I don’t deploy large amounts of servers at once, so Windows Server sysprep is not as important as it is with the client operating systems I deploy. But I do need to create virtual machine templates, (mostly for testing), but some clients like to have server templates. I prefer to manually sysprep and shutdown a server then either convert or clone it to a template.
Thankfully sysprep is in the same place as it was with Server 2008 R2.
Solution
As before you can either run sysprep from command line by navigating to its location and running it with the correct switches. Or simply browse to it with Windows Explorer and double click it.
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It’s pretty easy to create an OVA/OVF from the vCenter Web console, but what about from Powershell / PowerCLI? Below I run though converting a 2008 x32 Windows server to OVA.
Solution
I’ll leave the web console in the background so you can see whats happening. From PowerCLI the first task is to connect to the vCenter.
If your VM has an ISO connected to it, it can have an annoying habit of adding that to the OVA file! So remove any presented .iso files with the following command;
If you intend to shutdown, or restart a remote computer using PowerShell, you may see the following error message;
PS C:\> Restart-Computer “Computer-name“ Restart-Computer : This command cannot be run on target computer(‘Computer-name’) due to following error: The system shutdown cannot be initiated because there are other users logged on to the computer. At line:1 char:1 + REstart-Computer “Computer-name“ + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (Computer-name:String) [Restart-Computer], InvalidOperationException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : RestartComputerFailed, Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RestartComputerCommand
Solution
You need to add the -Force flag to the command like so;
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Out of the box, the default power option presented to your users is shutdown. People with multiple users on their machines, may prefer the log off option to be the default.
Note: You can also set the default option to:
Shutdown
Sleep
Log off
Lock
Restart
Switch User (Unless blocked by other policy then it will revert to shutdown).
Hibernate
Solution
1. On your domain controller , Start > Administrative Tools > Group Policy Management Console > Either create a new policy and link it to your targeted COMPUTERS or edit an existing one, then navigate to;
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User Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar
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Locate the setting “Change Start Menu power button”.
2. Edit to the required action, i.e. Log off.
3. Then either reboot the clients, wait a couple of hours, or manually run “gpupdate /force” on them.
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In part one we built and configured the WDS Server. Now you need to prepare the reference Windows 8 machine so that you can ‘capture’ its image.
Solution
Before you start, make sure that the machine you are imaging has PLENTY of room on one of its local drive(s), because it copies the image locally, before it sends it to WDS.
Place Your Reference Windows 8 Machine in Audit Mode
To put all the software on your reference machine and configure it how you like, the machine needs to be in ‘Audit Mode’ before you start. There are TWO ways to put the machine into audit mode.
Note: While a machine is in audit mode, it will log on automatically as the Administrator, and every time the machine boots sysprep will launch (in anticipation of you needing it).
Option 1: A Newly Built Machine
1. When you have first built the Windows 8 machine, you will see the screen below, Press CTRL+SHIFT+F3, the machine will automatically reboot and enter audit mode.
Option 2: You Are Already in Windows
2. You can also put a Windows 8 machine into audit mode by running the sysprep executable with the /audit switch.
3. Once in Audit mode, install all the program and configure all the settings you want in your master image. When you are happy run the sysprep program, (Or simply reboot, as sysprep launches at every boot when you are in audit mode).
4. Tick the ‘Generalize’ option, select either shutdown or reboot, (If you choose reboot make sure the machine is ready to pXe boot from the network, and the boot order has the NICBEFORE the hard drive, or sysprep will start and rebuild the machine before it’s imaged).
5. Sysprep will run, and shutdown or reboot as requested.
6. When the machine boots press F12 to boot from the WDS server.
7. Note: Now you can see why (in part one) we called the boot image ‘Capture an Image’ and the capture ‘Capture an Image’. Select the capture option.
8. WindowsPE will run at the welcome screen > Next,
Note: If the process fails at this point, usually it’s because the network card driver for this machine IS NOT in the boot image.
9. Select the volume that you want to image, (Note: It will NOT be C: that’s reserved, usually it’s D:) > Give the image a name, this is the name you will see in the WDS console, and when you are imaging the target machines > Enter a comment/description > Next.
10. Browse.
11. Navigate to a local drive, and give the image a name with a .wim extension > Save.
12. Tick the box to upload the image > Supply IP/Name of the WDS server > Connect.
13. Supply credentials to log onto the WDS server > OK.
14. Once authenticated you can select the image group we setup in part one > Next.
15. The image will be created on the reference machine.
I wrote an article ages ago about ‘How to shut down Windows 8‘ but what if you simply want a shortcut to save you the hassle, and have that on your start menu?
Solution
1. Press Windows Key+R > In the run box type the following;
