Installing Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003

Transcription

1 Installing Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003 In this chapter, you will Learn the different Windows versions Perform an attended installation of Windows XP Professional Perform an unattended installation of Windows XP Professional Create unattended answer files with Setup Manager Create and configure automated methods of installation Perform post-installation updates and product activation CHAPTER 1 Windows Administration obviously begins with the installation of the operating system (OS), so it is fitting we start this book with a discussion of the installation process. The material in this chapter applies equally to both Windows 2003 and Windows XP Professional. In fact, there is no real difference between the two at least as far as the installation process goes. This chapter will look at several different methods of performing the installation. It begins with performing an attended installation. Starting with the attended installation allows you to see the various choices you will need to make during the installation. Afterward, we will review different methods of automating the installation process. When you need to install a single Windows 2003 server, a manual installation is fine, but if you need to roll Windows XP Professional onto 1000 desktops this may become impractical. Finally, we ll look at some post installation activities, including one new to Windows XP and 2003 product activation. From an exam perspective, the contents of this chapter are only applicable to the exam. It shows you how Windows XP is installed, and addresses various aspects of both the attended and unattended installation. It also covers rolling out Windows XP Professional with other deployment tools like the Remote Installation Service (RIS) and the Setup Manager. 1

2 MCSA Windows Server 2003 All-in-One Exam Guide 2 NOTE All of the information in this chapter can be applied equally to Windows XP Professional and the Windows 2003 Server products. For this reason, this chapter will use the term Windows to refer to both operating systems. Understanding the Various Windows Versions In the move from Windows 2000 to Windows 2003, there have been some changes in the editions of Windows available. There are now two desktop versions of Windows and four server versions. Table 1-1 describes each. STUDY TIP For the exam, the entire focus is on Windows XP Professional. This book will not consider Windows XP Home Edition in any further discussions. Knowing which version of Windows you need to install is important because the minimum hardware requirements are determined by the version. Windows XP Home Windows XP Professional Windows 2003 Web Server Table 1-1 Description Designed as a replacement for earlier Windows operating systems (like Windows 9x or Windows ME). It is built on the same code base as Windows 2000 and 2003, however it is aimed at home use and is missing many advanced features of this operating system, such as the ability to join Active Directory domains, use the Encrypting File System (EFS), and perform system restores. Built on the same code base as Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional is meant as a more secure and stable platform for business users. It provides security through such features as NTFS and support for smart cards and the Encrypting File System (EFS). It also includes advanced recovery tools and a more stable kernel. Useful features for mobile users like Offline Files and Remote Desktop access are also included. Professional also includes the Internet Information Service (IIS). This edition is designed as a low-cost front-end web server product. It allows you to create a single purpose web server for posting an Internet or intranet presence. The Web Server Edition is designed to only run web-based applications (that is, application based on Active Server Pages) and display web pages. It cannot be a domain controller, or run applications such as SQL Server or Exchange Server. The Web Server Edition also cannot host the Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) service, which is essential in deploying.net Web Services. If you plan to run advanced.net Web-based applications, you should use Windows 2003 Standard Edition (or later). Current Versions of Windows

3 Chapter 1: Installing Windows XP Professional and Windows Server Windows 2003 Standard Server Windows 2003 Enterprise Server Windows 2003 Datacenter Server Table 1-1 Description This edition is intended for small company or departmental use. The Standard Edition can function as an application server or a file and print server. It includes the Internet Information Services (IIS) and Terminal Services. A Standard Server can also be promoted to an Active Directory domain controller. The Standard Edition has limited hardware support and does not support Cluster Services. For heavier server requirements, you should consider the Enterprise or Datacenter edition. This edition is intended for medium-to-large companies that require a higher level of hardware support and a higher degree of availability. The Enterprise Server Edition has all of the features of the Standard Server Edition, but also includes support for Clustering Services, a higher number of processors, and more RAM. The Enterprise Edition is also available in a 64-bit version, leveraging computers with 64-bit processors. This feature makes the Enterprise Server Edition much more suited to scientific, large database, and graphically intensive applications. This edition of Windows 2003 is aimed at large enterprise mission-critical systems and systems that receive a very high volume of traffic (such as large corporate e-commerce sites). It offers even greater hardware scalability than the Enterprise Edition permitting support of more processors and memory. Applications such as large corporate data warehouses would benefit from the Datacenter Server Edition. Current Versions of Windows (continued) Determining Hardware Requirements Before you install Windows, you need to make sure your hardware is up to the task. The minimum hardware requirements are different for the various versions of Windows. The minimum hardware requirements for Windows XP are listed in Table 1-2. These are minimum requirements. As with most minimum requirements, they simply mean that Windows will install with this hardware. Obviously, you will need to increase the hardware level to improve performance. As a general rule of thumb for best Table 1-2 Minimum Hardware Requirements for Windows XP and 2003 Element CPU RAM Hard Disk Space Network Card CD-ROM Drive Display Minimum Hardware Required Pentium II or equivalent procession. 64 MB (128 is recommended). 1GB is required for the 64-bit versions of Enterprise and Datacenter server. The partition where you will install Windows XP must be at least 2GB in size. If you are planning to connect the computer to the network, it must have a network interface card (NIC). If you plan to install Windows XP form the CD, you must have a CD-ROM drive that supports booting from the CD. VGA (Windows is best viewed at or higher).

