FOG Post Install, Sysprep, unattend file

HorizonG

Hello everyone,

[I am new to the forum, I thank in advance those who will be interested in the following post]

I have a question about the post-installation method, specifically about the unattend.xml file.

Step 1 [OK] : I created an image, which we can call “Golden Image” with an unattend.xml file that I then captured via FOG.

=> My unattend file does not contain the command to run a post install script like Powershell or SetupComplete.cmd

Step 2 [OK] : I then used these 2 guidlines to copy the drivers according to the computer model:

https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/7740/the-magical-mystical-fog-post-download-script

https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/11126/using-fog-postinstall-scripts-for-windows-driver-injection-2017-ed

=> This method allows me to :

Update the unattend file (unattend.xml) here: C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep
Drop the drivers folder here: C:\Drivers\
Install powershell scripts here: C:\FOG
Current folder structure :
[Parent Folder] C:\FOG
[Subfolder] C:\FOG\Master_Script [Script .PS1 calling each .PS1]
[Subfolder] C:\FOG\Scripts [ Mutiple Scripts .PS1]
[Subfolder] C:\FOG\Logs [Logs files]

These scripts contains code to install : Drivers, FOG client,specific configurations

I’d like to know if the unattend file I’m updating via the post-installation method is updated before the OS starting the image that has already been “syprep”. So that I can update it dynamically.
This would also allow me to run my script located at this level: C:\FOG\Master_Script … because I didn’t indicate this in the nitial unattend.xml file.
is it possible to rename automatically (with script?) the machine after post-sysprep initialization, reusing the computer name from Full Inventory ?

Thank you for your replies

JJ Fullmer

@HorizonG Short answer to both, yes.

There’s a bit of work to do to make it work but you can.
The first thing to know to help in full is what phase of sysprep you captured at?

If you captured right after the generalize phase (best practice) and specialize is what starts you can indeed update the unattend file dynamically with computer name, domain, ou, etc.
You can only effect the phases that haven’t happened yet. So you can add things to the specialize and oobe phases. Specialize does things before windows fully loads, it’s essentially a winpe environment, and oobe is the full windows where you can have a setupcomplete run. I have it kick off a series of powershell scripts (essentially).

Windows also moves the unattend file around across the phases, when I update the unattend file in a post install script I just update it in all these places. i.e. in the context of fog having mounted at /ntfs
"/ntfs/Windows/System32/Sysprep/Unattend.xml" "/ntfs/Windows/Panther/unattend.xml" "/ntfs/Windows/Panther/Unattend.xml"

I also have one at C:\Unattend.xml you’ll see in my example below.

Also note that it’s case sensitive, which is why I have 2 in the same spot as I’ve seen it both ways.

I don’t have time to dig into too much detail right now but here’s an example of injecting some stuff into the unattend files. I also included my bit where I can just patch in an updated Unattend.xml file, though this wouldn’t scale for every host I just use it for another option before recapturing a whole image to test an unattend change.

One very important bit for this to work as it does in the example is I have this bit in my specialize phase, which I replace with computername and AD info, replace NETBIOSDOMAINNAME with your short domain name that you use for this format logon string domain\username

<component name="Microsoft-Windows-UnattendedJoin" 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">
            <Identification>
                <JoinWorkgroup>NETBIOSDOMAINNAME</JoinWorkgroup>
            </Identification>
        </component>

I also have <ComputerName></ComputerName> in the specialize phase under my "Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" component i.e. the end of this has that. I took out my company info from this example, you don’t need all of this the same, just a contextual example. The product key is the GVLK for windows 10/11 publicly available.

