WIM files and FOG
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@dhruvin-t it’s stuck And based on what I’m reading you’re booting pie via legacy but hdd is booting Uefi. Please change host bios exit to refind and see if that helps.
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@tom-elliott said in WIM files and FOG:
change host bios exit to refind
Hello Tom
thanks for the help sir. I am not following you. My vmware options are set following. I have unchecked the option “Boot with EFI instead of BIOS”. If I enable (check) that, bios boots doesnt boot into pxe because it doesnt find the nbp file and it fails. Heres the link
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@dhruvin-t all I did was take a guess. The next guess I might have is the disk for the vm doesn’t have an OS yet. I don’t know many details though.
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No worries at all, I do have win 10 installed on the disk on the VM. Its very confusing. It wont budge!
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@dhruvin-t please set cm to efi but do not boot pxe this time. Does it boot? If not uncheck efi. No pxe, does it boot?
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It does boot for both scenarios. I was trying to change the host management to assign the image to the host that is going to be captured but it keeps on saying “Cannot change image.
Host is in a tasking.”what does this mean?
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@dhruvin-t I’m a bit confused where you are at right now.
Where you first posted today, the fog server saw that you launched the fog client on your reference image and was waiting for you to approve the system. It basically put the system in a hold state "pending’ until you approved it on the FOG server WebUI.
Now lets understand you have a win10 reference image on a VM. Was that system setup as a UEFI system or a BIOS (legacy) system. Its important for 2 reasons.
- To PXE boot that system, the pxe boot loader kernel needs to match the mode the reference image computer is running in.
- When you deploy your captured image, it can only be deployed to a like mode system (i.e. captured uefi -> uefi target computer, captured bios -> bios (legacy mode) target computer).
Now we have seen some cruddy uefi firmware on some systems (like Lenovo) that don’t transition very well between iPXE and FOS (the linux OS that runs on the target computer) where it will hang just after init.xz…
If this happens and you have a Lenovo or any other brand, make sure your firmware version is up to date.
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@dhruvin-t said in WIM files and FOG:
saying “Cannot change image.
Host is in a tasking.”This probably means that you have a running task on the FOG server and it won’t let you adjust the settings with a pending tasks. On the FOG tool tray (in the web ui) select tasks icon. It should show you the running tasks. Remove the task if it has failed to deploy. That should release the image settings.
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I think this clears up a lot of stuff. The VM was built by someone who was let go and now I am going to just rebuild the VM. I will install a fresh MS build 1709 win 10 image with a EFI setting. I will update you guys on what happens next.
Just to confirm machine should NOT be on the domain at any time right?
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@dhruvin-t That is correct, the machine should never attach to AD, or it will get tattooed with things that make cloning not so fun.
While this is a bit off-point. We use MDT to create our reference images. Since we have to create one for bios mode and one for uefi mode, MDT can create 2 identically deployed systems just in different install modes. It also allow us to create updated installs once a quarter with the latest windows updates and then helps us roll out the next CBB release as MS releases it. We just copy over our task sequences to the new OS and can create a new reference image right away. Its something to consider.
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@dhruvin-t Also since you are building a uefi system, then you need to set your iPXE boot loader to ipxe.efi. This would be set in your dhcp server option 67 should be ipxe.efi. If you have this set correct then you should be able to pxe boot into the FOG iPXE menu.
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@george1421 said in WIM files and FOG:
ipxe.efi
My current DHCP is set to undionly.kpxe. So I will change that over to ipxe.efi.
Also talking about MDT. I have the latest build MDT installed. Is there a guide you can reference for me to switch over to that methodology? My new VM is almost ready, is MDT something I install on the VM itself?
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@dhruvin-t MDT “server” is loaded on a dedicated computer. It can be a desktop OS or server OS. You will use the MDT “server” to configure your task sequences, load your dvd images, and preload any drivers you might need for image boot. There are plenty of how-tos on the internet for MDT. This one is not bad. Just be aware that with each release of Windows 10, there seems to be an update required for MDT.
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-set-up-microsoft-deployment-toolkit-step-by-step/
I develop my reference image on a VM, in MDT you create a boot image (.ISO). You need to boot from this image to start to create your target computer (once your task sequences are setup). I just copy that .ISO file to our NAS and then configure the VM to mount that .ISO image on the DVD rom of my reference image and then boot from that.
My boot order of the VM is DVD, Network, then hard drive. My reference image VM has 70GB hard drive 4 vCPU and 6GB of ram. I needed the 3 extra vCPU and RAM when we were building Win7 images with all of the windows updates that needed to be applied. I just stuck with that for Win10 development and it hasn’t caused me any pain.
There is more, but its a bit off topic of your original post.
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I already have this setup on a dedicated beefed up box in my cubicle!! Its sitting on a win10 machine though.
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@dhruvin-t You have MDT or your reference image already setup?
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I have the MDT setup. However when I open it, its asking me for a wim file.
Now I downloaded a ISO image from MS licensing portal. I have been trying to use the MDT. So my thought process is as follow
Use the fresh ISO that I installed from MS and make a bare VM out of it. Install all my apps for the company on it, remove unnecessary stuff off of it and then sysprep the image to convert it into ISO and put it in MDT.
But I changed my route because my boss agreed to let me use FOG. So since you mentioned that FOG needs the image before the sysprep, I am creating this new VM so I can import the image into fog. After it gets imported into FOG, I was going to sysprep and put it in MDT. How does this sound?
You guys have been great help! Really appreciate your input and help with this.
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@dhruvin-t said in WIM files and FOG:
then sysprep the image to convert it into ISO and put it in MDT.
I mean convert it into a WIM.
Also, I still install the FOG client but disable the service when I do the capture from FOG right?
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@dhruvin-t The next steps are for you to move your unattend.xml file into place (typically the c:\windows\panther directory) and then run sysprep and use the command line parameter to tell sysprep to power off the reference image once its done. This ensures that all of the files and partitions are released by Win10. If you miss this step then FOG will complain about the disk being busy and/or dirty.
You should also make sure that you have that VM registered in FOG before you sysprep just to avoid any missteps during setup.
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@george1421 Actually before you sysprep the image I want you to update/modify your unattend.xml file.
add this section to your unattend.xml file.
<settings pass="offlineServicing"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-PnpCustomizationsNonWinPE" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <DriverPaths> <PathAndCredentials wcm:action="add" wcm:keyValue="1"> <Path>C:\Windows\DRV</Path> </PathAndCredentials> </DriverPaths> </component> </settings>Ref: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/8889/fog-post-install-script-for-win-driver-injection/3
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@george1421 said in WIM files and FOG:
@george1421 Actually before you sysprep the image I want you to update/modify your unattend.xml file.
Hello George, im slightly confused. Didnt you mention to not run sysprep when registering image into fog?
Also at what point do I actually start the full registration and capture to fog? And when you mentioned get my VM registered, you meant just doing pxe boot and approving the host right?
I just want to get it right this time around. Thanks for the unattend link, really helpful!
EDIT: Also, MDT says I need a .wim file to create an unattend file.
