Building Vista Images *Offical Thread*

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Grimmda

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This thread is for the [H]Enterprise folks out there trying to build a Vista Image.

Pre-Build downloads

The key is the document called "getting_started_itpro.rtf" that came in the AIK Users guide.zip which can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...7d-f12c-4676-917f-05d9de73ada4&displaylang=en

Then you need to actually download the AIK itself which can be found here (You'll want to rename the .img file to ISO):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...6d-15f3-4284-9123-679830d629f2&displaylang=en

I just mounted the ISO using Microsofts Virtual CD Utility found here:
http://download.microsoft.com/downl...d58df02efa2/winxpvirtualcdcontrolpanel_21.exe

By the way .Net Framework 2.0 and MSXML 6.0 are options to install from the AIK Disc (I didn't even notice until I was done)

Make sure you're on a box with .Net Framework 2.0 (And you don't have anything that requires 1.1 like I do, so I'm building this on another box.) Download .Net 2.0 here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...cb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=en

And you need MSXML found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...cf-3bcf-4009-be21-27e85e1857b1&displaylang=en

Reference
Migration of Sysprep.inf Settings from XP to Vista
 
I was assigned as the guy in charge of building images. I will not build a Vista image till I get a working Novell Client32 software for Vista because Novell is so dumb to decide to not make anything available till 2-3 months after Vista release :mad:

Please share your experience with the image creation process so I can avoid mistakes and make a smooth setup.
 
(Pasted from the original thread to keep the important stuff in the first thread)

I've had Vista Business since 11/16 but haven't had the time or motivation to start building an image with it. I figured the week I had to work between Christmas and New Years was a great time.

I got started with it yesterday and WOW was I overwhelmed... I didn't know where to start.. I got the BDD 2007 MMC loaded and didn't quite know what I was doing. I got sidetracked on a few issues, burried in documenation and gave up and went home.

Today I'm making more headway because I got back to reading the AIK Users Guide.
 
Well my first pass in building an autounattend.xml file didn't go so well. I had to clear out some language settings because the how-to guide wasn't very clear and the process errored out somewhere along the lines after I put it on a USB Flash Drive. It did see the file and even started installing itself but ended up giving me errors with my unattend file.

The next part of the image build process looks like it gets into "Create an Image" and talks about running sysprep, so I'm going to skip ahead and manually load Vista on a box and try to sysprep it. I never did the unattend thing with XP anyways, it was all about the sysprep, so maybe Vista is the same way. (There was so much about the image process you could totally skip with XP if you knew how; it wasn't even funny.)
 
Have you all received the official media for Vista yet? We generally don't start building an image until we get media from microsoft, atleast that's what we did for XP. I was told late January for it, so we'll start on our image then. Another thing that we're waiting on is a Cisco VPN client, supposedly it won't be available until March 31st, which means no laptop support until then.
 
I added some section headers and a link for a sysprep.inf comparison.

As for receiving offical media for Vista, no I haven't. We were told late January but I downloaded what they'll send me in the form of an .img/.iso from our EA Download site. I'm just getting as early of a start as I can because building desktop images is my primary job function.

I'm also feeling frustrated on how much this process is like pulling teeth. Microsoft finally "acknowledges" the enterprise image building process with Vista, but isn't showing an experienced image builder like myself what I want to know.

They are showing me the "Microsoft Way" to build a Vista image. But what they don't understand is the "Microsoft Way" to build an XP image was vastly different than the effecient way to build an XP image and NOT documented by Microsoft. Only by bits and pieces in forums and lots of trial and error.

I can see by the lack of responses in even this forum that my complaints are falling on deaf ears. (Although it's nice the flamers have stayed out of this thread, thanks!)
 
Ahhh Phoenix, my old friend! More like you'll ride "coat-tails" when someone else does all the work. (Dangit, I need to find someone to do that myself with!)

Well I found this page that talks about a lot more of the overall process of deployment:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2006/11/Deployment/default.aspx

My issue here is with item #7:

7. No More HAL Complications

With Windows XP, technical restrictions prevented the creation of a single image that could be deployed to all computers. Different hardware abstraction layers (HALs) meant you had to maintain multiple images. (For more on this see the Knowledge Base article "HAL options after Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 Setup") Most organizations needed two or three images per platform (x86 and x64) and some chose to have even more—though each image brings added costs and complexity.

In Windows Vista, those technical restrictions are gone; the operating system is able to detect which HAL is required and automatically install it.

This is a lie. First off it is entirely possible (although not offically supported) to have one image "rule them all". My current XP image works on an old Gateway P2/400 all the way up to the latest and greatest HP DC5700 with Dual Core.

The key is adding a parameter to the end of your image that determines what type of device it is and load the appropriate HAL and restart the PC. BAM Dual core support in XP.

I feel the tension of "change" and I need to knock it off! I love the idea of offline image management to swap drivers and files. It's sweet! On the downside Image size is going to be a MONSTER with Vista... 5GB with just the O/S? That's nuts.
 
Yeah....

