This way of deploying Windows have a broad usage scenario. Either for deploying Windows from a standard workstation in remote offices, you could even use the linked deployment shares functionality of MDT 2010 to manage them. You could use robocopy and a smart vbscript to install TFTPD32 and change the cs.ini / bootstrap.ini with the corresponding changes. The software could be installed on your laptop so you can connect it to a workstation / server directly with a cable and install Windows automatically even if your company or your customer doesn’t have an automated system in place.

The customer wasn’t too keen on spending that amount of money apparently, so we decided to look into some other way of solving the problem. After some looking around there seems to be a lot of ways to deploy windows using PXE, linux boot managers and third party tools. They were already using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT), which made my day a lot easier.

Since I’m into Windows I decided to go for Windows software and avoid everything that was marked with a penguin. Note that I don’t have anything against penguins, but since most of my customers run a Windows shop it’s not well advised to bring in some other operating system. So what did I come up with?

Looking around there wasn’t much that wasn’t Linux-based, but I found TFTPD32. This piece of software has a lot of capabilities: DHCP, DNS, TFTP (Server/Client), SYSLOG and some more. It’s possible to run it as a service also, if you get srvany or some other software that’s available to run programs as services. Another option is to have it run minimized and then autostart it.

Setting it all up was mostly painless. Got stuck on Bcdedit which Johan Arwidmark already had covered in his blog. I’ve edited his script a little so the amount of work will be less for you. Credits for the script goes to him (link to him below).

If you’re gonna run this on XP you’ll need to copy bcdedit.exe from a Windows 7 with a matching architecture (x86/x64) to edit the BCD on XP since XP doesn’t have the BCD.

List of ingredients

TFTPD32
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010
WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit)
Windows XP / Windows 7 media (TechNet+ or MSDN subscriptions gives you the opportunity to download these)
Powershell (download for Windows XP, included in Windows 7)
One workstation for deployment (could be virtual, Virtualbox is free of charge)
One workstation that receives your os (could be virtual, Virtualbox is free of charge)
One DC if you want to join a domain (could run DHCP also, you’ll need to configure it, see below)
The script that fixes the BCD. Download and save as c:\deploymentshare\boot\CreateBCD.bat (Credits to Arwidmark)

Breaking it down

The script

(The below code might be wrapped and each line should start with Bcdedit except the for /f)


Rem Creates BCD (boot configuration data) for Windows PE 2.0
set BCD-File=c:\deploymentshare\boot\BCD
del %BCD-File%
Bcdedit /createstore %BCD-File%
Bcdedit /store %BCD-File% /create {ramdiskoptions} /d "Ramdisk options"
Bcdedit /store %BCD-File% /set {ramdiskoptions} ramdisksdidevice boot
Bcdedit /store %BCD-File% /set {ramdiskoptions} ramdisksdipath \boot\boot.sdi
for /f "tokens=1-3" %%a in ('Bcdedit /store %BCD-File% /create /d "WinPE x86" /application osloader') do set guid1=%%c
Bcdedit /store %BCD-File% /set %guid1% systemroot \Windows
Bcdedit /store %BCD-File% /set %guid1% detecthal Yes
Bcdedit /store %BCD-File% /set %guid1% winpe Yes
Bcdedit /store %BCD-File% /set %guid1% osdevice ramdisk=[boot]\boot\LiteTouchPE_x86.wim,{ramdiskoptions}
Bcdedit /store %BCD-File% /set %guid1% device ramdisk=[boot]\boot\LiteTouchPE_x86.wim,{ramdiskoptions}
Bcdedit /store %BCD-File% /create {bootmgr} /d "Windows Vista BootManager"
Bcdedit /store %BCD-File% /set {bootmgr} timeout 30
Bcdedit /store %BCD-File% /set {bootmgr} displayorder %guid1%
Bcdedit /store %BCD-File% /enum all


Install and configure WAIK and MDT

1) Install / add Powershell
2) Install WAIK
3) Install MDT

Once MDT is installed you’ll need to create a new deployment share, to make it easy I recommend keeping with the defaults otherwise you’ll need to edit the scripts and the settings for TFTPD32 if you change the path of the deploymentshare.

