Windows 7 Deployment FOG- SAD2 Driver tool

[jmeyer]

[quote=“Eli Kelly, post: 32305, member: 1152”]I do set the drives as IDE but I have not edited the VMX file to disable SCSI. It is a good thought that I will try to tomorrow and report results.

P2V is shorthand for the process of capturing a physical machine to a virtual machine. This is not what I’m trying to do but my point was there is plenty of documentation of that process. V2P is essentially what we are doing when we are preparing virtual machine images with VMWare Workstation for deployment to physical machine with FOG.[/quote]

Why you don’t build a clean Windows in a VM and use snapshot to revert modification if needed then use SAD in sysprep ? This way, if you have special soft to add to an image, just install them, run sysprep, upload image then revert modification to the VM.
We have HP, DELL, LENOVO, ACER and few other brand of computer and we use ONLY ONE image with sysprep…
Using an image from a computer means that you backup all the specification of the computer for nothing (driver and software).
Maybe you don’t even handle temp files…

[chclark]

I have another query.

The company I work for manufactures pcs. All the machines were am trying to implement this are my work branded machines, they are licenced with a oem os which activates against the bios.

I have one of the oem 32 bit disks but not the 64 am getting hold of one. But what would I need to change in my sysprep file as I won’t need a key in there as the oem os activates against the bios.

I don’t know of any of that makes sense but if you understand please let me know.

[Tom Elliott]

Change the architecture from amd64 to x86

[chclark]

Oh yea I’ve done that. I mean do I just leave the section in the unattend file for the product key blank as this ets activated against the bios.

[Tom Elliott]

Remove the <ProductKey>XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX</ProductKey> in it’s entirety.

I also believe you need to set the -SPP parts to -SLC

[Eli Kelly]

[quote=“jmeyer, post: 32396, member: 6537”]Why you don’t build a clean Windows in a VM and use snapshot to revert modification if needed then use SAD in sysprep ? This way, if you have special soft to add to an image, just install them, run sysprep, upload image then revert modification to the VM.
We have HP, DELL, LENOVO, ACER and few other brand of computer and we use ONLY ONE image with sysprep…
Using an image from a computer means that you backup all the specification of the computer for nothing (driver and software).
Maybe you don’t even handle temp files…[/quote]

That is exactly what I am doing and it has been working beautifully until recently. I have a full set of snapshots from every stage of preparing my clean image. From time to time I like to patch the OS, take a new snapshot and then update the stock image on the FOG server. For some reason any new snapshots break this process.

I did try your thought about setting scsi0.present = “FALSE” in the VXD (edited:meant VMX) file. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to make a difference.

[jmeyer]

[quote=“Eli Kelly, post: 32474, member: 1152”]That is exactly what I am doing and it has been working beautifully until recently. I have a full set of snapshots from every stage of preparing my clean image. From time to time I like to patch the OS, take a new snapshot and then update the stock image on the FOG server. For some reason any new snapshots break this process.

I did try your thought about setting scsi0.present = “FALSE” in the VXD (edited:meant VMX) file. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to make a difference.[/quote]

Maybe make a new Windows installation will solve the problem…
I join my .vmx content to compare with yours in case something in it bring the problem.

