Sysprepping win8 from hyper-v

Banzai_Joe · 25 Feb 2013 at 13:54

Hi all,

does anyone know if a hyper-v guest running win8 can be sysprepped with /generalise /OOBE onto physical hardware?

I want to test certain software out on win8, so was thinking once i'm happy with it, i'll sysprep it and then load it onto my desktop.

I don't have any spare hardware to test it on, so it will go onto ws2008r2 hyper-v .

Any thoughts?

Django x2 · 26 Feb 2013 at 10:17

I've tried this (just last week) and it worked fine. Having said that, I haven't played with the physical box much since (drivers, software, etc). It's still Vanilla 8

paradigm · 26 Feb 2013 at 10:18

Of course it will work, that's kind of the point of /generalize

Banzai_Joe · 26 Feb 2013 at 11:51

paradigm said:
Of course it will work, that's kind of the point of /generalize

I was more concerned that i don't have a proper technician/reference machine, as it's all virtual.
I've never actually syprepped before anyway, so any bullet pointers in order would be appreciated.

kirbz · 27 Feb 2013 at 19:50

I created an image using sysprep on virtualbox and applied it to a pc today all working fine :-)

Banzai_Joe · 28 Feb 2013 at 08:28

Thanks kirbz,
any pointers on how you do/did it please?

zakblood · 28 Feb 2013 at 09:19

http://www.aidanfinn.com/?p=13319

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314828/en-us?sd=rss&spid=14134

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh824816.aspx

kirbz · 28 Feb 2013 at 21:49

Banzai_Joe said:
Thanks kirbz,
any pointers on how you do/did it please?

Hi,

I look after 5 schools IT and needed a master image. I used gimagex and created a wim file that will be used for deployment using wds. I have used clonezilla in the past a lot and it good but not as good as having a wim file. The beauty of using wims is that it can fit on any hard drive clonezilla used to make an image of a hd but you would need the new drive to be the same size or smaller.

The process was create a vhd, install windows as normal, update as much as I could then sysprep with generalize and oobe, plug in USB stick or create a network share and Run gimagex (or imagex if your good with commandline) to create the wim. I've not used hyper v so don't know much about it. I actually have a virtual machine running server 2012 so can play about and learn how to use it.

Hope this helps.

P.s. once sysprepped don't boot into it until imaged. Actually take a snapshot pre and post sysprep.

winoutreach5 · 28 Feb 2013 at 22:18

Just to confirm as others have also stated on this thread, you can indeed sysprep a Hyper-V virtual machine. In this TechNet magazine article, about 80% of the way down the page, you will see that Alexey Semibratov assures readers that you no longer need a physical computer for building images. The article goes on to say, “Semibratov also created a “set it and forget it” script that utilizes Hyper-V and MDT to automatically build Windows Images.” Even though the article was written for MDT 2010 and Windows 7, you should still be able to use Hyper-V to create a virtual machine for use with imaging and Windows 8. More conversations around the same topic can be found in this TechNet forums thread.

For additional information on Windows 8 deployment, you might find the Windows 8 Deliver and Deploy page helpful. And one more thing – there is a virtual roundtable tomorrow entitled, “What IT Pros Should Know About Windows 8 Enterprise: Deployment, Devices, Apps and More” that you may be interested in checking out.

Jessica
Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

Banzai_Joe · 6 Mar 2013 at 08:50

Thanks jessica, most helpful information.

Thanks again to you too kirbz.

Banzai_Joe · 6 Mar 2013 at 09:29

Ok, i'm completely ******* lost now.
Surely there's an idiots guide to syprepping windows 8 out there. most of what i've found seems to assume prior knowlegde of how to create winPE etc.
Well....i don't have that knowledge....that's why i want to learn goddammit.

Jessica the info you linked, having scanned it doesn't really help me, but thanks anyway.

I only want to test out sysprepping an existing hyper-v guest onto:
a) another hyper-v
b) a physical computer

as a single instance. I wont be uding WDS or SCCM or anything like that.

I can't seem to find a single tut on how to do this from start to finish for windows 8.

People say "but it almost the same at win 7". However imagex is now replaced with DISM, i'm not really familiar with either.

GGGrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! it's very frustrating.

Banzai_Joe · 6 Mar 2013 at 09:32

Ooo err.......double post.
deleted

marc2003 · 6 Mar 2013 at 09:41

Banzai_Joe said:
as a single instance. I wont be uding WDS or SCCM or anything like that.

in that case, i'd assume it's just a case of preparing the machine, running sysprep and shutting down. then take a backup image of the drive using something like acronis true image, driveimagexml or similar. these progams will have their own bootable media which you you use to start the machine, take the image of the drive and save it as a file. you then use the same bootable media on another machine and restore the file.

i might be way off though. i haven't dabbled in this kind of thing for quite sometime.

winoutreach5 · 7 Mar 2013 at 14:35

Banzai_Joe said:
Ok, i'm completely ******* lost now.
Surely there's an idiots guide to syprepping windows 8 out there. most of what i've found seems to assume prior knowlegde of how to create winPE etc.
Well....i don't have that knowledge....that's why i want to learn goddammit.

Jessica the info you linked, having scanned it doesn't really help me, but thanks anyway.

I only want to test out sysprepping an existing hyper-v guest onto:
a) another hyper-v
b) a physical computer

as a single instance. I wont be uding WDS or SCCM or anything like that.

I can't seem to find a single tut on how to do this from start to finish for windows 8.

People say "but it almost the same at win 7". However imagex is now replaced with DISM, i'm not really familiar with either.

GGGrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! it's very frustrating.

Joe,

My apologies, for not providing additional information; in your first post, you asked if sysprepping / imaging Windows 8 with Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V were indeed possible and my intent was to confirm with documentation that it is. As far as the process is concerned, to start you will want to download the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK) (which is the newer version of the Windows Automated Installation Kit, also known as Windows AIK). For a complete list of installation instructions as well as the tools included within this kit, you will want to refer to the MSDN library article here.

As far as the capture process goes, you might want to look into the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) which is entirely free and can serve as a single console for all of your deployments. MDT will not only allow you to capture your image but you can even setup a Sysprep and Capture task sequence which will do exactly what it says in the title -- it will sysprep your image and then proceed to capture it for use with deployment.

To become more familiar with MDT you might want to check out the following videos:

• Deployment Day Session 1: Introduction to MDT 2012
• Deployment Day Session 2: MDT 2012 Advanced

There is also a great deal of information, including how to capture an image for deployment for Windows 8, as well as several other resources specifically pertaining to deploying and imaging Windows 8 available from the Deliver and Deploy Windows 8 page of the Springboard Series site on TechNet.

Keep us posted on your progress!

Jessica
Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro