Support for Windows Server 2012?
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Hi all,
I was wondering if Windows Server 2012 will be supported as an imaged system for deployment? I’m a software developer in a group that uses Ghost currently for deploying several images for automated testing, including Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012. I have Ubuntu server 14.04 installed with FOG version 1.1.2 and I got it all up and running fairly easily and have imaged Windows 8, uploading and downloading successfully to VMware Workstation 10.0.3. If I try to do the same with Windows Server 2012, I can get the image to upload successfully, but it doesn’t download; the job seems to complete very fast and the VM reboots to a Missing operating system prompt. Has anyone gotten Windows Server 2012 to image successfully, and if so, can you share what settings you are using for the image? I tried “Windows Other” and “Windows 8” for the operating system when creating the image and "Multiple Partition Image - Single Disk (Not Resizable). Is there any other information that I should post that would be helpful? I just started working with FOG yesterday and have been reading through the documentation and forums for anything I can find for assistance.
Thanks,
Dave -
how many partitions are there on the disk (including hidden partitions)? is a recovery partition present? what is the location of the BCD file? have you tried using the “windows 7” OS type?
i am not aware of any intended support for server versions of windows, but we should be able to get it to work. -
There are two partitions on the disk, a 350MB partition and a 100GB partition (of which only 25GB is in use) which contains the OS. It is very similar to the Windows 8 disk structure that I successfully imaged earlier. I just changed the OS type in the image I uploaded to Windows 7 and it behaves the same; it quickly reboots after beginning the load. Or, do I need to upload a new image with the OS set to Windows 7? I’m not sure if that makes a difference. Thanks!
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Forgot a couple of answers to your questions: There isn’t a recovery partition, I initially created this Server 2012 installation by doing a clean install into a new VM (like I did with the Windows 8 system). I’m not sure what the BCD file is; is that the image? BCD to this old programmer means Binary Coded Decimal.
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the BCD file is literally a file named BCD. it is a hidden system file located either in the recovery partition or the system partition in the folder /boot/
it is the windows Boot Configuration Data file, and it’s probably the reason you’re not booting already.
for windows 7 and 8 images, we use a sysprepped generalized BCD file that is expected to reside on a recovery partition -
could you run sysprep on the machine, with the /generalize and /quit options, and provide us with a copy of your BCD file?
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Hmmm, the original Windows Server 2012 system boots fine; the upload seemed to work fine, it’s the download of the image that never seems to start (I never seem the image loading), it quickly finishes (I can’t see an error flash by) and reboots, but no image has been downloaded. Is that BCD file required to do the download? I have one Windows 7 system and I can see the BCD file in the \boot directory; however the Windows 8 system I imaged up/down successfully has no \boot directory or BCD file, nor does the Windows 2012 system. The Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 systems look very similar, but no BCD file on either. Any other things I should look for? Thanks for the help!
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I’ll have to download it; it’s not installed on this server. I’ll get back to you; thanks!
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if you don’t see a /boot folder, then that usually means there’s a hidden recovery partition with that folder on it.
but, rereading your original question, i don’t think the BCD is the problem. it sounds like you might have a GPT partition structure on the disk. -
Running sysprep with the generalize and quit options. As to the GPT partition structure; can I see that in the Disk Management application? I only see two simple volumes on a basic disc, the 350MB NTFS one and the 100GB NTFS one.
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Sysprep completed, there is no BCD file on the disk that I can see.
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looked in the 350mb partition viewing hidden files?
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anyway, to see the GPT formatting of the boot structure, create a debug task for the host
at the command prompt enter
[FONT=Consolas]gdisk -l /dev/sda[/FONT]
and tell me the output -
Got it…how shall I send it to you?
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you can upload a file to a thread. what is the output of the command i asked you to run?
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[EMAIL]root@FOGServer:/opt/fog/log[/EMAIL]# gdisk -l /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.8
Partition table scan:
MBR: MBR only
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: not present
Found invalid GPT and valid MBR; converting MBR to GPT format
in memory.
Disk /dev/sda: 104857600 sectors, 50.0 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 8AE43B70-6271-4FEE-A07F-2F6D87148AC6
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 104857566
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 6077 sectors (3.0 MiB)
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 2048 102762495 49.0 GiB 8300 Linux filesystem
5 102764544 104855551 1021.0 MiB 8200 Linux swap
[EMAIL]root@FOGServer:/opt/fog/log[/EMAIL]# ^C -
I can’t copy the BCD file; it’s in use by the system. I might be able to open the vmd file in another VM and copy it over.
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Will be offline for a bit and back online later. Thanks very much for your help!
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with the system now converted, try to re-upload the image.
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I have the same issue after re-uploading and then downloading. During the download, I see a quick “Database update successful” (I think it says that) message before the system quickly reboots (without downloading the image).