[CODE].encoding = “windows-1252”
config.version = “8”
virtualHW.version = “9”
scsi0.present = “TRUE”
scsi0.virtualDev = “lsisas1068”
memsize = “1024”
mem.hotadd = “TRUE”
ide0:0.present = “TRUE”
ide0:0.fileName = “Windows 7 x64 2-000001.vmdk”
ide1:0.present = “TRUE”
ide1:0.autodetect = “TRUE”
ide1:0.deviceType = “cdrom-raw”
ethernet0.present = “TRUE”
ethernet0.virtualDev = “e1000”
ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = “FALSE”
ethernet0.addressType = “generated”
usb.present = “TRUE”
ehci.present = “TRUE”
ehci.pciSlotNumber = “35”
sound.present = “TRUE”
sound.virtualDev = “hdaudio”
sound.fileName = “-1”
sound.autodetect = “TRUE”
mks.enable3d = “TRUE”
pciBridge0.present = “TRUE”
pciBridge4.present = “TRUE”
pciBridge4.virtualDev = “pcieRootPort”
pciBridge4.functions = “8”
pciBridge5.present = “TRUE”
pciBridge5.virtualDev = “pcieRootPort”
pciBridge5.functions = “8”
pciBridge6.present = “TRUE”
pciBridge6.virtualDev = “pcieRootPort”
pciBridge6.functions = “8”
pciBridge7.present = “TRUE”
pciBridge7.virtualDev = “pcieRootPort”
pciBridge7.functions = “8”
vmci0.present = “TRUE”
hpet0.present = “TRUE”
usb.vbluetooth.startConnected = “TRUE”
displayName = “Windows 7 x64 2”
guestOS = “windows7-64”
nvram = “Windows 7 x64 2.nvram”
virtualHW.productCompatibility = “hosted”
powerType.powerOff = “hard”
powerType.powerOn = “hard”
powerType.suspend = “hard”
powerType.reset = “hard”
extendedConfigFile = “Windows 7 x64 2.vmxf”
scsi0.pciSlotNumber = “160”
ethernet0.generatedAddress = “00:0c:29:ef:45:1b”
ethernet0.pciSlotNumber = “33”
usb.pciSlotNumber = “32”
sound.pciSlotNumber = “34”
vmci0.id = “1492075803”
vmci0.pciSlotNumber = “36”
uuid.location = “56 4d 18 a6 8c f9 61 ab-c7 34 18 d6 58 ef 45 1b”
uuid.bios = “56 4d 18 a6 8c f9 61 ab-c7 34 18 d6 58 ef 45 1b”
cleanShutdown = “TRUE”
replay.supported = “FALSE”
replay.filename = “”
ide0:0.redo = “”
pciBridge0.pciSlotNumber = “17”
pciBridge4.pciSlotNumber = “21”
pciBridge5.pciSlotNumber = “22”
pciBridge6.pciSlotNumber = “23”
pciBridge7.pciSlotNumber = “24”
scsi0.sasWWID = “50 05 05 66 8c f9 61 a0”
usb:1.present = “TRUE”
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = “0”
vmotion.checkpointFBSize = “134217728”
softPowerOff = “FALSE”
usb:1.speed = “2”
usb:1.deviceType = “hub”
usb:1.port = “1”
usb:1.parent = “-1”
checkpoint.vmState.readOnly = “FALSE”
checkpoint.vmState = “”
tools.remindInstall = “TRUE”
numvcpus = “2”
cpuid.coresPerSocket = “2”
floppy0.present = “FALSE”
usb:0.present = “TRUE”
usb:0.deviceType = “hid”
usb:0.port = “0”
usb:0.parent = “-1”
[/CODE]

[Eli Kelly]

Thanks!

Your vmx file is substantially similar to my working ones with the exception that mine have:

[CODE]virtualHW.version = “8”[/CODE]

An interesting observation is that all of my newer snapshots that are not working have an added line at the bottom of the vmx file

[CODE]monitor.phys_bits_used = “40”[/CODE] I’m not sure if that is significant at all but it is my best lead right now.

[jmeyer]

If i remember well, you have an endless loading problem after reboot, right ?
Is it reboot on the VM or on an other computer ?

[Eli Kelly]

That’s right. It happens on deployment to a physical machine.

[jmeyer]

At first boot and before Windows make it self optimization ?

[Eli Kelly]

Yes at first boot and before self optimization. Just after “Starting Windows” is displayed just as the logo is starting to show up the computer reboots.

If I try to boot to safe mode it restarts right after Loading CLASSPNP.SYS

[jmeyer]

Have you reboot your VM before and after sysprep to see if this happen ?

[chclark]

Hi wondering if anyone can offer any advice, so all the machines at work we plan to use are all RM branded and have oem licences, i have now got hold of the RM windows 7 64bit oem recovery disk (activates against bios), do i have to do anything special to make a golden image with this or would i be best making a single image for each RM Machine type, in total about 5 different models.

ive tested the sad2 tool on them and it works fine gets every driver no problem apart from the RM laptops which is a issue we have seen before with a faulty intel onboard graphic driver which basically kills the display and you have to RDP to the machine and update the driver for the graphic manually in device manager by searching automatically for the driver and it will grab the correct one from the internet, am not sure how i would update this manually in the driver packs either.

any advice would be great.

[Eli Kelly]

[quote=“jmeyer, post: 32641, member: 6537”]Have you reboot your VM before and after sysprep to see if this happen ?[/quote]

VM reboot after sysprep completes normally.

Update: Gave up on VMWare for this. I switched to VirtualBox and the process is working perfectly except that I get prompts for a hostname when windows starts up after deploying to a physical machine. Actually it initially prompted for the hostname and timezone. My unattend (which works correctly with my old VMWare snapshots as well as with MDT deployments) originally declared the Timezone and ComputerName in the specialize pass. Adding a Timezone value in the OOBE pass fixed the prompt for time zone but adding the ComputerName tag there doesn’t make a difference. I have tried leaving the ComputerName tag out of both sections and not surprisingly the hostname prompt still appears when the physical machine boots after deployment.

