Installation of W2K/WXP using the unattended.sourceforge.net project INFN - Napoli 1 INFM - UDR Napoli 2 HEPiX/HEPNT 2003 – Vancouver Rosario Esposito 1 Francesco Maria Taurino 1,2 Gennaro Tortone 1
Installation of W2K/WXP using theunattended.sourceforge.net
project
INFN - Napoli1
INFM - UDR Napoli2
HEPiX/HEPNT 2003 – Vancouver
Rosario Esposito1
Francesco Maria Taurino1,2
Gennaro Tortone1
HEPiX/HEPNT 2003 – Vancouver 2
Scenario
Installation of a large number of Windows 2K/XP workstations must be frequently managed by few people
Windows installation is a time-consuming activity (long and boring… )
Hardware on each workstation can be very heterogeneous
Installation of a typical set of applications (Office, Acrobat Reader, Ghostview, Netscape…) is required on each workstation
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How to install Windows 2K/XP ? [1/3]
1) Manual installation Advantages: High customization level of
system configuration, disk partitions, applications, updates & service packs…
Disadvantages: Requires the presence of an operator during the installation process
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How to install Windows 2K/XP ? [2/3]
2) Disk Imaging based installation Advantages: installation is very fast and
consists of a simple copy of files from the “image” of a preconfigured workstation (golden client) to the target machine
Disadvantages: In the case of heterogeneous hardware a large set of “similar” images must be maintained. Deploying new applications requires an image rebuilding
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3) Unattended installation (unmanaged) Advantages:
Human activity during installation is (almost) zero. Fresh installations usually work better than disk
imaging when workstations have different hardware Disadvantages:
It’s a “real” installation, not a simple file copy, thus it takes about 1 hour to be completed
Initial setup activity is required to configure an installation server
How to install Windows 2K/XP ? [3/3]
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Unattended installation systems [1/3]
Microsoft RIS (Remote Installation Service) Advantages:
Supports both unattended and disk imaging based installations
It’s user-friendly (GUI, Wizards, Online Helps…) Disadvantages:
Runs only on Windows2K (or 2003) and requires Active Directory
Supports a fixed partition scheme (C:) Limited set of supported NICs. Deployed applications must be in .msi format
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Unattended installation systems [2/3]
Unattended.sourceforge.netIt’s an OpenSource project to manage unattended installations of Windows 2K/XP workstations
Advantages: No need of Windows and Active Directory at server
side Supports a large number of network adapters Customizable partition scheme No need of .msi format to deploy applications
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Unattended installation systems [3/3]
Unattended.sourceforge.net
Disadvantages: No user-friendly interfaces Tuning of some perl scripts and batch files is
required at server side to obtain a good site dependent installation system
No support for disk imaging based installations
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Typical Unattended Installation Steps
Server side:1) Export the i386 directory, containing the operating
system2) Create an “unattend.txt” file for client workstations
Client side:1) Load MS-DOS somehow2) Create and format system partition3) Mount the i386 directory via network
4) Execute:…\i386\winnt.exe /u:unattend.txt …
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Unattended.sourceforge.net Requirements
Server Side Any computer that can export a read-only
directory via NetBios A DHCP server Optional: a TFTP server (for PXE network
based installations)
Client Side Any Windows 2K/XP compatible PC with a
network adapter Optional: a PXE compliant network adapter
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The installation directory (Z:)
dosbin: DOS utility programs (like fdisk) from the project. Also contains install.pl, the master installation script.