4 MCSA Windows Server 2003 All-in-One Exam Guide 4 Windows Version Max Number of CPUs Max Memory XP Professional 2 4GB Standard Server 4 4GB Enterprise Server 8 32GB (64GB in the 64-bit version) Datacenter Server 32 (with a minimum of 8 processors) 64GB (128GB in the 64-bit version) Web Server 2 2GB Table 1-3 Hardware Supported by Each Version of Windows performance, you should add as much memory and as fast a processor as you can (up to the maximum number for each version). Allow your budget to determine your hardware level. Remember, a rubber dingy and a cruise ship both meet the minimum requirement needed to transport you across water, but you d only want to take one of them from New York to London. Additionally, the choice of operating system also places limitations on the hardware. For example, Windows XP Professional will only support two processors (regardless of how many processors the physical box contains). Table 1-3 lists the maximum number of processors and the maximum amount of RAM supported on the various versions of Windows XP and You should also check to see that all of your hardware devices are on the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). The HCL is a list of supported hardware that has been tested on Windows XP/2003. If your hardware is not on the HCL, it may or may not be supported by Windows (and won t be supported by Microsoft). TIP The most up-to-date HCL is available on the Microsoft web site at / Once you have determined the best version of Windows for your needs, and checked that your hardware meets the minimum hardware requirements and is on the HCL, you are ready to install Windows. Performing an Attended Installation Windows XP and 2003 allow you to perform an attended installation. In an attended installation, you start by running the Setup program manually from either the Windows Installation CD or from a network shared folder. Through the installation process, you are required to supply all of the information that the Setup program needs to install Windows on the local computer. This type of installation is common for individual desktop and server installations. Server installations often have specific installation requirements, such as the addition of Active Directory or specific services like DHCP or DNS.

5 Chapter 1: Installing Windows XP Professional and Windows Server You can initiate a Windows XP installation using several methods: Boot the computer from the Windows XP installation CD. Run winnt.exe from the i386 folder on the Windows XP installation CD (assuming there is already another operating system installed on the computer). Run winnt.exe from a shared network drive. Insert the Windows XP installation CD into the computer running another operating system, allow autorun to load the Setup program, and select Install Windows XP (see Figure 1-1). If your computer does not support autorun, you can run setup.exe from the installation CD. The ability to boot from the Windows XP installation CD allows you to install Windows XP on a non-partitioned, unformatted hard drive. With this method, it is possible to take a brand new computer and install Windows on it without doing much more than plugging it in. Figure 1-1 The Windows 2000 Install screen

6 MCSA Windows Server 2003 All-in-One Exam Guide 6 TIP Windows 2003 and XP install normally on Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) disks. However, if you are installing Windows onto a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) disk or a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) device, you must load the appropriate drivers before you can run the Setup program. Before the Setup program starts, you are prompted to press F6 and load the appropriate drivers before the first screen of the Setup program. This option shows up at the bottom of the screen and only appears for a few seconds. It is very easy to miss if you are not looking for it. The Windows installation process has two phases, a text-based information gathering phase (the Setup program) and then the graphical Setup Wizard. The installation process assumes there is currently no OS running on the computer. When the gathering information phase starts, generic drivers are loaded into memory to run this part of the installation process. The Setup program at this point is entirely self-sufficient and does not require an existing OS. This program is also used by the Windows repair process. This is why the first screen of the Setup program asks you to press ENTER to begin the installation, or press R to repair XP (see Figure 1-2). NOTE The repair process is covered in Chapter 20. Figure 1-2 The initial Windows Setup screen

7 The Setup Program The first screen of the Setup program asks you to press ENTER to begin the installation. When you press ENTER, you are asked to accept the licensing agreement by clicking F8. You are then asked where you want to install Windows. The Setup program allows you to Create and manage disk partitions Choose a file system Let s take a look at each of these in detail. Chapter 1: Installing Windows XP Professional and Windows Server Creating and Managing Partitions When you run the Setup program, it examines the local hard drive to determine if it has any logical partitions. If it finds any partitions it displays them. If the hard drive has no logical partitions, the message Unpartitioned space is returned (see Figure 1-3). To create a new partition, select the unpartitioned space and press C. You will be asked to select the size of the partition to create (in MB). Once you have created the partition, it will show up in the partition list and can be used as the boot partition (see Figure 1-4). If you are creating a new partition, be sure you make it at least 2GB, the minimum partition size needed to install Windows XP. You might consider making it larger to leave room for the paging file and files added by service packs and other applications. Figure 1-3 Managing partitions with the Setup program

8 MCSA Windows Server 2003 All-in-One Exam Guide 8 Figure 1-4 A newly created partition TIP You may see references to the boot partition. This is simply the partition where the windows system root folder is located. The system root folder (called windows by default in Windows XP Professional) contains all of the files needed to start and run Windows. You are also given the option of deleting partitions on the disk. To remove an existing partition, you must select the partition you want to delete and then press D. This will remove the partition and delete all of its data. Once you have created the partitions, choose one as the boot partition. The boot partition will contain the files needed to boot Windows. In particular, it will be the location of the \windows folder that contains all of the program files for running Windows. Choosing a File System After creating the boot partition, choose which file system to place on the partition. Your choices are FAT or NTFS. As a general rule, you should use NTFS as the file system for Windows XP. NTFS is a more robust file system and offers a number of features, such as: File level security Auditing Disk quotas File encryption None of these options are available in the FAT file system.

9 Chapter 1: Installing Windows XP Professional and Windows Server NOTE For more information of the difference between FAT and NTFS see Chapter 11. New to Windows XP, you now have the option of performing quick formatting. (See Figure 1-5). Quick formatting is useful if you are overwriting an existing partition that you are certain does not contain disk errors. A normal format removes all files and performs a scan for bad sectors. The quick format removes files but doesn t perform the scan. You should perform a full format if you are installing Windows XP on a disk that has never been formatted. If you choose to format a partition using FAT, you are not given a choice of which version of FAT to install. Instead, Windows will select the version of FAT based on the size of the partition. If the partition size is smaller than 2GB, Windows will format the partition using FAT16 (2GB is the maximum size of a FAT16 partition). If the partition is greater than 2GB, it will format it using FAT32. If the computer has a preexisting partition, you are given a third option: to install Windows without formatting the partition. You must choose this option if you want to dual-boot Windows XP with another operation system installed on the same partition. Remember that if you choose to format a partition any existing data on that partition will be permanently lost. Once you choose your formatting method, the Setup program will perform the format of the partition you selected. Once the format is complete, the Setup program copies all the files needed to run the second phase of the installation and then will reboot the computer. When the system reboots, it starts the graphical Setup Wizard. Figure 1-5 Choosing a file system

10 MCSA Windows Server 2003 All-in-One Exam Guide 10 The Windows XP Setup Wizard The Setup Wizard is used to complete the attended installation of Windows XP. As part of this phase of the installation, you will be required to make several choices, including: The computer name A password for the administrator account The networking settings Domain or workgroup membership Let s take a look at each one of these options individually. Choosing a Computer Name and Administrator Password One of the first things you are asked to supply is a computer name and Administrator password (see Figure 1-6). If this computer will connect to a network, the computer name must be unique. The Setup Wizard will suggest a default computer name for you. This name is a random collection of letters. It is a good idea to give the computer a meaningful name (that is, one that you can remember when you are trying to connect to Figure 1-6 Naming the computer and adding an Administrator password

11 it from across the network). It is a good idea to develop some kind of naming convention to make sure uniqueness is maintained. The default administrator account is named (oddly enough) Administrator. This is well known to anyone familiar with Windows (like other people reading this and other Windows books). To protect yourself and your network, you should choose a secure administrative password. Remember that if someone gains access to any of your systems as Administrator, he will have almost unlimited access. A secure password should meet these requirements: It should be at least eight characters long. It should have a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters. It should include numbers and special characters (such as _, #, $, -). It should avoid using obvious words (like your name, the word password, and so on). It should not be blank. Windows XP will happily install with a blank password for the Administrator account, although it does warn you that you have left the password blank. A blank password is the default for the Administrator account. Using this default setting can cause security issues on your computer. Network Settings Another choice you must make as part of the attended installation is the network settings. The Setup program provides you with two choices: Typical Settings or Custom Settings (see Figure 1-7). The Typical Settings installs these components: Client for Microsoft Networks File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Chapter 1: Installing Windows XP Professional and Windows Server To use Typical Settings, you should have at least one DHCP server on the network. If you choose Typical Settings and you do not have a DHCP server available, Windows XP will assign itself an IP address using Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA). NOTE TCP/IP and APIPA are discussed in Chapter 6. DHCP is covered in Chapter 7. If you choose Custom Settings, you are given a choice of which components to install. You can add different network services (such as the Client Services for NetWare) and additional network protocols (such as NWLink) depending on the needs of your

