Windows Vista : Automating Installation - Preparing the Environment

Other tools and utilities perform minor roles in Windows deployment, such as custom Help authoring, image file management, and Package Manager. Some of these tools are available in the Windows AIK (Windows SIM and ImageX) or most are built in to Windows Vista (Sysprep and Package Manager).

Prior to creating customized installations of Windows Vista, you will need to set up the preinstallation environment. You’ll need systems to use for creating the installation image, a technician computer for creating answer files and scripts, and storage for completed images.

Planning Installation

The number of installations you will perform will help you determine how to design the installation process. If you have a fewer than one hundred systems to install, for instance, you might choose to create a custom answer file and use it with the Windows Vista DVD to install your systems. If, however, you have one hundred or more systems to deploy, you might choose to create a custom network installation point with customized answer files in place to support rapid deployment. Even larger environments might make use of a solution such as the BDD 2007 or the Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Operating System Deployment (OSD) Feature Pack to support hundreds or even thousands of installations.

Low-Volume Deployment Environment

Low-volume installations can use DVDs or network shares for deployment. Use Windows SIM to create unattended answer files for use with Windows DVDs. Placing the answer files on USB flash drives or other portable media will cause Windows Setup to detect and use the custom answer file during installation.

The customization lab for simple answer-file development can be a single technician computer and perhaps a test system to test the deployment answer file, as shown in Figure 1.

Middle-Volume Deployment Environment

For larger organizations, particularly medium-size organizations that have from about fifty to several hundred computers, a networkbased preinstallation environment is recommended. In this environment, the Windows Vista image is copied to a network location and custom answer files are stored with the image. Setup is either launched directly from the distribution share or from a Windows PE boot disk that has been designed to start the network installation.

The installation environment for middle-volume deployment might include a technician computer, a master computer (for creating the deployment image), one or more test computers, and a server for storing the deployment images (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Middle-volume deployment environment.

High-Volume Deployment Environment

Very large organizations will need more extensive distribution infrastructure to fully automate the deployment process. Using SMS 2003 OSD or BDD 2007 is common in these organizations (Figure 3).

Figure 3. High-volume deployment environment.

Setup and maintenance of the SMS OSD or the BDD 2007 solution requires a formal project team with well defined roles. OSD comes with extensive documentation for its configuration and use.

Configuring the Technician Computer

Once you’ve decided on the design of the deployment environment, the installation can begin. Using Windows SIM requires a dedicated technician computer and is necessary for all three of the scenarios . A master computer for image development and one or more test computers are also requirements for all three scenarios. Servers and deployment infrastructures depend on the size of the environment.

The technician computer is the computer in your lab on which you install the Windows AIK and create answer files, distribution shares (a folder structure that contains the source files necessary to install your custom Windows Vista configuration), configuration sets, and custom Windows PE images. Windows SIM is the primary tool that you use to create and modify answer files.

To build a technician computer, you need:

• An x86- or x64-based computer running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or a Windows Server 2003 operating system

• Windows AIK

• A CD or DVD burner and software to create portable media

• The Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 and MSXML 6.0 (provided with the Windows AIK)

• Network access to download updates, share the distribution share, and distribute configuration sets on the network

To install the Windows AIK

The Windows AIK installs in C:\Program Files\Windows AIK by default. The following list describes each of the installation folder’s subfolders:

• \Docs Contains online help files (.chm) and white papers

• \Recovery Contains Windows Recovery–specific files

• \Samples Contains all Windows AIK samples

• \SDKs Contains software development kit (SDK) resources

• \Tools Contains all deployment tools, including Windows SIM, Windows PE, and ImageX

Note