How to Set Up a Windows Image on the Windows RIS Server

Steps

1. Copy the Windows distribution from a CD or Network Share to the RIS server CIFS.

   Use the RiSetup.exe utility.

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   Note –

   Do not use MSDN Combo CDs to create a RIS Image. You will get an error message that was described in the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article #300556. To resolve this issue, please use a retail version of the OS image being created.

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2. Add the required drivers to the RIS image created in the previous step.

   Be sure to include all the drivers, such as those for the network adapter, SCSI hard drives, video, and modem.

   For more information about adding drivers to RIS images, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 315279, Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 246184, Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 254078, and information about adding mass storage devices to RIS.

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   Note –

   Create the distribution folder accordingly.

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   See the sample setup files in SampleSIFFiles folder for more details.

3. Create the folder product-directory/$OEM$/$1/N1ISP/ under the image distribution folder.

   product-directory is the Windows image distribution folder that has "i386" as a subfolder that contains the kernel files.

   For example:

   D:\RemoteInstall\Setup\English\Images\WinAS_2000\$OEM$\$1\N1ISP D:\RemoteInstall\Setup\English\Images\WinAS_2000\i386

4. Copy the assignIPInfo.exe file from the Windows boot and install server IspTools folder to the product-directory/$OEM$/$1/N1ISP/ folder that you created in the previous step.

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   Note –

   The script expects the N1ISP folder to be part of the image. Copy the tools required for provisioning to this directory path product-directory/$OEM$/$1/N1ISP/. Do not change the N1ISP folder name.

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   Tip –

   You created the Windows boot and install server IspTools folder in step 1 of How to Install OS Provisioning Scripts on the Windows RIS Server.

   You can also copy the N1 Grid SPS RA binary to the above folder, if you want to install a RA on the target machine.

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   The following example shows a sample directory structure.

   D:\RemoteInstall\Setup\English\Images\WIN2003_TRIAL\$OEM$\$1\N1ISP>dir Volume in drive D is Local Disk Volume Serial Number is A8D9-4012 Directory of D:\RemoteInstall\Setup\English\Images\WIN2003_TRIAL\$OEM$\$1\N1ISP 02/04/2005 02:39 PM <DIR> . 02/04/2005 02:39 PM <DIR> .. 02/04/2005 11:34 AM 29,184 assignIPInfo.exe 01/31/2005 03:33 PM 27,595,776 cr_ra_win32_5.0.msi 2 File(s) 27,624,960 bytes 2 Dir(s) 23,775,776,768 bytes free