12 MCSA Windows Server 2003 All-in-One Exam Guide 12 Figure 1-7 Network settings options network. You can also set a static IP address and DNS address for the computer. New to Windows XP, you can also choose to enable the Internet Connection Firewall (ICF). This is a personal firewall that can be used to protect your Windows XP if it is connected directly to the Internet (for instance, through a cable or DSL connection). Joining a Domain or Workgroup Finally, you must decide whether or not the computer you are installing will be associated with other computers on the network. This is accomplished by adding the computer to either a workgroup or a domain. A workgroup is a collection of computers joined together as peers. In this relationship, each computer is an equal and maintains its own security locally. To access data on another computer in a workgroup, you must have an account on both your local computer and on the computer to which you are connecting. A workgroup is good for linking together a small number of computers that need to share resources. If you have a large number of computers, this would become unmanageable. You would convert to a domain model. In a domain, there is a central security authority. All members of the domain share a common security context. This means that you only need to log on to the domain once. Your security credentials will be recognized by any other computers in the domain. You won t need to maintain a separate login for each computer on the network. In a Windows domain (either 2000 or 2003), this central authority is Active Directory. Active Directory is contained on one (or more) domain controllers.

13 Chapter 1: Installing Windows XP Professional and Windows Server NOTE Active Directory will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter 9. If you choose to install the computer as a member of a domain, click the Yes, Make This Computer A Member Of The Following Domain option and enter the name of the domain or workgroup in the text box provided (see Figure 1-8). You must type the name of a valid domain (one that has at least one domain controller accessible for your computer). To join a newly installed Windows XP computer to a domain, you must be able to connect to a domain controller. If your computer cannot contact a domain controller in the domain you entered, the Setup Wizard will not allow you to proceed. If there were problems with the installation of the networking components (such as a typical network configuration with no DHCP server available), this may cause this step of the installation to fail. If this is the case, click the Back button and correct the networking issue. Your computer will also need permission to join the domain and must have a computer account created for it in Active Directory. A network administrator can create an account for your computer (as long as you know the name you are going to use in advance) in Active Directory before the computer has been installed. If a network administrator has not created an account for the new computer, you will be prompted to enter Figure 1-8 Joining a domain

14 MCSA Windows Server 2003 All-in-One Exam Guide 14 the user ID and password of someone who has permission to add new computers to the domain. By default, on Windows 2003 domain controllers, any member of the Domain Users group can add up to ten computers to the domain. This was not available in Windows If the computer is connecting to a Windows 2000 Domain and no computer account as been created, the person must have Domain administrator rights to add the user. All Windows XP computers must be a member of either a domain or a workgroup. If you don t type anything in the workgroup text box, the Setup Wizard will add the computer to a workgroup named WORKGROUP. Exercise 1.1 In this exercise, you perform an attended installation of Windows XP Professional from an installation CD. NOTE This lab assumes you have a least 2GB of free space on your computer. If you do not, you can install Windows XP Professional on an existing partition. When you get to step 7, be sure to choose keep existing formatting, otherwise this lab will reformat the partition, and all data will be lost. CAUTION If you are running this lab on a computer that has your files on it, make sure you back everything up before starting the lab. Installing Windows XP Professional 1. Boot your computer from the Windows XP Professional CD. 2. Press ENTER to continue. 3. Press ENTER again to set up Windows. 4. Press F8 to accept the licensing agreement. 5. Highlight the unpartitioned space and press C to create a new partition. Make the partition at least 2GB in size. If you do not have enough free space, either delete an existing partition or select an existing partition. 6. Select the Format The Partition Using The NTFS File System option. 7. Wait for the system to format the drive, and reboot. 8. On the Welcome screen, click Next. 9. Wait for Windows to detect all devices. (This may take several minutes.) 10. Click Next to select the default regional settings.

15 11. Enter a value for your name and organization. (Note: The values don t matter, but you cannot proceed until something is entered in the Name text box.) 12. Enter your CD key, and click Next. 13. Use the default computer name, and enter password as the Administrator password. Click Next. 14. Click Next to select the default Date and Time settings. 15. Select Typical for the settings option. (This will default to a private address unless you have DHCP on your network.) Click Next. 16. Click the Yes, Make This Computer A Member Of The Following Domain check box, type AIO in the Workgroup Or Computer Domain text box, and then click next. 17. Click Finish. Performing an Unattended Installation Manual installations are fine if you are installing a few computers, but if you are rolling out Windows XP Professional to a large number of computers, this may not be such an effective use of your time. An unattended installation is one in which all of the decisions (those discussed in the previous section) are made automatically by some means during the installation. Microsoft supplies several tools that allow automated installations to take place with relative ease. These include Answer Files and the Setup Manager SYSPREP Remote Installation Services (RIS) Chapter 1: Installing Windows XP Professional and Windows Server The remainder of this section will examine how each of these tools is used to perform unattended installations. Performing Unattended Installs Using Answer Files and Setup Manager One method of unattended installation is the use of answer files. Answer files supply values for all of the choices that must be made during a manual install. To perform an unattended install with answer files, you must start the installation by executing winnt.exe from either the i386 folder on the Windows XP Professional CD or (more likely) from a network share. winnt.exe has a number of switches that must be used to control how the installation will work. The switches are listed in Table 1-4. When you execute winnt.exe, you can include as many switches as you need to configure your installation. For example, suppose you wanted to perform an unattended installation from a network share using two answer files called unattend.txt and unattend.udf.

