Imaging for multiple identical workstations

Banzai_Joe

Banzai_Joe

Banzai_Joe

Soldato
Joined
30 Sep 2006
Posts
5,278
Location
Midlands, UK
Hi all,
some urgent advice required please.
I have to rebuild our design dept with new cad workstations.
2 for now, but possibly another 3 or 4 in the near future. Regardless of whether i buy and build or buy off the shelf, all will have the following installed:
- Win7 Pro x64
- Office 2010 H&B
- Autocad 2013
- Adobe CS5.5 Design Standard

It seems to make sense to do one, image it and then apply that image to the other workstations. But i've never done it, so how do i do it please?

Is it sysprep'd without serial/activation codes?
I say that but i'm not terribly sure how to do that either. I had a go once by deploying from WDS but it didn't seem to work.

Any quick pointers on the easiest and quickest way to do this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks :)


edit: for any cad IT type users out there, i'm thinking of using the Xeon E3-1240 cpu as opposed to the i7 range. Your opinions on this please? (i know the Xeon won't overclock, but i'm thinking 'stability'?)
 
We have used clonezilla in the past for identical machines running XP (sysprep'd)
Ours was just a base build (XP+Office) but I guess you can install CS5 etc in trial mode and enter the key per workstation, unless you have volume licencing
 
It's the prepping that i need help with.
Do i install windows and all the software but without activating/cdkeys, then simply follow a sysprep tut for win7?
Or is there something more to it than that?
 
You are essentially correct with your assumption; you would install XP and the other software without activating anything. Then you extract sysprep from the Support\Tools\Deploy.cab archive on the XP installation disc, and use the setupmgr.exe program to create a sysprep answer file. Put sysprep.exe, Setupcl.exe and the sysprep.inf file into "%systemdrive%\sysprep", then run "%systemdrive%\sysprep\sysprep.exe -mini -quiet -reseal". The system will then shut down, at which point you create your image. When you power on a system with this image applied, it will run through the mini-setup. There are clearer, more detailed instructions here; http://support.microsoft.com/kb/298491

You may have some difficulty including some of the software in the image. I'm not sure if you can change the product key for Autocad and Adobe, so you may have to run multiple machines with the same key unless you re-install or change the key.
 
Banzai_Joe said:
It's the prepping that i need help with.
Do i install windows and all the software but without activating/cdkeys, then simply follow a sysprep tut for win7?
Or is there something more to it than that?
Click to expand...

If you want to learn how to do it and make it easier to deploy in the future. Assuming you do not want to automate anything, like joining the domain, configurations etc. Then it can be fairly simple.

Install windows 7, install all the software but don't run any of it and avoid entering cdkeys if you can, if you can't avoid cdkey entries due to being forced during install, then you will have to find out how to modify the cdkeys post image.
Once you have everything installed, go to c:\windows\system32\sysprep\ run the sysrep.exe tool. Select generalize tick box and chose shutdown and not restart.

Then when it is shutdown, boot form clonezilla usb stick, create an image to the network or better a usb potable hard drive. Then go to the next pc boot from clonezilla image the drive with the image you created.

When starting up after a sysprep it will say preparing pc for the first time and it will prompt for you to enter the pc name and other options. This is what can be scripted during the sysprep process to make it all silent, but if you don't script it, then you get prompts.

When the users log in there will be post login configurations that will be required as all the software will think it is running for the first time, as well and probably post boot configurations as well, as described earlier, changing the cdkeys of windows and software to unique keys by registry changes or other means.
 
Last edited:
Just out of curiosity, why are you going with Windows XP x64? Is it because you've already got the licenses for it, or is it for software compatibility?
 
Thanks guys, and yes it is win7 pro x64 as groen pointed out.
I did go through a few days of playing with WDS and SCCM on our domain (on a virtual server), but i felt a little overwhelmed with it, and i've forgotten it all now anyway as it was last year.
I'm now buying the workstsations with Win7 and office preinstalled, so no need to image, but i would like to get to grips with imaging in this way.
Guess i'll have another look at it soon.

Thanks again fellas. :)
 
Banzai Joe,

The integrated Sysprep utility is perhaps one of the more commonly used options to automate a successful deployment. The official Sysprep utility is located in the folder C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep of the Windows 7 environment.

In addition to Sysprep there a few more tools you could use to create images and simplify your imaging and deployment process in the future. Perhaps the best place to start would be to check out the Deliver and Deploy Windows 7 page on the Springboard site on TechNet so as to familiarize yourself with Windows 7 deployment. For now, there are some tips that I can give you to assist you both with the use of the Sysprep utility and creating unattend.xml files and then proceeding from there.