Admittedly my unattend file is somewhat complex as it does a few things such as configure RDP, enable Administrator, disable WER. Tomorrow I will try a very basic unattend file but thought I would see if any ideas came up that would save me the troubleshooting time.

Thanks

Eli

[andyroo54]

[quote=“chclark, post: 33624, member: 6419”]Hi wondering if anyone can offer any advice, so all the machines at work we plan to use are all RM branded and have oem licences, i have now got hold of the RM windows 7 64bit oem recovery disk (activates against bios), do i have to do anything special to make a golden image with this or would i be best making a single image for each RM Machine type, in total about 5 different models.

ive tested the sad2 tool on them and it works fine gets every driver no problem apart from the RM laptops which is a issue we have seen before with a faulty intel onboard graphic driver which basically kills the display and you have to RDP to the machine and update the driver for the graphic manually in device manager by searching automatically for the driver and it will grab the correct one from the internet, am not sure how i would update this manually in the driver packs either.

any advice would be great.[/quote]

Hi Might be best making a new thread in the Windows section of the forum for this question.

HERE: [url]http://fogproject.org/forum/forums/windows-problems.6/[/url]

[Jaymes Driver]

Andyroo is correct, another forum would be best to discuss your unattend file.

however, have some information in the mean time, this is how I handle my computer naming convention, I ofcourse have the fog Client installed, and I have elected to use the Host Name Change service. When I register the machine I register it as the name I want it to have when the process is complete.

[code]
<component name=“Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup” processorArchitecture=“x86” publicKeyToken=“31bf3856ad364e35” language=“neutral” versionScope=“nonSxS” xmlns:wcm=“[URL]http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State[/URL]” xmlns:xsi=“[URL]http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance[/URL]”>
<ShowWindowsLive>false</ShowWindowsLive>
<ComputerName>*</ComputerName>
<RegisteredOrganization>Microsoft</RegisteredOrganization>
<RegisteredOwner>AutoBVT</RegisteredOwner>
<ProductKey>Use a generic key here if you activate via KMS, if nor provide you kms key here.</ProductKey>
<CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile>
<TimeZone>Eastern Standard Time</TimeZone>
</component>
[/code]

[Eli Kelly]

VMWare is working again for me. There was one important step that I was missing. It was expressed clearly by the OP. There was even a screenshot. I have even done it hundreds of times correctly in the past.

It simply turned out that I have been forgetting to tick the “Generalize” box! Sysprep wasn’t processing anything from the Specialize phase of my unattend.

[rado]

Hi all, I have one question regarding audit mode. As far as I understood, it’s equivalent mode to OOBE (or Windows Welcome) but it’s meant more for technically skilled and for corporations than for end users. But in the end, it has the same use: to prepare freshly installed win.

Now, is it problem to not do (2nd and n-th) image preparation in audit mode (of course, the 1st we did this way)? Is it ok to update windows, update/upgrade/install/remove software, change profile, etc. via logged in administrator and then start sysprep oobe with generalize from here (before capturing image)? Had anybody problems doing it this way or do you see any potential problems?

I read, that audit mode is needed for auditSystem and auditUser passes to happen (if I got it right). But since we based our unattend.xml on this tutorial, we don’t use auditSystem or auditUser.

Does anybody know some (perhaps official) text, which explains if there is any difference between doing sysprep in audit mode and normally from logged in administrator account?

Thanks.

[Jaymes Driver]

No, OOBE is for making the machine into a Like new Out Of Box Experience. Audit Mode is a tool to use during an Image setup process, that requires the finalization of the OS so it can (if you supply an unattend.xml) make your Installation autonomous.

The Audit mode is where you get to windows BEFORE the OOBE process happens. You are suppose to install all your software at this point then sysprep and upload, On first deploy the installation will answer the installation questions with your provided unattend.xml and complete the OOBE process (generalizing the installation so that new drivers can be applied to the system, cleaning some registry values and other secretive windows type things).

Really, there isn’t much difference in if you just install the software as a user and push your image, except the generalization processes which allows the machine that you are imaging to have their own hardware identifiers and unique strings which will be required for activation. This is only really important if you activate to a KMS server or if you join to an active directory environment (speculation have not tested I am not AD).

Try it, tell us what does and does not work if you don’t sysprep, that’s really the only thing I can recommend.

Personally, I read many tutorials before I began pushing windows 7. each one mentioned using Audit Mode to install my software and drivers before completing the generalization process, and I have had marginal success in doing so.

Hope this helps!