Import an operatingsystem into MDT so we have something to deploy and make a new task sequence. You might also want to update your customsettings.ini and boot.ini to reflect the options you want. Mine are displayed below and more information on the options available can be found in the MDT documentation and on multiple sites on the internet.

Customsettings.ini (many of these settings are in Vista/Windows 7 format, see documentation for XP)

[Settings]
Priority=Default
Properties=MyCustomProperty
[Default]
_SMSTSOrgName=TFTPD Deployment System
OSInstall=Y
SkipCapture=YES
SkipBDDWelcome=YES
SkipBitLocker=YES
SkipPackageDisplay=YES
SkipAppsOnUpgrade=YES
SkipAdminPassword=YES
SkipProductKey=YES
SkipComputerName=NO
SkipUserData=YES
ComputerBackupLocation=NETWORK
SkipTimeZone=YES
TimeZone=110
TimeZoneName=W. Europe Standard Time
SkipLocaleSelection=YES
UserLocale=sv-SE
UILanguage=sv-SE
KeyboardLocale=041d:0000041d
SkipDomainMembership=YES
SkipSummary=YES
SkipFinalSummary=YES


Bootstrap.ini

[Settings]
Priority=Default
[Default]
SkipBDDWelcome=YES
DeployRoot=\\XP01\DeploymentShare$ (this needs to be changed for every location so that the pc's go to their closest one)
KeyboardLocale=sv-SE
UserDomain=xp01 (either the computername for a local account or your domainname)
UserID=temp (either a local user or a domain account)
UserPassword=temp


Update your deployment share.

The tricky part now is to extract some files from the Windows PE image included in the WAIK. We’ll need these to be able to PXE-boot our workstations.

Start an elevated command prompt and follow the steps below:

cd /d "C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools"
copype x86 c:\winpe_x86
imagex /mount c:\winpe_x86\winpe.wim 1 c:\winpe_x86\mount
md C:\PXEServer\TFTPRoot\Boot\Fonts
copy c:\winpe_x86\mount\Windows\Boot\PXE\pxeboot.n12 C:\deploymentshare\boot /y
copy c:\winpe_x86\ISO\boot\fonts\*.* c:\deploymentshare\boot\Fonts /y
copy c:\winpe_x86\mount\Windows\Boot\PXE\bootmgr.exe C:\deploymentshare\boot /y
imagex /unmount c:\winpe_x86\mount
copy C:\winpe_x86\ISO\boot\boot.sdi C:\deploymentshare\boot /y


Click to open in lightbox

Note that this guide only shows you how to answer x86-machines. If you’d like to do x64 also, you’ll need to follow the steps from Arwidmarks guide to create a BCD for x64 or a BCD with multiple entries.

When these are extracted to c:\deploymentshare\boot we need to configure TFTPD32 so it knows which files to send to our PXE-booting workstations (or servers).

Run the script from c:\deploymentshare\boot\ so that it creates the BCD in the same folder.

Configure TFTPD32

If you don’t have a DHCP-server at the location where you want to deploy your workstations, you can configure TFTPD32 to act as one. In the screenshot below it’s configured to with the starting address 10.10.10.50 and a pool size of 10 addresses.

Click image to open 2 images in lightbox

As you can see on image number two I’ve configured the root folder of c:\deploymentshare which contains our MDT files. The folder boot contains the Windows PE images generated by MDT, and it’s also this folder that we’ve copied our PXE boot files to. TFTPD32 is configured to answer each PXE-client with the file pxeboot.n12 which doesn’t give us an option to press a key to boot from PXE but just does it instead. The file pxeboot.com would give you that option if you like it.

Configure your DHCP-server

If you already have a DHCP-server you’ll need to configure the scope options for each scope. The options 66 and 67 needs to be configured with the address of the TFTP-server and the boot filename. The filename is relative to the folder root of the TFTP-server, so in my case it’s \boot\pxeboot.n12 but this all depends on how you’ve set yours up. If you’re following this as a guide and have setup TFTPD with the MDT share and copied the files to the same locations the option in the picture is correct. Your ip may vary though, so you’ll need to check that it’s correct according to your environment.

