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Getting started with wimaging

Since some testing and trial / error are involved, there is no fast track (yet). So read on!

Tasks break down

  • Set up your utility host
  • Configure wimaging and copy required drivers and files
  • Create the WIM images
  • Sync installation folder to file server

Wimaging project overview

Relevant folders only. All steps are covered below; just so you know your way around:

  • ./foreman - contains foreman templates
  • ./images - scratch dir for mounting images and commit stuff. Used by the scripts
  • ./inc - config files are located here. These files need to be changed
  • ./install - the final installation files. These will need to be synced to your file server later on
  • ./sources - copy installation source media here
  • ./tools - files and utilities witch are injected to the WIM files are located here

I. Setup your "Technician Computer"

Plan on which operating systems / images you want to serve. For a list of possible choices see ./inc/Config.ps1.sample. If your OS is not listed, it is quite easy do add new ones, see further below.

Gather tools, drivers and installation medias for them and continue setting up utility host

Tasks

  • Use a recent x64 windows version to play nicely with powershell. Bear in mind, i686 (is anyone still using 32bit operatingsystems?) cannot boot a x64 Windows image.
  • Download and install WAIK. You really only need the Windows PE wim; though the other tools might assist if you need to add new OSes or need to create a custom unattend.xml
  • Download / clone this repository to a convenient location like C:/wimaging
  • Copy contents of your windows DVD / ISO to ./sources/<osname_see_Config.ps1>/. Also see ./install/directory.template. If you want to keep the minimal files just copy: sources/install.wim; boot/*
  • Use WSUS Offline to download Windows updates for your OS'es locally. For simplicity also copy it next to the wimaging directory; eg. C:/wsusoffline.

II. Configure wimaging

Config.ps1

For each OS, you'll need a Config.ps1. Since most of the variables do not change, you can edit ./inc/Config.ps1.sample to your needs and copy it later on.

  • $os: Very important to use provided options, as the directory structure uses that pattern.
  • $edition: standard / enterprise / datacenter / Windows 8.1 Pro. This seems only to be of importance if the WIM contains more than one image. If unsure; run ./Get-Wiminfo.ps1 later on
  • $wsus_offline_dir: directory where locally downloaded windows updates reside (for ex.: $wsus_offline_dir = "c:/wsusoffline/client")

There are a lot of commented out options; you can ignore these.

The VHD / VM part is important for Windows 7 / Windows 2008R2 and below since updates cannot be added offline:

  • $system_reserved_mount: Letter for mounting a "System reserved" partition of your vhd (pick any drive letter that is not used)
  • $c_drive_mount: Letter for mounting "C: Drive" partition of your vhd (pick any drive letter that is not used)

Now, copy ./inc/Config.ps1.sample to ./inc/<osname>-Config.ps1, eg ./inc/win81x64-Config.ps1. The prefix does not matter, make sure the file name ends with -Config.ps1.

Tools

Copy ./tools/boot.root/wimaging/_config.cmd.sample to ./tools/boot.root/wimaging/_config.cmd. Edit the line foremanHost=<foreman_hostiname_or_ip> to point to a resolvable location. Since this is used to test networking the WinPE stage, any pingable IP will do here; though your foreman installation makes most sense.

Adding extras, drivers and boot files

  1. Create a copy of ./install/directory.template in ./install/. Name it after the OS name found in Config.ps1.
  2. Repeat for each OS
  3. The template for Windows PE is already prepared; but still check whatever it need changes
  4. Copy boot files from ./sources/<os>/boot/* to boot/. These will later be downloaded by foreman-proxy.
  5. Copy winpe.wim from WAIK to ./sources/windows-pe-x64/

III. Prepare install.wim and boot.wim

Start ./run-wimaging-shell.cmd. From the menu, select the configuration for the session. To show the menu again, run ./Show-Menu.ps1. Go through all your operating systems.

Creating install.wim

  1. Run ./Init-WorkWim.ps1. This will copy required files from your ./sources directory.
  2. Run ./Update-All.ps1. This step injects updates to the image
  3. Run ./Push-Wim.ps1 to copy the prepared WIM files to the install path.

Adding drivers and extras

  • Copy drivers and extras to the respective folders in ./install/<osname>. The folder structure below drivers/ does not matter, all drivers present will be added recursively.
  • The extra/ folder is optional. The structure in there is up to you. If you just want to stick with the provided template, download the puppet version you need and rename it puppet.msi.

Creating boot.wim

One winpe image will serve as boot file for your all operating systems. Since this file is transferred by TFTP to your hosts later we should keep it small. Gather all essential drivers (most likely for network and storage adapters) in ./sources/windows-pe-x64/drivers or set another path in the configuration.

  1. Run ./Show-Menu.ps1 and select winpe-x64-Config.ps1
  2. Run ./Init-WorkWim.ps1. This will copy required files from your ./sources directory.
  3. Run ./Update-All.ps1. That will inject drivers, tools and additional Windows PE Features.
  4. Run ./Push-Wim.ps1 to copy the prepared WIM file to all os directories to the install path as boot.wim.

Alternatively, you can run each step separately with the respective commands. The most important are:

  • Add-Drivers.ps1
  • Add-Tools.ps1
  • Add-Updates.ps1

IV. Sync ./install folder to your file server.

Notes_: The file server must share these files via http:// and/or ftp://. Test if this share is accessible. If you like, you can use the same host; for instance by installing IIS (not covered). Alternatively, set $install_root in Config.ps1 to point directly to a network location.

V. Configure Foreman

Head on to configuring Foreman section.

Advanced wimaging

Adding a new OS to wimaging:

  • Create ./sources/<osname>/
  • Change ./inc/Params.ps1: Add new os handler to # Directory where the updates are located section. Make sure to verify WIM image names / indexes eg, Windows Server 2012 R2 SERVERENTERPRISE.
  • Run ./Get-WimInfo.ps1 to show details of the install images

Special case: Windows 6.1 and below

In case you are working with 2008 R2 - the process is a little bit different (because we can't inject certain updates to windows server 2008 image.

Install Windows in VirtualBox and sysprep it

  • Install virtualbox choco install virtualbox
  • Download Windows VLK iso for Windows Server Enterprise 2008 R2 with SP1 (Make sure you download MAK, if you don't have a KMS server)
  • Mount the distribution iso (using Daemon Tools, for example) and copy contents to /images/server-2008r2/install/, unmount the iso from Daemon Tools
  • Create a virtual machine in VirtualBox. Create a disk with a specific name: ., use vhd format. For example server-2008r2.enterprise.vhd
  • Install OS using iso on the VM (Point your virtual DVD to the iso you downloaded, Don't worry about partitioning right now - everything will be wiped)
  • Shutdown the VM, add tools using Add-Tools.ps1
  • Start the VM back and run in it c:/wimaging/image/10_start.cmd - this will install updates and sysprep your box. It will shut it down is well.

Troubleshooting

  • DISM Error: 0xc1510111 You do not have permissions to mount and modify this image.: This sometimes happens when copying WIM images from read only sources. Make sure Read Only is unchecked in the WIM's file properties.