16 MCSA Windows Server 2003 All-in-One Exam Guide 16 Table 1-4 Switches Used with winnt.exe Description /u: [answer file] Use the listed file to perform an unattended installation. All unattended installations must include this switch. /udf:id[udf file] Specifies a uniqueness data file. This data file contains information unique to each computer (such as computer name) When you use this option; you supply a unique ID number which you assign to each computer. /s [file location] Points to the location of the installation files (on the local CD or on a network share). The installation files are found in the i386 folder on the Windows XP installation CD or network share. /e: [command] Executes a command at the end of the Setup Wizard portion of the installation. /r:[folder name] Allows you to create an additional folder under the Winnt folder. This folder will remain after installation is completed. /rx:[folder name] Creates an optional folder that is deleted automatically after setup is finished. /a Enables accessibility options, such as the screen magnifier, for users with special requirements. /t [file name] Specifies the location of the temporary directory used by the Setup program. Without this switch, Windows XP will create the temporary directory on the boot partition. You also want to run a batch file after the installation that applies updates and patches (called updates.bat). To do so, perform the following steps: 1. Create a folder on a network server, and copy the i386 directory from the Windows XP install CD to that folder. 2. Share the folder, and make sure it is accessible from the network. 3. From a network client (such as a network DOS client), connect to the share and run the following command: \\servername\sharename\winnt.exe /u: unattend.txt /udf 1:unattend.udf /e: updates.bat This command will connect to the network share and run winnt.exe from that share. The winnt.exe file, unattend.txt, unattend.udf, and updates.bat files must all be in that share. The installation files must also be in that share (or you could use /s to point to another location). If you don t specify a location, the setup program will assume that all of the needed files are local. STUDY TIP Make sure you are familiar with all of the switches for winnt.exe. You may need to know which to use based on a particular scenario.

17 Chapter 1: Installing Windows XP Professional and Windows Server The unattend.txt and unattend.udf Files The unattand.txt and unattend.udf files are specially marked text files that can be parsed by the setup tool. You can create these files using any text editor or Windows Setup Manager (which is easier and reduces errors). The unattend.txt file is used to answer all questions posed by the setup. You must tailor these files to your requirements. If you have a number of computers that will all have the same installation requirements (such as a standard configuration for the Sales department) you only need one unattend.txt. For example, the contents of the file might look like this: L 1-1 [Unattended] Unattendmode = FullUnattended OemPreinstall = NO TargetPath = WINNT Filesystem = NTFS [UserData] FullName = "Administrator" OrgName = "Haunting Productions, Inc" ComputerName = "Haunting1" [GuiUnattended] ; Sets the Timezone to the Pacific Northwest ; Sets the Admin Password to password ; Turn AutoLogon ON and log in once TimeZone = "004" AdminPassword = "password" AutoLogon = Yes AutoLogonCount = 1 ; This is only a partial file, but you can see the kinds of information it provides. You should recognize most of the parameters as the value you are prompted for during the Setup program and the Setup Wizard (for instance, the time zone, computer name, and Administrator password). It also specifies which file system the set utility should use to format the partition before running the Setup Wizard. If this file is configured properly, the Setup program is able to perform a full installation of Windows XP without any user interaction. An answer file by itself has a particular limitation. It contains information that must be unique (like computer name). If you were to use this script to install multiple copies of Windows XP, each computer would have the same name. You could manually edit the file between each installation. However, this would result in more administrative effort. This problem is solved by using a Uniqueness Database (UDB) file. The UDB file provides unique values for an installation by referencing a unique index value. The file name must end in the.udf extension. When the Setup program encounters the /udf switch it uses the UDB file to replace whatever values is specified in the unattend.txt. A USB file looks something like this: L 1-2 [UniqueIds] 1= UserData 2= UserData 3= UserData [1: UserData]

