PAGE 1

Home Up APLUS WIN2K NT 4.0 CISCO NETPLUS FEED BACK BRAINDUMPS WEBRING SPONSORS

PAGE 2

Unattended installations:
  • Unattended installations rely on an answer file to provide information during setup process that is usually provided through manual user input. (KB# Q183245)
  • Answer files can be created manually using a text editor or by using the Setup Manager Wizard (SMW) (found in the Windows 2000 Resource Kit Deployment Tools).
  • SMW allows for creation of a shared Distribution Folder and OEM Branding
  • If you had a CD in drive D: and an unattended installation answer file named salesans.txt in C:\, you could start your install with this command: D:\i386\winnt32 /s:d:\i386 /unattend:c:\salesans.txt (KB# Q216258)
  • When doing a CD-based install of W2K Pro and are booting from CD, name your answer file WINNT.SIF and make sure it is on a floppy disk in your floppy drive. The serial # for the CD should be entered into the .SIF file to avoid a need for manual user input during the install.
  • There are five levels of user interaction during unattended installs:
    1. Provide Defaults - Administrator supplies default answers and user only has to accept defaults or make changes where necessary.
    2. Fully Automated - Mainly used for Win2000 Professional desktop installs. User just has to sit on their hands and watch.
    3. Hide Pages - Users can only interact with setup where Administrator did not provide default information. Display of all other dialogs is supressed.
    4. Read Only - Similar to above, but will display information to user without allowing interaction to pages where Administrator has provided default information.
    5. GUI Attended - Only used for automating the second stage of setup. All other stages require manual input.

Deploy Windows 2000 by using Remote Installation Services (RIS):

Overview:

Remote Installation Services (RIS) is used to lower the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of Windows by simplifying the process of installing new client workstations. Currently only Windows 2000 Professional clients can be installed using RIS.

RIS Server requirements:

  • DHCP Server Service
  • Active Directory
  • DNS Server Service
  • At least 2 GB of disk space. Hard disk must have at least two partitions, one for the Operating System and one for the images. Image partition must be formatted with NTFS. RIS packages cannot be installed on either the system or boot partitions. Also cannot be on an EFS volume or DFS shared folder.

Steps for setting up RIS Server:

  • Install Remote Installation Services using Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs > Windows Components.
  • Start the RIS Setup Wizard by running risetup. Specify the Remote Installation Folder Location. For Initial Settings, choose Do not respond to any client requests (default setting - RIS Server must be authorized first). Specify the location of the W2K Professional source files for building the initial CD-based image. Designate a folder inside the RIS folder where the CD image will be stored. Provide a friendly text name for the CD-based image.
  • Setup Wizard creates the folder structure, copies needed source files to the server, creates the initial CD-based W2K Professional image in its designated folder along with the default answer file (Ristandard.sif), and starts the RIS services on the server.
  • Server must now be authorized. Open Administrative Tools > DHCP. Right-click DHCP in the console tree and choose Manage authorized servers. When dialog appears, click Authorize and enter name or IP of the RIS server (user must be a member of the Enterprise Admins group to do this).
  • You may now configure your RIS Server to respond to client requests.
  • Assign users/groups that will be performing RIS Installations permissions to Create Computer Objects in Active Directory.
  • The Client Computer Naming Format is defined through Active Directory Users & Computers. Right-click the RIS Server and click Properties > Remote Install > Advanced Settings > New Clients. Choose a pre-defined format or create a custom one. Variables are: %Username (user logon name), %First (user first name), %Last (user last name), %# (incremental number), %MAC (NIC hardware address) (KB# Q244964)
  • Associate an answer file (.SIF) with your image.

Creating a RIPrep Image:

  • Procure a Source Computer and install Windows 2000 Professional. Configure all components and settings for your desired client configuration keeping everything on a single partition (RIPrep Wizard can only image a single partition).
  • Install your applications and configure them. Do not install unnecessary applications - remember that RIS requires Active Directory which can be used to publish or assign software as needed using Group Policy.
  • As you created and configured the system using the Administrator profile, you will need to copy your configuration to the Default User profile so that your custom settings will not be lost.
  • To launch the RIPrep Wizard, click Start > Run and type the following into the Open box: \\RISServerName\reminst\admin\i386\riprep.exe. Provide the name of the RIS Server where the image will be stored, the folder that will hold the image and a friendly text description.

