Although it is completely
integrated into ConfigMgr, OSD uses and takes advantage of multiple
separate tools. Knowing how OSD uses these tools and each tool’s
function is beneficial when setting up a deployment and troubleshooting
problems. Microsoft also provides complementary tools that can enhance
your deployment experience. The following sections discuss a number of
these tools.
Sysprep
Sysprep, short for System
Preparation, is one of the primary tools used for unattended setup of
all flavors of Windows. Essentially, when used for imaging, Sysprep
removes the unique Security Identifiers (SIDs) specific to a particular
installation of Windows. Sysprep then configures the installation to run
a brief, GUI-based, mini-setup when the system restarts. This mini-setup provides the following benefits:
Generates new and unique SIDs for the system
Enables the input of a new Windows product key
Reruns the plug-and-play hardware detection
Reruns the driver installation process
Sysprep in OSD
OSD fully automates the
mini-setup process with a configuration file. The name of the file
varies based on the version of Windows used:
OSD either builds the
appropriate file on-the-fly or uses one supplied to it, inserting the
information automatically into the Sysprep configuration file. This
information includes the product key, organization name, networking
information, and domain credentials. Incorporating this functionality
adds to OSD’s flexibility by eliminating the need to maintain multiple
sysprep files supporting multiple deployment scenarios.
Version-Specific Flavors
Each version of
Windows has its own specific version of Sysprep. For versions of Windows
before Vista, you must make Sysprep available to the setup process
separately by creating a package or placing the files in %SystemRoot%\sysprep.
You can find these files in the deploy.cab compressed file located in
the \Support folder on the installation media, or you can download them
from the Microsoft download site, www.microsoft.com/downloads.
For Windows Vista and later, the sysprep files come with the operating system and are located in %windir%\System32.
User State Migration Tool
You
can then import this archive onto another system, restoring the user
data and settings. USMT’s default configuration captures all known
Microsoft-centric settings and data, such as wallpaper, color scheme,
Microsoft Office documents, favorites, and all files in the \My
Documents folder. You can customize these defaults based upon the
requirements of your environment. Microsoft provides further
documentation on USMT at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc722032.aspx.
Incorporating XML Capabilities
The information
USMT captures from a source system is highly customizable by modifying
or creating a series of eXtensible Markup Language (XML) configuration
files. These XML configuration files describe the files, folders, and
Registry entries that USMT captures; you can either specify exact
filenames and Registry locations, or perform wildcard searches to locate
data or settings in these XML configuration files. USMT then uses these
configuration files to capture all specified data and settings and put
them into an archive for later use in restoring to a destination system.
The Tools in USMT
USMT actually consists of two tools:
LoadState.exe
ScanState.exe
As their names imply,
ScanState.exe captures the data and settings whereas LoadState.exe
restores them. Although the use of these two tools is mostly hidden from
OSD in ConfigMgr 2007, it is worth noting.
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit
The Microsoft Deployment
Toolkit (MDT) is a separate, yet complementary, set of tools for OSD.
The MDT is available in one of two ways:
The Microsoft
Solution Accelerator team developed the MDT, and MDT 2008 is the latest
revision of the Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) Toolkit.
When
installed as a complementary tool to ConfigMgr, the MDT provides a
wizard that helps create the multiple packages required for OSD. It adds
ten new tasks available for task sequences , and adds a Preboot
eXecution Environment (PXE) filter supporting unknown computers when
deploying an image. The MDT is not required for ConfigMgr OSD but is a
potentially valuable addition.
Windows Automated Installation Kit
The Windows Automated
Installation Kit (WAIK) installs as part of your ConfigMgr installation
and is available as a separate download from Microsoft. The version you
use depends on the version of ConfigMgr you run:
The primary difference
between the two versions is that Microsoft updated the Windows PE
(Windows Preinstallation Environment) boot images to Windows PE 2.1.
The WAIK is a set of tools
designed to automate a Windows installation. ConfigMgr 2007
automatically uses some of the WAIK tools such as Sysprep and ImageX
during the deployment process. The WAIK also includes user guides on how
to use these tools, reference documents on the various unattended setup
files, and Windows PE.
Using OSD fully
automates and completely integrates the many details of using the tools
in the WAIK. You can also manipulate images outside of OSD using WAIK
tools; this was not allowed in earlier versions of OSD.
ImageX
ImageX is a
stand-alone tool that creates and deploys Windows Image Format (WIM)
files from a Windows volume; because the tool is completely integrated
into ConfigMgr, you do not need to install additional software. ImageX
is also part of the WAIK and can be installed and used separately by
installing the WAIK. Because of the tight integration, you can
seamlessly use images created using ImageX outside of ConfigMgr in OSD;
the opposite is also true.
Additionally, ImageX
can “mount” previously created WIM files for read or read/write access.
This allows you to access the files and folders stored in a WIM using a
previously existing empty folder on the system. You can then add or
modify files using Windows Explorer or any other tool, just as if they
are part of the host system.
WIM files are the
next generation of Microsoft’s proprietary archive Cabinet files (often
referred to as .CAB files). Using WIMs adds the ability to store
metadata about the files and directories it contains; this capability
allows you to restore a complete volume. Here are the advantages WIMs
have over alternative, sector, or bit-based imaging tools:
File system independent— You can capture WIMs from or deploy them to either NTFS (NT File System)- or FAT (File Allocation Table)-based file systems.
Volume size independent— WIMs
do not store any information about the volume from which they are
captured. You can deploy WIMs if enough room is available on the
destination volume.
Processor architecture independent— ImageX works identically on x86, x64, and Itanium processors. The WIMs created on each are the same format and interchangeable.
File-based compression— Files are independently compressed inside the WIM; this often leads to better compression ratios than bit-based images.
Multiple images in one file— Multiple distinct volume images can be contained in a single WIM file.
Single instancing of files— Multiple identical files are stored only one time. This leads to huge space gains when a WIM contains multiple images.
Nondestructive image application— Images can be applied to a volume without destroying existing files and data.
The WIM file has proven
to be so useful and versatile that Microsoft chose to drop the previous
method of installing Windows with a file copy and instead uses a WIM
file! Installation media for Vista and Windows 2008 contain single WIM
files, taking advantage of all the items listed in this section.
System Image Manager
The System Image Manager
(SIM) is part of the WAIK tools. SIM is a new GUI tool that builds
unattended answer files for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
Instead of having to worry about the syntax of the answer file
(particularly because the Vista/2008 answer file is now stored in XML),
this tool graphically presents all available options and generates the
unattend.xml file for you. This same file format is utilized for Sysprep
equivalent files (sysprep.inf in Windows XP) used by the mini-setup to
complete the setup of a Vista system when Sysprep is used.
SIM also allows you to service a Vista WIM file by adding drivers and published updates from Microsoft.
Windows PE
The Windows
Preinstallation Environment is a mini-operating system currently based
on Windows Vista. It includes support for networking, Windows Management
Instrumentation (WMI), VBScript, batch files, and database access. Most
things that run on a full-blown Vista system also run in Windows PE.
The advantage of PE is that it is much smaller than the full-blown OS
(typically around 100MB), and runs from a read-only disk. This makes PE
suitable for booting from a CD/DVD, or over the network using PXE. OSD
uses Windows PE as a boot environment, ensuring the native operating
system will not interfere with the deployment process.
Many
competitive imaging products traditionally used a DOS-based operating
system for their boot environment. Using a DOS-based OS leads to several
issues:
Most hardware vendors no longer create or distribute DOS network drivers.
DOS does not natively support advanced scripting languages, such as VBScript or Jscript.
These
two factors greatly limit what you can accomplish during a DOS-based
deployment. In contrast, Windows PE not only uses all Windows-based
network drivers but also uses scripting languages, such as VBScript or
JScript.
