Network Deployment of Windows 7

J

Jon855

[H]ard DCOTM January 2008
Joined
Aug 25, 2005
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I currently am working a short stint during the summer to help off-set the load that our sole IT person has this summer.

I am tasked with assisting in deployment of Windows 7 and network deployment is the preferred method.

I have a reference computer that I've already sysprepped the WIM from. Since the IT guy was out yesterday, I couldn't establish any WDS or FOG, etc different services in which I can use to deploy across the network via PXE.

I do have a question - what's the best way to deploy Windows 7 over the network using PXE. The IT guy has a older Windows PE connected to a networked folder with the older WIMs (XPs) and I don't think I can just drop in the WIM that I made from Windows 7 and use the older PE to install it. I haven't tried this because I do not have sufficient permission to make changes to that folder, adding the WIM.

I would think that running installation over Windows PE would be slow as that would only, I believe, limit the instance to one and it wouldn't be something like a multi-cast installation.

Thought on how you would deploy it? We are looking at about 75 systems at the minimum, although we are starting out small, a lab of 15, to ensure that it goes well prior to campus-wide deployment.
 
You should look at MDT.

It's a solution accelerator that will help you deploy Windows to many workstations.
 
Something that may be easier is installing WDS on a server. You can create a boot disc that will take you right to the images. Not sure if the booting right to the images works with the multicast component, though.
 
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+1 for MDT and WDS. It's not trivial by any stretch. WDS is your multicast component. I suggest looking up some howto guides on MDT, it's pretty easy. I haven't used MDT 2012, but MDT 2010 was pretty straightforward.

Here is a pretty good guide for the WAIK and MDT piece (not including WDS):
http://technet.microsoft.com/library/ee523213.aspx

I'd just look for a guide on WDS for Multicast deployments using MDT. The Lite-Touch installation process means not everything will be completely automated, but you can script the rest easily enough if you have some skills.
 
Thank you guys - the IT guy is working on setting up a new network scheme (we are migrating from our current provider to a different provider this summer) and with that change, servers and such will be re-configured and re-deployed and until then we do not have WDS set up but that's the general idea we are looking at.

I will be looking into WDT and see how we can implement this in our current situation. For now - I suppose I'll just deploy them manually until the whole network thing gets rolled over.

I'm pissed that the WIM file I had created yesterday didn't image as it would on a new system instead it appeared as an installation more than anything over the expected imaged system of what I had on the reference computer and as a result - I'm re-doing the reference computer right now :/

Thanks again.
 
Once you have your reference image ready to go, you could have MDT up and deploying in a short time without WDS. You would just have to use a USB drive or DVD to do the deployments until you get access to WDS for network booting. This video is a great help to get you started:

Deployment Day Session 1: Introduction to MDT 2012

Although many of the articles and videos you will find reference MDT 2010 and the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK), the WAIK has been replaced by the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (WADK).

There are quite a few articles and videos to help you deploy Windows on the Deploy Windows 7 and the Deploy Windows 8 pages of the Springboard Series on TechNet.

Hope this helps,

David
Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro
 
Alright - I am back.

We have our WDS established and we have created a discovery wim to use for non-PXE system. We are having big issues in creating a bootable WinPE with the discovery wim file.

I have followed numerous instructions to the letter regarding loading a PE into USB and to rename the wim to Boot.WIM and none of the guides work. If there's any in-house guru regarding this issue, I would much appreciate your assistance in this matter. The IT Admin and I are both miffed at the obstacles that we've been having with such issues.

Here are couple of links that we have followed to create bootable ISO, USB, etc for the purpose of having the discovery wim pointing to the WDS server for installation of Windows 7.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825109.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744530(v=ws.10).aspx
http://devhawk.net/2011/05/19/build-your-own-wds-discovery-image/
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc730907(v=ws.10).aspx

I also have a working PE system with the imagex app which has a pointer to a local drive for installation however, that general PE utilization does not work with the discovery wim we have.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jon
 
Jon855 said:
Alright - I am back.

We have our WDS established and we have created a discovery wim to use for non-PXE system. We are having big issues in creating a bootable WinPE with the discovery wim file.

I have followed numerous instructions to the letter regarding loading a PE into USB and to rename the wim to Boot.WIM and none of the guides work. If there's any in-house guru regarding this issue, I would much appreciate your assistance in this matter. The IT Admin and I are both miffed at the obstacles that we've been having with such issues.

Here are couple of links that we have followed to create bootable ISO, USB, etc for the purpose of having the discovery wim pointing to the WDS server for installation of Windows 7.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825109.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744530(v=ws.10).aspx
http://devhawk.net/2011/05/19/build-your-own-wds-discovery-image/
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc730907(v=ws.10).aspx

I also have a working PE system with the imagex app which has a pointer to a local drive for installation however, that general PE utilization does not work with the discovery wim we have.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jon
Click to expand...