RIS Client requirements: (KB# Q228908)

  • Client machine must meet minimum hardware requirements for Windows 2000 Professional and must use the same Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL).
  • Must have a network adapter that meets the Pre-boot Execution Environment standard (PXE) version 99c and higher (there is a confirmed problem with v99j - KB# Q244454) or a 3 1/2" floppy drive and PCI network adapter supported by the RIS Startup Disk utility's list of supported adaptors. (KB# Q244036 & Q246184)

Comparing RIPrep images with CD-based images:

RIPrep Image CD-based image
Can only be deployed to a computer with
the same HAL as the source computer.		 Can be deployed to ANY computer with a HAL
supported by W2K.
Contains the OS and applications Contains the Operating System only and applications
are deployed separately using Group Policy.
Created manually Created automatically upon installation of RIS Server
Based on a preconfigured client computer.
Cannot be changed without recreating the
image. Separate image required for each
installation type.		 Based on default settings of operating system. An
image file is used to customize the image. Multiple
answer (.SIF) files can be used to customize the same
image.
Only necessary files and registry keys are
copied to the client system. Fastest
method.		 All files are copied to client hard drive before Setup
program is started. Slower and places and additional
burden on a network.

Troubleshooting Remote Installations:

  • If computer displays a BootP message but doesn't display the DHCP message, check to see if it can obtain an IP address. If it cannot, make sure a DHCP server is online, is authorized, has a valid IP address scope and that the DHCP packets are being routed (you may need to install a DHCP relay agent if your DHCP server is located on a different network segment than the RIS client - KB# Q174765)
  • Computer displays the DHCP message but does not display the Boot Information Negotiations Layer (BINL) message. Make sure the RIS server is online and authorized and that DHCP packets are being routed. (KB# Q235979)
  • BINL message is displayed but system is unable to connect to RIS server. Try restarting the NetPC Boot Service Manager (BINLSVC) on the RIS Server.
  • If the Client cannot connect to RIS Server using the Startup disk check to make sure you used the right network adapter driver in rbfg.exe.
  • If the installation options you expected are not available, there may be Group Policy conflicts. Check to make sure another Group Policy Object did not take precedence over your own.

Other considerations:
  • You cannot create RIPrep images on a server unless it already has an existing CD-based image.
  • The Remote Boot Floppy Generator utility (rbfg.exe) only works on Windows 2000 systems (KB# Q246618). To create boot floppies, click Start > Run and then type:
    \\RISServerName\reminst\admin\i386\rbfg.exe and click OK
  • The answer file (.SIF) supports the new [RemoteInstall] section. Setting the repartition parameter to yes causes the install to delete all partitions on the client computer and reformat the drive with one NTFS partition.
  • Pre-staging images using the GUID of PXE-based workstations prevents unauthorized users from illegally installing Windows 2000 onto their systems.
  • The MAC address of the network adapter can be entered into the GUID field and padded with zeros.

Working with SYSDIFF:

  • Used for installing applications, usually in conjuction with an unattended installation. SYSDIFF allows you to take a snapshot of your machine's original state, install applications, and then package all of these changes into a single file which can be applied to other machines.
  • Install your baseline system first. Then take a snapshot of it before installing any applications. Syntax is: sysdiff /snap snap_file
  • Next install desired applications on target system. Use the SYSDIFF tool to create a difference file. Syntax is: sysdiff /diff snap_file diff_file
  • You can now apply your difference file to the target system(s). Syntax is: sysdif /apply \\setupserver\w2k\diff_file

System preparation tool (SYSPREP.EXE): (KB# Q240126)

  • Removes the unique elements of a fully installed computer system so that it can be duplicated using imaging software such as Ghost or Drive Image Pro. Avoids the NT4 problem of duplicated SIDS , computer names etc. Installers can use sysprep to provide and answer file for "imaged" installations.
  • Must be extracted from DEPLOY.CAB in the \support\tools folder on the Windows 2000 Professional CD-ROM.
  • Adds a mini-setup wizard to the image file which is run the first time the computer it is applied to is started. Guides user through re-entering user specific data. This process can be automated by providing a script file. (KB# Q196667)
  • Use Setup Manager Wizard (SMW) to create a SYSPREP.INF file. SMW creates a SYSPREP folder in the root of the drive image and places sysprep.inf in this folder. The mini-setup wizard checks for this file when it runs.
  • Specifying a CMDLINES.TXT file in your SYSPREP.INF file allows an administrator to run commands or programs during the mini-Setup portion of SYSPREP. (KB# Q238955)
  • Available switches for sysprep.exe are: /quiet (runs without user interaction), /pnp (forces Setup to detect PnP devices), /reboot (restarts computer), and /nosidgen (will not regenerate SID on target computer).