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How to create boot and install images of VMs for using with Windows Deployment Services

Article ID: 6833 
Last Review: Nov,5 2009
Author: Kichigin Aleksey
Last updated by: Kichigin Aleksey APPLIES TO:
  • Parallels Server Bare Metal
  • Parallels Server for Mac

Resolution

To create boot image for Windows Deployment Services (WDS) in Windows Server 2003:

1. Create a VM and install Windows Server 2003 SP2;
2. Setup WDS on it;
3. Setup Windows AIK (Automated Installation Kit) 1.1;
4. Download boot.wim from Windows Vista x86 DVD (<disk>:\sources\boot.wim) to C:/
5. Download drivers, unpack and copy to c:\prl\ folder
6. Using Windows AIK tools take the following steps:

imagex /mountrw c:\boot.wim 1 c:\ff

Add the drivers to the image:
peimg /inf=c:\prl\prl_eth5.inf c:\ff

Unmount and commit the changes:
imagex /unmount /commit c:\ff\

Then, do the same for image 2 in the boot.wim file:
imagex /mountrw c:\boot.wim 2 c:\ff

Add the drivers to the image:
peimg /inf=c:\prl\prl_eth5.inf c:\ff

Unmount and commit the changes:
imagex /unmount /commit c:\ff\

7. Add boot.wim to WDS server as boot image

To create Windows 2003 install image:

On the WDS server side:

1. Right click the boot image on WDS GUI;
2. Click Create Capture Boot Image;
3. Enter a name (different from your boot image, say, Windows PE Capture(X86)) for the capture image;
4. Choose a location and a name (again different from your boot image, say, WinPECapture.vim) to save  the capture image;
5. Click OK;
6. Click Finish;
7. Right click Boot Images folder;
8. Click Add Boot Image;
9. Browse to select WinPECapture.vim, then Next, Finish;
10. Right click your boot image (not the capture image) to disable it.

On the reference computer (Windows 2003 manually installed):
 
1. Create a directory under C: drive named sysprep;
2. Copy all files from C:\WINDOWS\system32\deploy.cab to this folder;
3. Start a command propmt, change directory to c:\sysprep;
4. Type sysprep /reseal /reboot
5. When your reference computer reboots, load in PXE;
6. The Image Capture Wizard should start (since we disabled boot image on WDS server, only the capture image is enabled), click Next;
7. Choose Volume to Capture, enter a name and description for your image, then click Next;
8. On Image Capture Destination page,  browse to the location where you want to save the image, for example C:\
9. Type a name in File name box, for example win2k3ee.vim, then click Save;
10. Click Upload image to WDS server;
11. Type your WDS server name, click Connect ;
12. Enter user name and password which has admin access to your WDS server;
13. Choose an Image Group;
14. Click Finish;

To make installation unattended:

1. Download and copy file unattended.xml to C:\RemoteInstall\WdsClientUnattend folder;
2. Edit <InstallImage> and <Credentials>  tags in unattended.xml file in concordance with your install image, lets say the image is named Win2k3;
3. In WDS Server properties select Client, Unnatended instalaltion file for x86, unnatended.xml in С:\RemoteInstall\WdsClientUnattend;
4. Create folder with the same name as wim file, in our example it is Win2k3, C:\RemoteInstall\Images\Win2k3\Win2k3;
5. Create "$OEM$\$1\sysprep\" folder structure in C:\RemoteInstall\Images\Win2k3\Win2k3\ folder;
6. Download and copy sysprep.inf file to C:\RemoteInstall\Images\Win2k3\Win2k3\$OEM$\$1\sysprep\ folder;
7. Modify sysprep.inf file in concordance with your environment;
8. Download network drivers, unpack and copy to C:\RemoteInstall\Images\Win2k3\Win2k3\$OEM$\$1\Drivers\Network\ folder


For more information about Unattended Installation refer to this article:
Settings to Use for an Unattended Installation

For how to modify sysprep.inf file see this article:
Sysprep Tools and Settings


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