<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" 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">
            <DesktopOptimization>
                <GoToDesktopOnSignIn>true</GoToDesktopOnSignIn>
                <ShowWindowsStoreAppsOnTaskbar>true</ShowWindowsStoreAppsOnTaskbar>
            </DesktopOptimization>
            <BluetoothTaskbarIconEnabled>true</BluetoothTaskbarIconEnabled>
            <ConvertibleSlateModePromptPreference>1</ConvertibleSlateModePromptPreference>
            <CopyProfile>false</CopyProfile>
            <DisableAutoDaylightTimeSet>false</DisableAutoDaylightTimeSet>
            <EnableStartMenu>true</EnableStartMenu>
            <OEMName>Company Name</OEMName>
            <RegisteredOrganization>Company Name</RegisteredOrganization>
            <ShowPowerButtonOnStartScreen>true</ShowPowerButtonOnStartScreen>
            <RegisteredOwner>Company Name</RegisteredOwner>
            <SignInMode>2</SignInMode>
            <TimeZone>Mountain Standard Time</TimeZone>
            <OEMInformation>
                <SupportURL>http://helpme.company.tld</SupportURL>
                <Logo>C:\img\company-logo.bmp</Logo>
                <SupportPhone>555-5555</SupportPhone>
                <SupportProvider>String that shows up in sys info</SupportProvider>
                <Manufacturer>string that shows up in sys info</Manufacturer>
            </OEMInformation>
            <Themes>
                <BrandIcon>C:\img\company-logo.png</BrandIcon>
                <ThemeName>Company Theme</ThemeName>
                <DesktopBackground>%WINDIR%\web\Wallpaper\some-injected-background.jpg</DesktopBackground>
                <WindowColor>Automatic</WindowColor>
                <DefaultThemesOff>false</DefaultThemesOff>
            </Themes>
            <DoNotCleanTaskBar>true</DoNotCleanTaskBar>
            <AutoLogon>
                <Password>
                    <Value>supersecretencryptedpassword</Value>
                    <PlainText>false</PlainText>
                </Password>
                <Enabled>true</Enabled>
                <Username>Administrator</Username>
                <LogonCount>99</LogonCount>
            </AutoLogon>
            <ProductKey>NPPR9-FWDCX-D2C8J-H872K-2YT43</ProductKey>
            <ComputerName></ComputerName>
        </component>

The fog post download examples. I also do something with the device form setting but I tried to just take that out for this example. Device form is mildly helpful for configuring the tablet vs desktop user experience if you have a mix of such devices.

unattends=("/ntfs/Unattend.xml" "/ntfs/Windows/System32/Sysprep/Unattend.xml" "/ntfs/Windows/Panther/unattend.xml" "/ntfs/Windows/Panther/Unattend.xml")
for unattend in ${unattends[@]}; do
    [[ ! -f $unattend ]] && break
    #as a failsafe, reload the funcs.sh from fog
    . /usr/share/fog/lib/funcs.sh
    dots "Preparing Sysprep File at $unattend"
    #update unattend files if an Unattend.xml file is present to replace current file
    if [[ -f "/images/drivers/Unattend.xml" ]]; then
        echo -en "\n\nUnattend.xml patch file detected, updating the Unattend.xml file baseline\n\n";
        echo -en "\n\nUnattend.xml patch file detected, updating the Unattend.xml file baseline\n\n" >> $updateUnattendLog
        rsync -aqzz "/images/drivers/Unattend.xml" $unattend;
    else
        echo -en "\n\nNo Unattend.xml patch file detected, skipping update of unattend.xml file baseline and just updating contents\n\n";
        echo -en "\n\nNo Unattend.xml patch file detected, skipping update of unattend.xml file baseline and just updating contents\n\n" >> $updateUnattendLog
    fi
    #echo "File update Done"
    debugPause
    if [[ $adon=="1" ]]; then 
    cp $unattend $unattend.old
    
            domainJoinStr="<JoinDomain></JoinDomain>\n\t\t<MachineObjectOU></MachineObjectOU>\n\t\t<Credentials>\n\t\t\t<Domain></Domain>\n\t\t\t<Password></Password>\n\t\t\t<Username></Username>\n\t\t</Credentials>"
    
            echo -en "\n\nInjecting Unattend Join fields into unattend for Dynamic update....\n"
    
            echo -en "\n\nInjecting Unattend Join fields into unattend for Dynamic update....\n" >> $updateUnattendLog
    
            # get the value of the workgroup to set as the netbios domain for the domain login
    
            netbiosdomain=`sed -n '/JoinWorkgroup/{s/.*<JoinWorkgroup>//;s/<\/JoinWorkgroup.*//;p;}' $unattend`
    
            #replace the workgroup join string with the domain tags to be updated
    
            sed -i -e "s|<JoinWorkgroup>${netbiosdomain}</JoinWorkgroup>|${domainJoinStr}|g" $unattend >/dev/null 2>&1
    
    
    
            echo -en "\n\nSetting Dynamic Unattend fields - \n\nComputer Name: ${hostname}\nJoining Domain: ${addomain}\nWill be in OU: ${adou}\n"
    
            echo -en "\n\nSetting Dynamic Unattend fields - \n\nComputer Name: ${hostname}\nJoining Domain: ${addomain}\nWill be in OU: ${adou}\n" >> $updateUnattendLog
    
            sed -i \
    
    
                -e "s|<ComputerName></ComputerName>|<ComputerName>${hostname}</ComputerName>|g" \
    
