Software to automate XP instalations for my company

[Achellin]

Hi
I am looking to more automate the XP installation process. Right now I launch Norton ghost, pull an img with a directed cast to our server. Send the img from the server. Install. Wait. Come back, boot up, restart. Type in computer name, restart. Add to our domain, log in with my personal user account ( we use Microsoft exchange. I don't touch exchange, just add to domain) and restart. update, restart. defrag and probably restart just because it's ingrained on me now ><

I was speaking with one of my coworkers. He said that over at one of his last jobs he had software that did this for him. ITs job is to make everyone more efficient, yet were not setting the standard with these manual processes.

Thanks!

 

[vacunita]

Read here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302577

If you are doing this on may computers, sysrep is the tool for you.

----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Behind the Web, Tips and Tricks for Web Development.

http://behindtheweb.blogspot.com/

 

[Achellin]

close, but it doesn't seem to be exactly what I need it to do. I don't see anything about it logging on to a domain and renaming the computer and or updating. I see the option for logging on and a few others like shut down..

 

[cdogg]

We use Microsoft's SCCM to create, maintain and deploy software packages including client images. You haven't yet said what scope you're looking for in terms of the number of users/workstations, but for medium-to-large size businesses, this is a great tool to have.

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/configuration-manager.aspx

Keep in mind that the way you're doing it now isn't technically sound, because every computer you copy the image to has the same SID (Security Identifier). This is usually only a problem in workgroup environments. However, some security risks do exist in domains if local user accounts are used or in situations where a program detects SID's on other workstations and throws a fit. A good workaround if you decide to stick with Ghost would be Microsoft's free utility called "NewSID" to manually set unique SID's on each PC.

Another advantage to using an enterprise utility such as SCCM is the ease of updating your base image and creating custom driver configurations for different model workstations. For example where I work, we have 5 different HP desktop models throughout the environment. If I want to reimage one, I just do a PXE boot which loads the SCCM client. I set the computer name and initiate the install. SCCM automatically detects the hardware configuration and applies the appropriate driver configurations. It also joins the PC to the domain for me. On a newer computer, the process only takes about 10 minutes.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[vacunita]

Of course it does:

This permits the Sysprep tool to complete the Setup program, [red]join the domain that is specified, and use the new computer name that is specified in the Sysprep.inf answer file.[/red]

All those settings are specified in the sysprep file.




----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Behind the Web, Tips and Tricks for Web Development.

http://behindtheweb.blogspot.com/

 

[cdogg]

Just found this article which describes the deployment strategy in SMS (this is what SCCM was previously called in earlier versions). As you will see, sysprep is used but additional tools are provided with SCCM to make deployment easier to manage and be tailored to suit your environment.

http://www.windowsitpro.com/article...t-server-sms-os-deployment-feature-pack-.aspx

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[Achellin]

The company is about 150 people. The company has grown by about 100% this last year, so there is a lot of work for me. SIDs, oh the joys of SIDs. I'm going to look into this MSMS.

 

[fisheromacse]

NewSID is discontinued and does not support the newer OS's.

there is also debate about the usefulness of SIDs in general.


<SNIP>
It’s a little surprising that the SID duplication issue has gone unquestioned for so long, but everyone has assumed that someone else knew exactly why it was a problem. To my chagrin, NewSID has never really done anything useful and there’s no reason to miss it now that it’s retired. Note that Sysprep resets other machine-specific state that, if duplicated, can cause problems for certain applications like Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), so Microsoft’s support policy will still require cloned systems to be made unique with Sysprep
</SNIP>

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897418.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2009/11/03/3291024.aspx

All that said i still run NewSID on every cloned image i restore. If for no other reasons than it is part of my routine have seen no ill effects from using it, and don't want the possibility to see any ill effects from not running it.

 

[cdogg]

Yes, it's possible that in a domain environment you'll never see an issue with identical, local SIDs due to the unique domain SID that gets assigned when a workstation is joined to the domain. Still it's good practice to make sure the local SIDs are unique. Here's a recent example of why:

http://www.excaliburtech.net/archives/117

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[Achellin]

I'm not that worried about SIDs. I email M$ and looked into that software. They gave me a link to their forums, rather then answering me. After 2 hours+ I can't see cut and paste if it does what I need. I think I want to look for a different software suite.

 

[PSRebeck1965]

We used Acronis Snap Deploy at work. I would deploy about 50 computers and laptops at once. When finished, all would be listed in AD. Loved it. Not cheap though