Advertisment

Automate Server Deployment

author-image
PCQ Bureau
New Update

A key feature of Windows 2003 Server Enterprise Edition is Automated Deployment Services or ADS. This is an 'image-based' remote-deployment tool, which is intended to make life easy for system administrators doing mass OS deployment in data centers. It reduces both the cost and time for deployment. 

Advertisment

To configure ADS in your data center, you need Windows 2003 Server Enterprise Edition, ADS 1.0 and two machines. One will be your deployment server (controller) and the other a reference system to create the master installation image. The latter will have the OS and all the applications you want to deploy on other machines. You will need PXE-enabled network adaptors (this is a standard remote boot option on Ethernet cards) on all machines, including the reference system. 

Set up controller



The deployment server must have Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition installed with the DHCP service configured and running. First, copy the zip file ADS1_0.exe from this month's CD to your deployment server. Running this file will extract its contents to the C:\ADS folder. Go to this folder and run ADSsetup.exe to start the installation. Here, select 'Install Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (Windows)'. After this, select 'Automated Deployment Service' and select the 'Full Installation' option and click on Next. When the wizard asks you to select a database, where ADS should keep all information, stick to the default settings. Reboot the server after installing ADS. 

Direct

Hit!
Applies

to:
Data-center admins
USP:

Faster deployment of Windows servers on multiple machines
Links:

http://tinyurl.com/m9sg
On PCQ Essential CD:

system/cdrom/enterprise/ads
Before you begin
Ensure that the hardware configuration on all the target machines (where you're deploying the OS) is the same.
Advertisment

Prepare reference system



Create a 5 GB partition on the machine chosen to be the reference system and install Windows 2000 or 2003 Server on it.

We installed Windows 2003 Server Enterprise Edition. Install all the drivers and necessary software applications on this system. Next create a sysprep\i386 folder in the root (c:) partition, insert your Windows 2003 Server CD and go to \Support\tools folder. Here you will find a Deploy.cab file. Extract all files from Deploy.cab to C:\Sysprep\i386 directory that you created above. After this, run the ADS installation as you did on the other machine, but this time choose 'Custom Installation'. In the options that pop up, select only imaging tools and finish the setup. Now go to C:\Sysprep\i386 folder and run sysprep.exe. This tool will bring a system preparation window, where you click on the 'Reseal' button. This will reboot the system. Then run a wizard that will ask you for information such as product key and computer name. Fill all the details and finish the wizard. After this process, sysprep tool will create a sysprep.inf file, which has all the information you filled up. With this your reference system is ready for imaging. 

Configure ADS services 



Move to the deployment system and open 'ADS Management' from Start>Programs>Microsoft ADS. On the ADS management console, you will get seven folders under the 'Automated Deployment Service' tag (Services, Devices, Set, Job Template, Running Job, History and Image). Select the 'Services' folder and on the cossesponding right window panel, you will get a list of services that the ADS server is running. From this list, choose and double click on 'Controller Services' to see all its properties. From the same window select the Service tab and go to the 'Response' section. There you will get two options 'To PXE Action' and 'To BMDP Action'. Set both options to 'Add'. This option will automatically record the PXE-booted devices (machines) in the ADS server. Finally, click on Apply. 

Advertisment

Create job for imaging 



Next, create a job from the deployment server, so that the reference system can be imaged remotely. To do this, open the Sequence Editor from Start> Programs> Microsoft ADS. This Editor is based on XML, which allows you to create jobs for automated deployment. In the Sequence Editor window, right click on the left window panel and select 'Insert'. Here you will get a list of various pre-defined commands that ADS supports. First select the 'Boot Deployment Agent' command. Similarly, add 'Imaging' on the corresponding right window panel and you will be shown the parameters for the imaging command. Set the parameters as given below. 