18 MCSA Windows Server 2003 All-in-One Exam Guide 18 ComputerName = "Haunting1" [2:UserData] ComputerName = "Haunting2" [3:UserData] ComputerName = "Haunting3" As you can see, the first section defines a unique ID and the second section provides unique values for each ID. You can now use this file to override elements of the unattend.txt. For example if you wanted to give each computer a unique computer name you could use this command: L 1-3 winnt /u unattand.txt /udf 2:computerName, unattend.udf When this command is executed, any value that exists in both the unattend.txt file and the UDB file will be supplied by the unattend.udf file using the index value passed. In other words, the udf always wins. If you use the /udf switch and do not supply the name of the UDB file, the Setup program will prompt you for the location of the file. Using Setup Manager Manually creating unattend.txt and UDB files can be very complex. They are simple text files. However, the Windows Setup program requires very specific values and syntax. If you do not know the correct syntax or names for parameters, the Setup program may not be able to read the file correctly. To make creation of these files easier, Microsoft has included a tool that makes it easier to create answer files: Setup Manager. Setup Manager is a GUI application that can be used to automatically generate unattend.txt files and UDB files. Before using Setup Manager, you must install it from the Windows XP CD. It is located, along with some other automation tools, in the Support \Tools folder on the Windows Installation CD in a compressed file called deploy.cab. You must extract this compressed file before you can run Setup Manager. Exercise 1.2 In this exercise, you locate the deployment tools on the Windows XP Professional CD and extract them to your local hard drive. This exercise assumes you have access to a Windows XP Professional CD. Extracting the Deployment Tools 1. Create a folder on your local hard drive called supptools to hold the extracted files. 2. Insert the Windows XP Professional CD into the computer. 3. When the Windows XP Professional CD form appears, click Exit. 4. Explore the CD using Windows Explorer.

19 5. Open Support Tools, and double-click the deploy.cab file. 6. Select All files, and right-click any file. 7. Select Extract and then browse for the supptools folder. 8. Click OK. NOTE If you have installed other compression software (like WinZip), double-clicking the.cab file may cause one of the other compression applications to run. If this is the case, use that application to extract the files. Setupmgr.exe will be one of the files extracted from the deploy.cab file. This is the executable file that starts Setup Manager. When you first start Setup Manager, it asks you if you want to create a new answer file or modify an existing file. If you choose to create a new answer file, Setup Manager then asks you which type of file you want to install. You are given three choices: Windows XP Unattended Installation (the unattend.txt file) SYSPREP Install Remote Installation Services Chapter 1: Installing Windows XP Professional and Windows Server Setup Manager is able to create answer files for all three methods of automatic Windows XP installation. If you choose the unattended installation files option, you are asked for which operating system you will be creating the files: Windows XP Home, Windows XP Professional, or Windows 2002 Server. The Windows 2002 Server entry will be used to generate installation scripts for Windows 2003 servers. When you choose your OS, it next asks you which level of user interaction you want (see Figure 1-9). The choices are explained in Table 1-5. Table 1-5 User Interaction Options in the Setup Manager Wizard Level Provide Defaults Fully Automated Hide Pages Read Only GUI Attend Explanation The answers supplied in the answer files will be added as defaults, but the user may change any supplied answer. All answers are supplied by the answer file. The users are never prompted for an answer. Screens in the Setup Wizard that have all parameters supplied by the answer file will not be shown. Only those screens with parameters not referenced in the unattend.txt file will be visible to the user. The screens in the Setup Wizard are shown to the user, but the user cannot change any values supplied in the answer file. The text-mode setup program is not automated, but the Setup Wizard is fully automated.

20 MCSA Windows Server 2003 All-in-One Exam Guide 20 Figure 1-9 User interaction options in Setup Manager Once you have chosen the user interaction mode, Setup Manager will ask you if you want to create a distribution folder for the installation files. Then, it will ask you to provide all the answers necessary for an attended installation. On the page where you add the computer name, you are given the option of adding several names. If you add multiple names, Setup Manager will also create an unattend.udf file. Finally, it gives you the option of creating a distribution folder or running the install from the CD. When Setup Manager completes, you will have An unattend.txt file that reflects all of the choices you made An unattend.bat file, used to start the unattended install An option unattend.udf file, used if you include multiple computer names You can then use these files with winnt.exe to perform an unattended install. Exercise 1.3 In this exercise, you use the Setup Manager to create an answer file for an unattended installation of Windows XP Professional. Running Setup Manager 1. Open Windows Explorer and create a folder called Answerfile.

