Chapter 2: Automating the Windows Vista Installation

Choosing Automated Deployment Options To install multiple computers more easily, use Automated Deployment –Remote Installation (Using WDS) –Disk Imaging/Cloning –Unattended Installation 2/10

Overview of Windows Deployment Services Windows Deployment Services (WDS) is an updated version of Remote Installation Services (RIS) Client can boot without an OS, connect to a WDS server, and begin receiving an image Requires Windows Server 2003 w/ SP1 to be used as the WDS server 3/10

Using Windows Deployment Services Allows remote install More tolerant of different hardware Windows Vista installations can be standardized across a group or organization 4/10

Preparing the WDS Server Install WDS Configure and start WDS Configure the WDS server to respond to client computers (if this was not configured when WDS was installed). 5/10

Preparing the WDS Client Client requires one of the following –PXE-based boot ROM –PXE-compliant network adapter 6/10

Disk Imaging Overview Good for large numbers of computers with similar hardware and system requirements Use SYSPREP to prepare the drive for imaging Use IMAGEX to create the disk image 7/10

Overview of Unattended Installation Good for large numbers of non- PXE-compliant systems Answer file on distribution server can respond to installation configuration questions without user intervention 8/10

Answer Files Unattend.xml Can be used with the following installation methods –Unattended installations –Disk image installations –WDS installations Can be created using Windows System Image Manager (SIM) 9/10

Configuring Answer File Options Using Windows System Image Manager Can be used to configure the following component options: –auditSystem –auditUser –generalize –offlineServicing –oobeSystem –specialize –windowsPE 10/10