*cough*bullshit*cough*

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?act=ST&f=70&t=85537

1) make a base image on a Dual Core machine

2) add these lines to your sysprep.ini

[Unattended]
UpdateUPHAL="APCIAPIC_UP,%windir%\Driver Cache\i386\halaacpi.dll"
UpdateHAL="ACPIAPICMP,%WINDIR%\Driver Cache\i386\halmacpi.dll"

3) reboot the machine and thats it
 
ND40oz said:
Have you all received the official media for Vista yet? We generally don't start building an image until we get media from microsoft, atleast that's what we did for XP. I was told late January for it, so we'll start on our image then. Another thing that we're waiting on is a Cisco VPN client, supposedly it won't be available until March 31st, which means no laptop support until then.
Click to expand...

Thanks for giving some info on the Cisco VPN client since we use them for the ~130 laptops we have here. Yet another piece who will push Vista release even further :( Novell is on the same timeframe as well for the client32 login.
 
Pretty sure there is a beta cisco vpn client out there if you want to try that.
 
Phoenix86 said:
Yeah....

*cough*bullshit*cough* ...

[/i]
Click to expand...

Thanks Phoenix, that's even easier than how I do it!

I'll keep this thread going as I make any further discoveries.
 
I'm not sure the information is worthy yet for the OP (me) to even think that's worthwhile.
Maybe sometime down the road.

I'm back to the office today and will update this thread as I do more work on Vista Image Creation. Feel free anyone to add things to it and I can update the first post if it's worthy.

Thanks
 
Zlash said:
Pretty sure there is a beta cisco vpn client out there if you want to try that.
Click to expand...

I tried 4.8.01.0590-k9 with Vista RC2 and it only halfway worked. I could get connected and log into my VPN but I couldn't actually access anything.

I just installed RTM but haven't tried it yet. I'll give it a go when I get home from work.
 
Grimmda said:
I'm not sure the information is worthy yet for the OP (me) to even think that's worthwhile.
Maybe sometime down the road.

I'm back to the office today and will update this thread as I do more work on Vista Image Creation. Feel free anyone to add things to it and I can update the first post if it's worthy.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I'm going to be spending a day building a Vista image here at work soon. I really like how they are hardware independent. It's going to save us a ton of time!
 
hey guys

quick and possibly dumb q

This is what I have gathered I need to do (and did with my xp images) from my reading...

build PC with Vista and get it up to where I want it

sysprep and generalize, etc etc

take an image using imagex


Now, my question is...Is it possible to use Imagex to grab a backup before running sysprep, so I have a complete backup of what I have installed before sysprep'ing it? Will it work if i push the image back out onto the same PC?

Thanks!
 
If it were me, I'd use Ghost to make a backup at that point, then if I ever needed to I could easily get right back to that point.

(that's a guess to me, I haven't even used ImageX yet)
 
meh i dont have access to ghost 10 and 9 fubared my Vista install when i tried to make a backup.

There is just alot to learn with the new imaging system and i made good progress today, but now I am running into a problem where I am gettin a fatal error with sysprep.

it has been a fun couple days working with this tho
 
Sorry for my delay but to answer your fatal error when running sysprep, the first thing that popped into my head was to ask that you make sure all paths referenced to files are actually there.

I've tried to find an example in sysprep.xml but failed to find one, so I'll give an example of it's XP equivlent:

[SysprepMassStorage]

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C1&CC_0106 = %systemdrive%\drivers\Sata\iaahci.inf ; Intel(R) 82801GR/GH SATA AHCI Controller (Desktop ICH7R/DH)
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C5&CC_0106 = %systemdrive%\drivers\Sata\iaahci.inf ; Intel(R) 82801GBM SATA AHCI Controller (Mobile ICH7M)
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2652&CC_0106 = %systemdrive%\drivers\Sata\iaahci.inf ; Intel(R) 82801FR SATA AHCI Controller (Desktop ICH6R)
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2653&CC_0106 = %systemdrive%\drivers\Sata\iaahci.inf ; Intel(R) 82801FBM SATA AHCI Controller (Mobile ICH6M)
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C3&CC_0104 = %systemdrive%\drivers\Sata\iastor.inf ; Intel(R) 82801GR/GH SATA RAID Controller (Desktop ICH7R/DH)
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24DF&CC_0104 = %systemdrive%\drivers\Sata\iastor.inf ; Intel(R) 82801ER SATA RAID Controller (Desktop ICH5R)
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_25B0&CC_0104 = %systemdrive%\drivers\Sata\iastor.inf ; Intel(R) 6300ESB SATA RAID Controller
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2652&CC_0104 = %systemdrive%\drivers\Sata\iastor.inf ; Intel(R) 82801FR SATA RAID Controller (Desktop ICH6R)

When I didn't have the %systemdrive%\drivers\Sata\iastor.inf file actually in that path, I ended up getting failures after sysprep did everything else, and the last step was to verify that driver and then shut down the PC. I realized I changed the locations of my driver but didn't reference that.
 
Anyone have any enterprise updates with Vista?

I've been pretty sidetracked lately and just wanted to bump this back to the top for those that are now finally getting their hands on making images with it.

I just downloaded my copy of Enterprise from the volume licensing page but haven't done much other than install it. Haven't even looked at it since doing that.
 
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