21 Chapter 1: Installing Windows XP Professional and Windows Server Browse to the supptools folder which you created in Exercise Double-click setupmgr.exe. 4. Click Next. 5. Click Create A New Answer File. 6. Click Windows XP Professional, and click Next. 7. Click Fully Automated, and click Next. 8. When prompted to create a distribution folder, click No, The Answer File Will Be Used To Install From A CD. 9. Click the check box to agree to the License Agreement, and then click Next. 10. Enter values for Name and Organization, and click Next. 11. In the left pane, select Network Settings Computer Name. 12. Enter more than one computer name by typing the names into the Computer Name text box and clicking Add. Click Next. 13. Continue clicking Next (which will accept the default values) until you are prompted for a file location. Save the files in the Answerfile folder you created in step Click Finish. You can then open the folder and review the unattend.txt, unattend.bat, and unattend.udf files. Creating Images with SYSPREP You can also automate the installation of Windows XP using images. This is becoming a much more popular method of deploying Windows XP. Applying an image is different from performing an unattended installation. You must create the image based on a manually installed computer that becomes a sort of template for all other computers. On that template computer, you will install the operating system and any applications you want included with the image. Once you have the computer configured the way you want the image to appear, you will create the image using a third-party image-copying tool and deploy it to multiple computers to create the image. Once you have created the image, you can deploy it on multiple computers. Traditionally, however, imaging Windows has been problematic. The problem stemmed from the fact that each installation of Windows was give a unique machine system identifier (SID). When you installed a master copy of Windows and imaged it, from then on all subsequent machines were created with the same SID. This caused conflicts that made the imaged copies unable to connect to the network. This problem has been eliminated in Windows XP with a new tool the System Preparation Tool (SYSPREP). sysprep.exe is one of the files generated when you extract the deploy.cab file. It s used to prepare the master computer to be imaged. It deletes the master computer s SID and any other user-specific

22 MCSA Windows Server 2003 All-in-One Exam Guide 22 information. When the image is deployed after being prepared with SYSPREP, Windows automatically generates a new SID for the image. The steps for imaging Windows are 1. Perform a clean install of Windows XP on a test computer. 2. Troubleshoot the installation and ensure there are no errors. 3. Install any service packs or applications you want on the image on the test computer. 4. Copy the profile for whichever account you used to install the software to the default user profile. This will make user-dependent software available to all users. 5. Run sysprep.exe on the test machine. 6. Restart the test computer and image it with a third-party imaging tool. 7. Save the image to a CD or network share. 8. Start the destination computer(s), and apply the image to the new machine(s). When you run the image, it will run a mini-setup program that will prompt you for the information SYSPREP stripped away (like the Administrator password). You can automate this process by using Setup Manager to create a sysprep.inf file. This works like an answer file for the mini-setup portion of the image installation. SYSPREP also has some specific switches that allow you to customize how SYSPREP prepares the test machine. These switches are explained in Table 1-6. Performing Remote installations with RIS The final method for deploying Windows XP is through the Windows Remote Installation Services (RIS). RIS allows you to push out images to servers across the network. When RIS is configured properly, you can install an image on a new computer by simply Table 1-6 The SYSPREP Options Switch -pnp -nosidgen -quiet -reboot Explanation This switch forces mini-setup to rerun the Plug-and-Play device detection phase. This is a useful option if the hardware receiving the image will be different than the hardware in the test computer. This option prevents new SID generation when the image is applied. The SID of the test machine is not removed by SYSPREP. This is useful if you want to create an image that will only be used to re-create an installation. For example, if you wanted a test server that could be easily re-created after each test, you would create an image with -nosidgen. This image obviously cannot be used on multiple computers. Causes SYSPREP to run without returning anything to the screen. Automatically restarts the test machine after SYSPREP completes.

23 connecting it to the network starting the computer. The difficulty with RIS is making sure it is properly configured. Configuring the RIS Server To deploy Windows XP using RIS, the RIS service must be running on a Windows 2000 or 2003 server on the network. The image must already be prepared and loaded into the RIS server. In addition to RIS, the following must be available on the network: An Active Directory domain controller A DHCP server A DNS server Chapter 1: Installing Windows XP Professional and Windows Server If these are not available, you cannot perform an implementation of Windows XP Professional using RIS. There are also specific requirements for installing RIS. It must be installed on a shared volume that: Is formatted with NTFS. Has enough free space to hold the RIS software and all of the various images that will be installed by RIS. This depends on the size and number of images stored on the RIS server. Is not on the boot partition (the volume containing the winnt directory). RIS may be installed when you install the server. If it was not, you can install it after the installation using the Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel. Most importantly, the network interface card (NIC) in the computer that will receive the image form RIS must be a PCI card that supports Pre-boot execution environment (PXE) architecture. NOTE PXE is a specification that allows a computer to boot from the hardware without requiring software support. RIS must start before the computer boots. In many cases, RIS implementations will be used on computers that have no operating system in which to boot. If the NIC does not support PXE, you can create a boot disk using the Windows XP Remote Boot Disk Generator (rbfg.exe). This file can be found on the RIS server. STUDY TIP Make sure you pay special attention to the server and network requirements for RIS. Some scenarios may require that you identify why RIS is not working.