This means (if you haven’t read between the lines yet) that you on different networks can have different PXE-servers, because the clients will be pointed to different servers depending on which network they’re coming from. Relating to open 66, boot server name, the client will get their initial PXE-boot from this server. So with a centralized server environment you can still run PXE on the local network at each branch. (Sorry for rubbing this in, but I’ve explained it in two emails already :))

Does it work?

Once these steps are done you’ll need to check that TFTPD32 is running on your deployment computer and that DHCP is configured in TFTPD or in Windows. Boot your empty workstation, press F12 for PXE-boot (depends on if you’re running virtual or not of course) and it should get an ip-address from DHCP and then boot into Windows PE and run your task sequence.

Click to open images in Lightbox

This installation of MDT is very basic without drivers or database and all the other stuff you can throw at it, but it’ll get you started at least. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them!

It’s a lot happening this spring, starting with TechDays 23/24:th of March. This event happens in Örebro and has a lot of good speakers lined up: Martin Lidholm, Björn Axell, Hasain Alshakarti, Anders Bengtsson, Daniel Bugday, Elisabeth Stjernstoft, Eva Fors and a lot more. I have a session on Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 with Live Migration and clustering.

Then in June, 7 – 10:th it’s time for TechEd North America which this year takes place in New Orleans. I’ve been given my first “real” breakout session this time, after having had numerous product demonstrations. A PD takes place during lunch, so one might say that attendance has been “so so”. Hope for some more people this time, and I’m looking forward to it!

So far we’ve spent our days sightseeing. Spent the Sunday with Martin Lidholm and Magnus Björk at the “Future of Flight” which is located at the Boeing factory. We saw a lot of airplanes and learned about the history and future of aviation. Then we took the tour of the factory and saw how these things are built, and what they cost. Outside on the runway 3 out of 4 Dreamlifters (the flying pickle) (video) were parked, we got to see when they unloaded a body to a 787 (which comes in one piece). In the factory, which could fit the entire Disneyworld inside with room to spare, there are six hangars. One for each production line, and it fits 5-6 complete 747:s in ONE hangar. To get a perspective of the size, you could fit 988 basketball courts on the floor.

Yesterday we had dinner at Hooters in Seattle and celebrated my birthday, turning 36 today. Four years to forty. Age ain’t nothing but a number :)

Thanks to Stephen Rose and the Springboard series I’ve been interviewed for talkingaboutwindows.com today. We’ll see when that airs. And if the porn-part gets edited out. Thanks Stephen for that one… Ran into Chris Jackson who apparently set the standard. So the next time I might even move in that chair…

Tomorrow I’ll take a break in the reading and go to IT-Gymnasiet in Rissne as part of my membership in Transfer. I’ll be talking about why one would choose to work with IT, how to succeed and about motivation/inspiration and stuff like that. Have prepared a presentation to show the students that technology goes a lot faster than they think. When they grew up, my fastest internet connection reached 5% of what 3G does today. And it cost about 4 times as much. My first computer cost $3500 and had about the same CPU-power as my iPhone has today.

What’s your favourite old technology memory?

Also in February is the MVP Summit in Seattle. That’s when all the Microsoft MVP’s go there to meet the teams behind the products, see future products and all the top secret stuff that the rest of the world just speculates about. Like meeting the guy who’s responsible for the Blue Screen of Death, the guy that starts and feeds all the flamewars about Windows vs Linux. And my favourite guy, he who copies all the features from Mac OS X and makes them work in Windows. That wasn’t maybe true but what we do in Seattle is actually secret…

In March there’s Microsoft TechDays in Örebro. I’ll be doing a session on Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 with Live Migration, Johan Arwidmark, Marcus Murray and Christoffer Andersson from Truesec have sessions on deployment, security and Active Directory.

And then comes spring! :)

Please tweet (#haititpro), comment here or link/trackback and we’ll try to keep track of how much the IT Pro’s have collected.

Du / den du känner bör även vara road av att stå på scen och hålla föredrag, social och utåtriktad, punktlig, framåt, initiativrik och allt annat som står i platsannonser.

Notera också att det här INTE är en platsannons, men om du är intresserad av att jobba på Microsoft kan du maila till Johan Lindfors (a) microsoft (punkt) com så kan han förklara lite mer. Ja, du vet ju hur en mailadress fungerar så jag tänker inte förklara syntaxen närmare. (Om ditt mail studsar är du inte kvalificerad…)

Ha en strålande torsdag!