The first tip is to use the Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK), which includes WSIM (Windows System Image Manager) to create unattend.xml files, or an answer file. The Windows Automated Installation Kit or Windows AIK includes several utilities that can help make using the official Sysprep utility easier than ever. Windows AIK also includes ImageX, which is the Microsoft cloning utility that creates file-based images (.wim) allowing the images to be modified after their creation to apply updates, new drivers, or applications. You can even automate the process of joining a domain. For more specific assistance on domain joining, please use the steps outlined in “Automating the Domain Join” from the TechNet site.

The second tip is to use Audit Mode to customize the system and perform customizations to the default profile. By allowing you to log into the system as Administrator, Audit Mode can significantly simplify the customization process. In order to customize the default profile in both Windows Vista and Windows 7 you will need to make your customizations in Audit Mode, and then run Sysprep with an answer file that has the copyprofile setting enabled.

The final tip I will leave you with is to use the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) that combines all of the official tools above into a single workbench interface that can help automate the entirety of the process. Additionally, it is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2003, 2008, and 2008 R2, which means learning one utility to do all of your deployments. Furthermore, it is exceptionally useful in creating “universal” images as it can easily add or remove drivers or applications from the deployment images. MDT can also be used in conjunction with Windows Deployment Services (WDS).

For a step-by-step guide to deploying Windows 7 I recommend this step-by-step guide from the Springboard Series on TechNet and the Build a better desktop image resource as it is a great article with additional detailed information on desktop image management.

Hope all this information helps you get started and points you in the right direction!

Jessica
Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro
 
Is this the method used by ready built system builders like Dell, HP, OCUK etc to deploy Win 7 etc onto the builds pre shipping? Always wondered how it was done :)
 
winoutreach5, many thanks for your advice.
I pretty much went through most of everything you said about a year ago, but never managed to get a full run at it as my job entails other things and i was trying to 'fit it in' so to speak. I installed WDS on a server, went through the AIK etc.
Sadly i can't remember a thing about it, but as i still have it all, i may just create a new hyp-v guest, install WDS and have another play.

Thanks to everyone else for your input too. :)
 
essexraptor yes they use sysprep for oem builds, you can even resysprep an oem build but you can't create unattend.xml for oem builds as the oem unattend seems to overide any custom unattend.xml.

We use oem builds at my current place so i just run the sysprep as described above with no unattend and then when you start it up after sysprep it just shows the manufacture logo on the prompts for passwords and looks like you started it up for the first time.

one problem that they didn't fix with windows 7 sysprep and unattend. If you try and auto join a domain using the unattend.xml (created by waik) you are unable to make the unattend prompt for a computer name during the image process and thus all computer names will have to have a random name if you use that method of joining the domain. This is caused by a stupid fault in the order in which the script is processed. The unattend.xml will try and join the domain before the computer name input prompt appears and it fails to join the domain as result. The workaround is to use the setupcomplete.cmd script to join the domain after setting up the unattend.xml to prompt for the entering of the pc name. the only other method is to use software like FOG which allows for a scripting of the pc names based on a list. But i have not done that yet.

I am not sure if SCCM deployment addresses this issue.

Using sysprep and clonezilla the images that i have created work on every different type of hardware that i have tried, often after boot all the drivers are working on different pcs, this is without including any extra drivers in to the image. Sometimes though one or two drivers will not work if you created the image on a different pc. But the pc still boots ok, you will just have some non installed devices in device manager. Which can easily be done post image or as part of the image process post imaging. Also the one limitation with clonezilla is that drive size, you can't image a pc with a drive smaller than the drive of the image. The work around for this is to create your image using a partition of a drive that is smaller than the actual drive and thus making it fit on to most drives and then you can just create a second partition if they ever run out of space.
 
Last edited:
groen said:
one problem that they didn't fix with windows 7 sysprep and unattend. If you try and auto join a domain using the unattend.xml (created by waik) you are unable to make the unattend prompt for a computer name during the image process and thus all computer names will have to have a random name if you use that method of joining the domain.
Click to expand...

Check out a little utility called Mysysprep, gets round this problem and prompts you for the machine name. Can even have it take the name from the BIOS I think as well, been a while since I used it though.
 
Two things:

groen said:
A simple powershell script executed from the setupcomplete.cmd to join the domain solves the problem. Ill check that out though. thanks.
Click to expand...
1) You can include AutoCAD 2013 in that! On the installation USB stick you'll find tools for creating a network installation. You can configure the installation exactly how you want before deployment and obviously sort out activation at the same time.
Once you have your deployment image sorted out, the rest can be done as a silent network install during the first boot.

2) We use E3-1235 chips for CAD work stations and they work very smoothly. Of course YMMV depending on the workload, but it's fine for standard AutoCAD / Google Sketchup / Most V-ray implementations.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom