ENTERPRISE OPERATING SYSTEM DEPLOYMENTS

My latest project has been to take a walk back to the good ole days with Unattended Setups and Sysprep in order to standardise the Windows Server Operating System across a server fleet made up of more than 2000 servers, globally.

But this time, I'm doing with a twist after all the years of learning to apply.     Its good revisit the roots of how its all put together.

This is the beginning of the process, a HTML (hta) Front End application auto-launched from within a customised WinPE (Windows Pre-Installation) 2.0 Boot Environment.

THE KEY:  Behind each choice lies the following commands which begin the Windows Unattended Install based on flavour, whether Standard, Enterprise or Web, the 64-Bit versions of each OS have a diff

SUB osinstall
Main.InnerHTML = Main.InnerHTML &"<br>Initiating install..."
sh.Run "%windir%\avis\sleep.vbs 2", 0, True
SELECT CASE stros

CASE "std"
sh.Run "Z:\STANDARD_10300\i386\winnt32.exe /S:Z:\STANDARD_10300\i386\ /tempdrive:c /unattend:Z:\STANDARD_10300\i386\S10300untd.txt /syspart:C /noreboot", 1, True

CASE "ent"
sh.Run "Z:\W2K3\ENTERPRISE_10200\i386\winnt32.exe /S:Z:\W2K3\ENTERPRISE_10200\i386 /tempdrive:c /unattend:Z:\W2K3\ENTERPRISE_10200\E10200untd.txt /syspart:C /noreboot", 1, True

CASE "web"
sh.Run "Z:\W2K3\WEB_10200\i386\winnt32.exe /S:Z:\W2K3\WEB_10200\i386 /tempdrive:c /unattend:Z:\W2K3\WEB_10200\W10200untd.txt /syspart:C /noreboot", 1, True

END SELECT

Quit

END SUB

THE CONSEQUENCE: Within this one single interface and with only one mouse-click, a 2 1/2 HOUR OS Deployment process begins with absolutely no need for user intervention and giving a 100% HII (Hardware Independent Image) complete with routines and scripts which will deploy the entire sever fleet taking account over 11 hardware models from both DELL and HP....Awesome stuff!