a remote subnet. Thanks,

Stuff

[Br4tt3]

Hi!

We are running about 250 RIS boxes within our organization currently, all are Win2003 boxes. As long as there is a segmented/layered network at the sites (so that no intersite PXE detection will occur), everything works smoothly so far. The client uses / prefers the RIS boxes that services the client the fastest, so if u have 5 RIS boxes, the one fastest to pick up the request will be the winner.

The issue u r addressing is: If someone has multiple sites to support through the usage of RIS deployment, how to deploy the clients using a single RIS server build, to ensure the same "image" is deployed everywhere?

If this is the issue/case, I strongly recommend u to do the following:

1. Skip the tactic of having one mobile RIS server, that u can take under the arm or on the flight and script it....

2. Basically u need to know some very basic vb or js scripting.. dont be scared, love it!

3. Script kicks of the sysocmgr.exe with parameter to install the native Win32 RIS component, both applicable to Win2003 and Win2000.

4. Once this has been done, the risetup.exe can be automated using parameters to add and configure the RIS box unattended.

5. Any specific customazations can also be done from the script... as creating or copying the $OEM$ folders and files for u and the .sif file.

All this solution really requires, is access to the source files of the Win32 OS u r running to add the native Windows components. This way u will have a script (10K) instead of a laptop to carry (5 kilos).

Or the really basic lazy tactic ( works on Win2003, Win2000 dunno ) :

1. Build ur master copy of the image on 1 RIS server, when finished

2. Copy everything below the x:\RemoteInstall\Setup\English\Images\<Your_Image_Name> onto a huge USB stick

3. Put the stick in the pocket and catch the flight

4. Install the RIS feature manually on the designated server, more or less, next next next finish

5. Delete the image added at this step....

6. Connect the USB stick from step 2

7. Copy everything on the stick to the designated folder

Since adding an image is basically a large file copy sequence, y not? I find myslef having more control over the installation when copying the files and folders into place on the RIS server than adding an image using risetup.exe.

Personally, I am using a combination of method 1 & 2:

1. Split the RIS setup into 2 parts, Part 1 - Install and configure RIS, Part 2 - Adding image(s)

2. Part 1 - Using method 1 without step 5, when done wrapp the script in a .msi file so I get versioning and deployment capability with AD/SMS and so. Also, this solves the issue in case one wanna make an update that is important and that is to be spread all over the RIS boxes, just make a patch with the new modifications and it will update itself.

3. Part 2 - Take all the time in the world to manually create a master image with all the goodies, once satisfied, package into a .msi and of u go. Any new drivers to add/distribute to the all the RIS servers, I create a patch that will update the installations.

Or maby that wasn't ur question?

[stuffman]

Br4tt3,

whoa! Thanks for the throrough reply. I had no idea you could have that many RIS servers in a domain. I'm going to keep your suggestions in mind, I think that the RIS method would be the best route, since we have no standard hardware, and Ghost/Sysprep seem to be very picky about what hardware they'll work with. I don't want to carry a set of CDs for every type of machine out there. Thanks again, I'll post back if I run into problems.

~stuff

[Br4tt3]

I had no idea you could have that many RIS servers in a domain...

Well, from my standpoint, as long as all the RIS boxes present exatcly the same images, with patches and so on, I dont even care if they use 3 RIS servers on the same subnet, cause independent of which machine that answers the requesting client, they will obtain the same image.

[hosebeast]

Something to keep in mind: by default, 2000/XP clients installed from RIS will have value(s) in the following registry key pointing to the RIS share:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup

If the client needs to Add/Remove Windows Components in the future, it will look to that share, which obviously won't work if you don't plan to leave your laptop forever. There are several possible ways you could address this, but probably the easiest is to include a [Components] section in your SIF which installs everything those clients are likely to ever need.

[Br4tt3]

Hi!

I agree.... same goes when u wanna service pack clients, they in some cases need the source files/i386 depending on how the clients have been installed.

[stuffman]

That's a good point, what I've ended up doing is making a ghost image, placing on the laptop and sharing the folder containing it. Then I boot to a network bootdisk which automatically maps the drive to the share on the laptop, and runs ghost. Thanks for all the help, this is ideal since it will still point to the original RIS server that the image was created from. Thanks again,

Stuff