ADS management console showing the services running on it Creating a command sequence for capturing the image of a client machine

Capture/deploy (Set imaging to capture mode) 



Disk 0 Partition 1 (This means ADS will take an image of a C drive remotely)


Image Name (Give any name to the image file)


Image Description (Give any description to image file)


After this, add another command 'Reboot', which will reboot the reference machine that is being used for imaging. Finally, save this sequence file as
capture.xml. 



Advertisment

Create job for deployment 



Now, you have to create a job sequence to deploy the captured system image to other devices (machines). Open Sequence Editor from Start>Programs>Microsoft ADS and add 'Boot Deployment Agent', 'Partition Disk', 'Imaging' and 'Reboot' commands. Set the commands parameter as given below. 

Partition



Create (Set the Create tab)



Disk 0 Partition 1 (This creates the primary partition)


Maximum Size (Deselect this parameter and give the partition size that you want to create on remote machines) 

Imaging



Capture/Deploy (Sets imaging to deploy mode) 



Disk 0 Partition 1 (This means ADS will deploy image to the C drive remotely)


Image Name (Give the image file name that you have created above)


After setting all the given parameters save this file as deploy.xml.

Advertisment

Run capture job sequence 



Open the ADS management console and select the 'Device' folder. Then boot the reference system using PXE boot. On the ADS management console, you will get the MAC address and status for the reference machine that has booted from

PXE.

Select the MAC address of the reference system that has appeared on the ADS console. Right click on it and select 'Take Control'. Again select the same MAC address and right click on it, and select 'Run Job' from its right-click menu. From the wizard that starts up, select 'Create One Time Job' and click on 'Next'. Here give the job description and again click on Next.

Before you start to deploy the OS on the client,

select the MAC address and click on Take Control 
Running Task Sequence from the ADS console

Advertisment

Now select the 'Task Sequence' option and click on Next and the wizard will ask you to give the path of job sequence file. Give the path of the XML file you have created above for capturing the image (captute.xml) and finish the wizard. This will start the image capture job on the reference system. On booting the reference system from PXE, you will be shown a Windows 2003 booting screen, which is booting from the deployment server. You'll also see all the status and proceedings on the reference system. After capturing the image, ADS will reboot the reference system.

Run deployment job sequence 



Deploying a captured image on the remote machines is the same as running the captured job sequence from ADS. You need to select deploy.xml file in the 'Task Sequence' option and the remaining process is the same. When you have applied a deployment job sequence for a selected MAC address, you will get the same Windows 2003 boot screen showing you the restoration process from the image. You can even run a deployment job on multiple machines simultaneously by grouping the sets of MAC addresses. This is done by creating groups in the 'Set' folder given in ADS console. You can run the job directly by right clicking on the created sets (group). 

Sanjay Majumder 

Advertisment

Troubleshooting ADS

Here are some error messages that you may come across when configuring ADS. You can also refer to the ADS help guide. 

Error: Windows could not start due to an error while booting from a RAMDISK. Windows failed to build a bootable

RAMDISK IMAGE.

Cause: This error occurs during PXE booting time, when the client is booting from a deployment sever. The error is due to incorrect drivers of your network

adaptor.

Solution: Download the latest drivers for the network adaptor to your ADS server and copy all driver files for the network adaptor to C:\Program Files\Microsoft

ADS\NBS\Repository\ User\PreSystem. 

Error: A device (remote machine) fails to boot into the Deployment Agent. The console displays the message 'Unable to get boot image'. NBS is running and connected.

Cause 1: The boot instructions for the device are not configured to boot to the Deployment Agent or the device was manually entered with an incorrect MAC address or GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) value.

Solution 1: Check and correct the boot settings and MAC address and GUID values for the device.

Also see: Check 'To View Device Properties' and 'To Edit a Device Record'.

Cause 2: The device is unknown to the Controller.

Solution 2: Use the Controller (deployment server) property page to automatically respond to all PXE requests.

Error: A device boots to the Deployment Agent, but does not connect to the Controller.

Cause: The BIOS date on the device is inaccurate, which causes the certificate used for the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) connection to be invalid.

Solution: Update the BIOS date on all devices.

Advertisment