Deployment Windows Server 2008

Deploying Windows 7 Using Windows Deployment Services (WDS): Step-by-Step – Part II

April 21, 2010 at 10:58 am | Posted in Windows 7, Windows Deployment Services (WDS) | 117 Comments

Tags: Unattended Deployment, Unattended Files, WDS, Windows 7, Windows Deployment Services (WDS)

See also: Deploying Windows 7 Using Windows Deployment Services (WDS): Step-by-Step – Part I

After reviewing Post I about installing and configuring Windows Deployment Services, we’ve also review the process of capturing a customized Windows 7 image and upload it to WDS.

To image is already available and we can use it to deploy on workstations from a PXE boot; but to achieve the full unattended process we have to create the unattended files, basically the files where the installation process can request answers about the installation process (product key, user name and password, computer name, etc).

To create these answer files, two of them, we are going to use a tool included in WAIK 2.0:Windows System Image Manager.

1. Preparing WISM for Unattended Deployment

The use of Windows System Image Manager (WISM) is based on loading an operating system image, the application will review the answers involved on the deployment and we can set the answers as we need it.

1.1 Open WSIM console, which you can find on WAIK program menu.

1.2 Right click on select a distribution share, create new distribution share.

This will be the working folder.

1.3 For WISM to work properly with the image, we’ll need to export it from WDS to the distribution share.

To export the image, we can access the WDS console, explore the “Install Images” section, right click on the image and select “Export”.

1.4 Now getting back to the WSIM console. Right click on “Windows Image”, and select a “windows image”, then browse to “Dis share ref_001” and select the image we exported earlier from the WDS console.

1.5 Now WSIM will need to create a catalog file, so select yes at the next window.

1.6...