1. There’s no point in being #1 if what you know isn’t used anymore. – Even if you happen to be the best in the world at what you do, times will change and new versions will come around or the technology you work with will disappear altogether. Make sure you learn something new and useful every day. If you attend for example Microsoft TechEd, go to sessions on totally different subjects than what you work with. This will give you new perspectives on life and you might even find a subject that’ll save your career one day. Make sure to realize when someone younger just took your place as #1 also. It will happen!

2. Inform your customer or boss about all the stuff that’s your fault. – Restarted a server which affected the whole company? Didn’t bother to apply for a service window and ran Windows update anyway? BSOD because you just HAD to test something? Take responsibility for the stuff that goes wrong before someone eventually hunts you down anyway. Doing it that way instead of waiting for someone to come around and ask who’s fault it was shows that you have the courage to admit when you did something wrong. Not everybody has that.

3. You’re gonna miss deadline? You know it already but haven’t told anyone? Do that. – Mostly when you work in projects or you get an order from a project that they need 1,2 or 25 servers there are a lot of people waiting for those servers. If they won’t get it it’s usually appreciated that they know it as early as possible. And shows that you respect their time too.

4. Help your colleagues! – Even if your colleague needs help installing an x64 printer driver and you’ve done it 400 times and get sick every time you have to do it now. It might be their first time, and if they try and fail and no one can print, it’ll be your problem anyway. Helping your colleagues shows that you care about the team and your success together. (Teach a man to fish… You know.) As Jonathan says too, it’s good to do a lot of high fives and happy dances when things go right. No one outside your department will knock on your door to tell you that it works. They’ll just come running to yell when it doesn’t.

5. Do not try your luck on stuff you don’t know. – You were just going to change some stuff in a switch? Changing some unknown parameter in your SAN? This is NOT how to learn new stuff because once you’ve taken down 400 servers because you luckily succeeded in implementing a new routing algorithm or switched the authentication protocol in the SAN you’ll have to learn how to drive a cab or swing a hammer real quick. Test environments, courses or borrowing (ask first) equipment from your company is the way to go.

6. Hey, that looks easy I could do that! – About the same as above but this goes for consultants (mostly). In these times it could happen that you’ll accept a project where you’re not really feeling secure. Like implementing smart cards, upgrading from Windows 95 to Windows 7 with the help of Ghost/Altiris/MDT/SCCM/insert whatever here. Well, we all need the cash right? This will make your customer not too happy and make a big dent in your reputation as a consultant. Know your limits. Respect your customer.

7. Stop, collaborate and listen! – (Vanilla Ice, you know the song…) Make sure you collaborate with peers, colleagues and competitors. Listen to which problems they’ve run in to and how to solve it. New stuff hitting the market? Anyone tried it? Make sure to share your knowledge too. You could blog, speak, user groups, social media and so on. In the beginning a few will listen, if you’re good the rest will come too. (But it’s kinda tough to start off with 3 readers / week, I know.)

8. Make contact. With everyone. – That guy you met at an after work 3 years ago? He could be a great contact when you need a new job. Or he could be your new boss without you remembering him. Switch business cards, connect on facebook, follow on twitter, have lunch. Remember what people do, where they do it and if they’re going anywhere. That network will most likely be very very useful one day.

9. Understand the spiderweb – How is everything connected? Why does rebooting this server take down the cluster over there? Why is our BI-system so slow? Why are we using that old technology instead of upgrading? Once you know why and how stuff is connected it’ll be a lot easier to motivate a migration, explain to your boss or a project that you can’t take server A down because service C which is your data warehouse is dependant on it. Which leads us to point 10!

10. Document everything. Instantly. – “I’ll do that later” is a very common way to push documentation forward. Until next project comes along and the first one will NEVER be documented. Are you required to document your server installations and configurations? Script it! Or find a script that does that. Or hire a programmer that can make a program that does it and outputs it in a common format, even if it’s just a textfile. Documentation that isn’t done immediately will most likely never occur either. And if it does it’s even more boring if you have to do it six months later.

Are you in the IT-industry? What’s your tips for surviving, being a better consultant or colleague and learning new stuff?