24 MCSA Windows Server 2003 All-in-One Exam Guide 24 The RIS image is also different from the type of image generated through SYSPREP. These images must be created with a special tool: the Remote Installation preparation tool (RIPrep). This tool is much like SYSPREP. However aside from the SID, it also removes hardware-specific settings from the test computer. This makes the RIPrep image hardware-independent. The process of creating an RIS image is similar to the process of creating an image with SYSPREP. You perform a manual install of Windows XP Professional and install any other software you want the image to contain. For RIS, all information must be on a single volume from a single disk. (The RIS image cannot span multiple volumes.) You then run RIPrep (riprep.exe), prepare the image, and then create the image with a third-party imaging tool. You can also create a remboot.sif file using Setup Manager. This file is similar to an unattend.txt file but is used when applying the image. If your computer meets these requirements and your server and network are properly configured, you must simply start the computer (even if nothing is installed on the hard drive). The network card will send a broadcast to DHCP for an IP address. DHCP will redirect the client to an RIS server that will download a Client Installation Wizard (CIW) to the client and begin the install process. Other than turning on the computer (or booting from the boot disk), the installation requires no further user interaction. Activating Windows Windows XP Professional and Windows 2003 Server contain an anti-piracy feature: Windows Activation. This measure requires you to activate your operating system through Microsoft. When you first log on to Windows after the installation, a message will appear prompting you to activate your installation. You can choose not to activate the installation, and Windows will periodically remind you that you have not yet activated the OS. Activation is tied to your computer s hardware. Once a particular Windows Product Key is activated, the CD and key cannot be used to install and activate Windows on another computer. If you are a corporate client, you can buy a volume license key that allows you to activate multiple copies of Windows XP with the same key. Windows provides two means of activating Windows: via the Internet or by telephone. If you do not activate Windows XP within 30 days, you will no longer be able to connect to the OS except to perform the activation. The process is exactly the same on Windows 2003 servers. If you are performing an unattended installation, Setup Manager will allow you to include activation as part of the unattend.txt. If you don t include the option, the users will be asked to activate Windows. You do not need administrative rights to activate Windows XP. If you activate via the Internet, you do not need to know any information about the installation. Chapter Review Successful installation requires planning. You must decide on the operating system that best meets your needs and budget, particularly with the server editions. You must also ensure that your hardware meets the minimum hardware requirements, and that each is on the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).

25 Chapter 1: Installing Windows XP Professional and Windows Server Before you begin the install, decide how you want to partition your hard drive and which file system to use. The choice of file systems should only be dictated by a need to dual-boot with another OS (such as Windows 95, 98, or 2000). If the computer will only be running Windows XP, choose NTFS. If you are dual-booting, you might also need to decide if you will format a partition at all or if you will install it on an existing partition. Finally, you must choose between Typical and Custom networking settings. You need to use Custom if you want to set a static IP address or add services other than Microsoft standard networking services. If you are rolling Windows XP out to a large number of computers, you might consider using an unattended installation method. You can run winnt.exe with the /u option and include an unattend.txt file to create a custom installation. If you have a number of computers with the same basic setup requirements, you can use one unattend.txt file to configure all the computers. To provide unique values (such as computer names), you can also include an unattend.udf file. To make creating these files easier, Windows 2000 includes Setup Manager, which automatically generates them. If you so choose, you can also create an image of an OS to deploy across the network. Images have the advantage of allowing you to deploy service packs and applications along with the OS. You can deploy these images using a third-party utility or by using RIS. Before you deploy these images, you need to prepare your model computer. If you re going to use RIS, you can do this with sysprep.exe or riprep.exe. Many requirements exist for installing and configuring RIS. Most of these requirements involve the creation of the RIS server and the configuration of the network. The only requirement for the client is it must be PXE-compliant. If you configured your RIS server properly, distributing an image with RIS is as easy as turning on your computer. Questions 1. You re installing Windows XP Professional on a computer that already has Windows 98 installed. The system has an application you need that will only run on Windows 98. The computer has a single C partition and no free space. You want to format the partition to allow both Windows XP and Windows 98 to run on the computer. What should you do? A. Use FAT. B. Use FAT32. C. Use NTFS. D. Don t format the hard drive. Use the existing file system. 2. You have been asked to install Windows XP Professional on a number of computers at a remote site. You have chosen to use an image to deploy Windows. You know the new machines have slightly different hardware than the machine that you used to create the image. In particular, the remote computers may have different sound cards or modems. However, all the hardware is on the HCL. You must prepare your image to make sure differences in hardware will not affect the implementation of the image. What should you do?