Unattended over LAN: automatic selection of correct answer-file

[muellinger_hn]

Hi Everybody!

I have the following problem. I am planning an unattended Installation of about 100 PC's over LAN.

The Main Problem is that i dont have a Volume-License key but single OEM Keys per Machine to use.

So i have to choose the right Answer-File for every PC.

Can you give me any tips how o can do this via schript? The PC's will boot an Image of a DOS-Bootdisk via

PXE. Is it possible to choose the right file via MAC-Adress or something like that? How would you do this?

Thanks very much!

Carsten "Muellinger_hn" Mueller

[T D]

Wrong forum. There's one spefically for unattended installs.

I don't think you can use multiple answer files. There was a trick where you could put winnt.sif onto a floppy but I don't know. But then you'd need 100 floppies.

[mmarable]

It's going to be tough, but you could use a script to pull the MAC address, and then pull the answer file base on that.

Compname.exe will pull the MAC address, I think it will also pull the S/N from the BIOs, so either of those will work.

You could leave out the CD key from the answer file and manually key it in during the install. Manually entering the CD key vs. creating 100 answer files and a process for selecting them automatically.

[Stinger12348]

Being OEM is it not a royalty OEM where it would preactivate and you can use the OEM's key on all 100 computers.

[T D]

Btw even if it is preactivated, you still have to enter the serial during setup, to unattend that, use winnt.sif, but then u'd need 100 winnt.sif, hence 100 floppies or other methods.

But by the basic way, you'd need 100 floppies.