                -e "s|<Name>\*</Name>|<Name>${hostname}</Name>|g" \
    
                -e "s|<Password></Password>|<Password>${adpass}</Password>|g" \
    
                -e "s|<Username></Username>|<Username>${aduser}</Username>|g" \
    
                -e "s|<Domain></Domain>|<Domain>${netbiosdomain}</Domain>|g" \
    
                -e "s|<MachineObjectOU></MachineObjectOU>|<MachineObjectOU>${adou}</MachineObjectOU>|g" \
    
                -e "s|<JoinDomain></JoinDomain>|<JoinDomain>${addomain}</JoinDomain>|g" $unattend >/dev/null 2>&1
    
            if [[ ! $? -eq 0 ]]; then
    
                echo -en "\n\nFailed to update user, pass, ou, and domain setter, set just computername and deviceform instead and using simplified unattend file\n"
    
                echo -en "\n\nFailed to update user, pass, ou, and domain setter, set just computername and deviceform instead and using simplified unattend file\n" >> $updateUnattendLog
    
                echo -en "\n\Restoring unattend file from before domain join attempt\n"
    
                echo -en "\n\Restoring unattend file from before domain join attempt\n" >> $updateUnattendLog
    
                mv $unattend.old $unattend -f
    
                echo -en "\n\nSetting Dynamic Unattend fields - \n\nDeviceForm: ${DeviceForm}\nComputer Name: ${hostname}"
    
                echo -en "\n\nSetting Dynamic Unattend fields - \n\nDeviceForm: ${DeviceForm}\nComputer Name: ${hostname}" >> $updateUnattendLog
                debugPause
                sed -i \
                    -e "s|<ComputerName></ComputerName>|<ComputerName>${hostname}</ComputerName>|g" \
    
                    -e "s|<Name>\*</Name>|<Name>${hostname}</Name>|g" $unattend >/dev/null 2>&1
    
                if [[ ! $? -eq 0 ]]; then
    
                    echo -en "\nFailed again after using failsafe unattend\n"
    
                    echo -en "\nFailed again after using failsafe unattend\n" >> $updateUnattendLog
    
                    debugPause
    
                    handleError "Failed to update user, pass, ou, and domain setter and then failed the failsafe with no domain"
    
                fi
    
            else
    
                echo -en "\n\nRemoving Workgroup join section and backup unattend as adding domain join was a success...\n"
    
                echo -en "\n\nRemoving Workgroup join section and backup unattend as adding domain join was a success...\n" >> $updateUnattendLog
    
                rm -f $unattend.old
    
                sed -i "/<JoinWorkgroup>/d" $unattend >/dev/null 2>&1
    
                sed -i "/<MachinePassword>/d" $unattend >/dev/null 2>&1
    
                if [[ ! $? -eq 0 ]]; then
    
                    echo "Failed"
    
                    debugPause
    
                    handleError "Failed to remove the Workgroup setter"
    
                fi
    
            fi
            echo -en "\n\nDone updating $unattend\n"
            echo -en "\n\nDone updating $unattend\n" >> $updateUnattendLog
            debugPause
        else
            echo -en "\n\nNo domain to join variable present, just setting deviceform and computer name and using simplified unattend file\n"
            echo -en "\n\nNo domain to join variable present, just setting deviceform and computer name and using simplified unattend file\n" >> $updateUnattendLog
            echo -en "\n\nSetting Dynamic Unattend fields - \n\nDeviceForm: ${DeviceForm}\nComputer Name: ${hostname}"
            echo -en "\n\nSetting Dynamic Unattend fields - \n\nDeviceForm: ${DeviceForm}\nComputer Name: ${hostname}" >> $updateUnattendLog
            debugPause
            sed -i \
                -e "s|<ComputerName></ComputerName>|<ComputerName>${hostname}</ComputerName>|g" \
                -e "s|<Name>\*</Name>|<Name>${hostname}</Name>|g" $unattend >/dev/null 2>&1
            if [[ ! $? -eq 0 ]]; then
                echo "Failed"
                debugPause
                handleError "Failed to set workgroup join fields"
            fi        
        fi
    done

FOG Post Install, Sysprep, unattend file

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