Just extract the litetouchPE.iso into the USB and make it bootable.

You can use the Windows 7 usb DVD download tool, Windows 8 usb installer maker or Rufus (my favorite)
 
Stoly said:
Just extract the litetouchPE.iso into the USB and make it bootable.

You can use the Windows 7 usb DVD download tool, Windows 8 usb installer maker or Rufus (my favorite)
Click to expand...

This isn't what we are looking for but thank you.

We are looking for a way to create a PE in a bootable USB that has our discover wim file so that it will point to our WDS and install the OS from our selections on the WDS. If I am misunderstanding the whole thing, let me know.

EDIT - I see what you are saying - I am trying to find the iso - right now, I do not have access to the server or a way to create a litetouchpe.iso at the moment so I am trying to find an already established one.

Thank you.
 
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Stoly said:
I thought you were using both MDT and WDS.
Click to expand...

I know that the server has WDS established but I'm uncertain whether if MDT is established on the server. I do not have access to the server to validate this and the admin is out on his lunch break. He should be back shortly - I will ask him. At this moment, I am doing all I can from the reference computer which has MDT, WAIK and Windows KITS installed.

Right now, I am attempting to do this, listed below, although I am looking for the installation media :( The day couldn't get any worse...

  • Please note Drive letter U: is my USB Flash Drive and drive letter E: is the DVD drive or Mounted ISO file.
  • Type into the Administrative Prompt: robocopy E:\ U:\ /E /S /XF Install.WIM /XF Boot.WIM
  • Once this is done then browse to U:\sources\ and copy your WDS Dicscover WIM file into this folder
  • Rename the WDS Discover WIM file in U:\sources\ to boot.wim
  • Boot the client computer to the media. You may need to change the boot order in the client BIOS to do this. When the client boots to the media, your experience will be exactly the same as if you had booted to the network
 
Jon855 said:
I know that the server has WDS established but I'm uncertain whether if MDT is established on the server. I do not have access to the server to validate this and the admin is out on his lunch break. He should be back shortly - I will ask him. At this moment, I am doing all I can from the reference computer which has MDT, WAIK and Windows KITS installed.

Right now, I am attempting to do this, listed below, although I am looking for the installation media :( The day couldn't get any worse...

  • Please note Drive letter U: is my USB Flash Drive and drive letter E: is the DVD drive or Mounted ISO file.
  • Type into the Administrative Prompt: robocopy E:\ U:\ /E /S /XF Install.WIM /XF Boot.WIM
  • Once this is done then browse to U:\sources\ and copy your WDS Dicscover WIM file into this folder
  • Rename the WDS Discover WIM file in U:\sources\ to boot.wim
  • Boot the client computer to the media. You may need to change the boot order in the client BIOS to do this. When the client boots to the media, your experience will be exactly the same as if you had booted to the network
Click to expand...

Does the USB stick boot?
 
If I understand correctly you are copying the contents of the ISO in E: to U: excluding install.wim and boot.wim, correct?

and the ISO is what? a Windows 7 image?
 
Stoly said:
If I understand correctly you are copying the contents of the ISO in E: to U: excluding install.wim and boot.wim, correct?

and the ISO is what? a Windows 7 image?
Click to expand...

Correct on all counts.

I have retrieved the installation media and did all of the above. It appears to work until after the setup stage and then the video gets all jumbled up so I'm testing this on another system to see if it works as intended. The Test1 computer appears to have some issues so I'm trying Test2 right now to see.

*Fingers are crossed*
 
Alright the Test1 video chipset is going bad - the Test2 works and is able to boot and initialize however, it appears that the WDS isn't configured fully yet so I'm at a dead end right now at the moment until the Admin configures the WDS.

This is where we stopped:
It booted from the USB -> Setup "Windows is loading files..." ->Starting Windows ->Setup is starting -> Error "WdsClient: There was a problem initializing WDS Mode."

Thank you guys for your help - much is appreciated.
 
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Since you are using MDT, all you need to do is use the LiteTouchPE_X86.iso or LiteTouchPE_X64.iso that MDT creates on your bootable USB drive and when the system boots, it will boot to the MDT menu and will pull the images across the network from the deployment share. If you didn’t create the ISO files, all you have to do is go into the properties of the deployment share, then to the Windows PE tab and check the box to “Generate a Lite Touch bootable ISO image” for whichever architecture that you need it and update the deployment share and choose to completely regenerate the boot images. The .iso files can be found in the deployment share's boot folder.

Hope this helps,

David
Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro
The Springboard Series on TechNet
 
Out of curiosity - since you have WDS setup why aren't you PXE booting the machines? Uncooperative network admins?
 
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