| .. Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one |
| or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file |
| distributed with this work for additional information# |
| regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file |
| to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the |
| "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance |
| with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at |
| http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 |
| Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, |
| software distributed under the License is distributed on an |
| "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY |
| KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the |
| specific language governing permissions and limitations |
| under the License. |
| |
| |
| Creating a Windows Template |
| --------------------------- |
| |
| Windows templates must be prepared with Sysprep before they can be |
| provisioned on multiple machines. Sysprep allows you to create a generic |
| Windows template and avoid any possible SID conflicts. |
| |
| .. note:: |
| (XenServer) Windows VMs running on XenServer require PV drivers, which |
| may be provided in the template or added after the VM is created. The |
| PV drivers are necessary for essential management functions such as |
| mounting additional volumes and ISO images, live migration, and |
| graceful shutdown. |
| |
| An overview of the procedure is as follows: |
| |
| #. Upload your Windows ISO. |
| |
| For more information, see `“Adding an |
| ISO” <virtual_machines.html#adding-an-iso>`_. |
| |
| #. Create a VM Instance with this ISO. |
| |
| For more information, see `“Creating |
| VMs” <virtual_machines.html#creating-vms>`_. |
| |
| #. Follow the steps in Sysprep for Windows Server 2008 R2 (below) or |
| Sysprep for Windows Server 2003 R2, depending on your version of |
| Windows Server |
| |
| #. The preparation steps are complete. Now you can actually create the |
| template as described in Creating the Windows Template. |
| |
| |
| System Preparation for Windows Server 2008 R2 |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| For Windows 2008 R2, you run Windows System Image Manager to create a |
| custom sysprep response XML file. Windows System Image Manager is |
| installed as part of the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK). |
| Windows AIK can be downloaded from `Microsoft Download |
| Center <http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=9085>`_. |
| |
| Use the following steps to run sysprep for Windows 2008 R2: |
| |
| .. note:: |
| The steps outlined here are derived from the excellent guide by |
| Charity Shelbourne, originally published at `Windows Server 2008 |
| Sysprep Mini-Setup. |
| <http://blogs.technet.com/askcore/archive/2008/10/31/automating-the-oobe-process-during-windows-server-2008-sysprep-mini-setup.aspx>`_ |
| |
| #. Download and install the Windows AIK |
| |
| .. note:: |
| Windows AIK should not be installed on the Windows 2008 R2 VM you |
| just created. Windows AIK should not be part of the template you |
| create. It is only used to create the sysprep answer file. |
| |
| #. Copy the install.wim file in the \\sources directory of the Windows |
| 2008 R2 installation DVD to the hard disk. This is a very large file |
| and may take a long time to copy. Windows AIK requires the WIM file |
| to be writable. |
| |
| #. Start the Windows System Image Manager, which is part of the Windows |
| AIK. |
| |
| #. In the Windows Image pane, right click the Select a Windows image or |
| catalog file option to load the install.wim file you just copied. |
| |
| #. Select the Windows 2008 R2 Edition. |
| |
| You may be prompted with a warning that the catalog file cannot be |
| opened. Click Yes to create a new catalog file. |
| |
| #. In the Answer File pane, right click to create a new answer file. |
| |
| #. Generate the answer file from the Windows System Image Manager using |
| the following steps: |
| |
| #. The first page you need to automate is the Language and Country or |
| Region Selection page. To automate this, expand Components in your |
| Windows Image pane, right-click and add the |
| Microsoft-Windows-International-Core setting to Pass 7 oobeSystem. |
| In your Answer File pane, configure the InputLocale, SystemLocale, |
| UILanguage, and UserLocale with the appropriate settings for your |
| language and country or region. Should you have a question about |
| any of these settings, you can right-click on the specific setting |
| and select Help. This will open the appropriate CHM help file with |
| more information, including examples on the setting you are |
| attempting to configure. |
| |
| |sysmanager.png| |
| |
| #. You need to automate the Software License Terms Selection page, |
| otherwise known as the End-User License Agreement (EULA). To do |
| this, expand the Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup component. |
| High-light the OOBE setting, and add the setting to the Pass 7 |
| oobeSystem. In Settings, set HideEULAPage true. |
| |
| |software-license.png| |
| |
| #. Make sure the license key is properly set. If you use MAK key, you |
| can just enter the MAK key on the Windows 2008 R2 VM. You need not |
| input the MAK into the Windows System Image Manager. If you use |
| KMS host for activation you need not enter the Product Key. |
| Details of Windows Volume Activation can be found at |
| `http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb892849.aspx |
| <http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb892849.aspx>`_ |
| |
| #. You need to automate is the Change Administrator Password page. |
| Expand the Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup component (if it is not |
| still expanded), expand UserAccounts, right-click on |
| AdministratorPassword, and add the setting to the Pass 7 |
| oobeSystem configuration pass of your answer file. Under Settings, |
| specify a password next to Value. |
| |
| |change-admin-password.png| |
| |
| You may read the AIK documentation and set many more options that |
| suit your deployment. The steps above are the minimum needed to |
| make Windows unattended setup work. |
| |
| #. Save the answer file as unattend.xml. You can ignore the warning |
| messages that appear in the validation window. |
| |
| #. Copy the unattend.xml file into the c:\\windows\\system32\\sysprep |
| directory of the Windows 2008 R2 Virtual Machine |
| |
| #. Once you place the unattend.xml file in |
| c:\\windows\\system32\\sysprep directory, you run the sysprep tool as |
| follows: |
| |
| .. code:: bash |
| |
| cd c:\Windows\System32\sysprep |
| sysprep.exe /oobe /generalize /shutdown |
| |
| The Windows 2008 R2 VM will automatically shut down after sysprep is |
| complete. |
| |
| |
| System Preparation for Windows Server 2003 R2 |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| Earlier versions of Windows have a different sysprep tool. Follow these |
| steps for Windows Server 2003 R2. |
| |
| #. Extract the content of \\support\\tools\\deploy.cab on the Windows |
| installation CD into a directory called c:\\sysprep on the Windows |
| 2003 R2 VM. |
| |
| #. Run c:\\sysprep\\setupmgr.exe to create the sysprep.inf file. |
| |
| #. Select Create New to create a new Answer File. |
| |
| #. Enter “Sysprep setup” for the Type of Setup. |
| |
| #. Select the appropriate OS version and edition. |
| |
| #. On the License Agreement screen, select “Yes fully automate the |
| installation”. |
| |
| #. Provide your name and organization. |
| |
| #. Leave display settings at default. |
| |
| #. Set the appropriate time zone. |
| |
| #. Provide your product key. |
| |
| #. Select an appropriate license mode for your deployment |
| |
| #. Select “Automatically generate computer name”. |
| |
| #. Type a default administrator password. If you enable the password |
| reset feature, the users will not actually use this password. This |
| password will be reset by the instance manager after the guest |
| boots up. |
| |
| #. Leave Network Components at “Typical Settings”. |
| |
| #. Select the “WORKGROUP” option. |
| |
| #. Leave Telephony options at default. |
| |
| #. Select appropriate Regional Settings. |
| |
| #. Select appropriate language settings. |
| |
| #. Do not install printers. |
| |
| #. Do not specify “Run Once commands”. |
| |
| #. You need not specify an identification string. |
| |
| #. Save the Answer File as c:\\sysprep\\sysprep.inf. |
| |
| #. Run the following command to sysprep the image: |
| |
| .. code:: bash |
| |
| c:\sysprep\sysprep.exe -reseal -mini -activated |
| |
| After this step the machine will automatically shut down |