lib: helper files for the master installation script. This includes the default unattend.txt
djgpp: set of unix tools for MS-DOS, such as the perl interpreter site: site-specific customizations (i.e., unattend.txt templates) os: contains Windows installation media (i.e., copies of the CD-
ROMs) scripts: contains scripts needed to deploy applications packages: contains application installers (Office, Acrobat
Reader, Netscape, …) …
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Unattended.sourceforge.net Server side setup
1) Create an incomplete unattended installation file Z:\site\unattend.txt (i.e. using setupmgr.exe from Windows deployment tools)
2) Copy OS installation files in z:\os subdir(i.e. z:\os\winxpsp1-eng, z:\os\win2ksp4-ita …)
3) Add device drivers in z:\os\winXXX\$OEM$\$14) Apply service packs:
\xpsp1\i386\update\update.exe /s:Z:\os\winxpsp1
5) Put installers in z:\packages subdir(i.e. z:\packages\officeXP, z:\packages\netscape, …)
6) Create an installation script for each application(i.e. z:\scripts\office2k.bat, z:\scripts\netscape.bat, …)
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Unattended.sourceforge.net Client side setup [1/4]
MS-DOS boot[Floppy, CD-ROM,
PXE]
\\server\install Z:
Z:\dosbin\install.pl
Z:\<winXX>\winnt.exe /u c:\netinst\unattend.txtC:\netinst\
postinst.bat
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Unattended.sourceforge.net Client side setup [2/4]
The install.pl script:
Selects partition scheme (free-fdisk). Reboots in case of change.
Selects the OS (winxpsp1-eng, win2ksp4-ita, …) Inserts missing parameters in z:\site\unattend.txt
(computer name, administrator password, additional drivers, network setup…) [z:\site\config.pl]
Selects application set(ex. base.bat, developer.bat, sales.bat, …)
Creates c:\netinst directory(contains postinst.bat, complete unattend.txt, installation logs…)
Runs winnt.exe for unattended installation
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Unattended.sourceforge.net Client side setup [3/4]
The postinst.bat script:
Connects the installation directory to drive Z: Installs ActivePerl in unattended mode Runs the script c:\netinst\todo.pl to build a “todo
list” to install the requested application set Runs application installers and configuration scripts
in unattended mode, following the “todo list” Disables the Administrator autologon
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Unattended.sourceforge.net Client side setup [4/4]
Example:postinst.bat
net use z: \\server\install
call z:\scripts\activeperl.bat
PATH=z:\bin;%PATH%
todo.pl .reboot
todo.pl “autolog.pl –logon=0”
todo.pl z:\scripts\base.bat
todo.pl --go
todo.pl printers.bat
todo.pl xpupdates.bat
…
todo.pl ghostview.bat
todo.pl sav.bat
todo.pl netscape.bat
todo.pl ie6.bat
todo.pl office2k.bat
todo.pl acrobat-reader.bat
todo.pl hidepw.pl
todo.pl "auconfig.pl 3"
base.bat
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Installing applications [1/6]
Win32 applications use several installer programs.(Almost) all of them support unattended installation mode
MSI packagesmsiexec /qb /l* logfile.txt /i package.msi OPT1=VAL1 OPT2=VAL2 …
InstallShield, PackageForTheWebstart /wait package.exe /a /s /sms /f1package.iss /f2logfile.txt
Wise InstallMaster, Nullsoft Scriptable Install Systemstart /wait package.exe /s
Inno Setupstart /wait package.exe /silent
Microsoft hotfixesQ811493.exe -q -z –n or q330994.exe /q:a
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Installing applications [2/6]
Some applications (very few) do not support unattended installation mode. In this case we can:
Write scripts for the AutoIt.exe tool Application repackaging (ex. Wise,
Microsoft free tools, …) Create “ad hoc” scripts (ex. unpack the
application, copy all files, insert keys in the registry…)
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Installing applications [3/6]
Unattended.sourceforge.net provides: Batch/perl scripts for unattended installation of popular applications (Office, Acrobat Reader, Visual C++, Internet
Explorer, Netscape/Mozilla, etc…) Detailed instructions to recognize application installer types and switches to use for unattended installation mode Scripts to automate operations during the installation (autologon, printers configuration, WindowsUpdate client
configuration, etc.) Some directives to be used in todo.pl script for special purposes (.reboot, .ignore-err, .sleep, …)
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Installing applications [4/6]
Example: Office2K [or XP] Download Office Resource Kit (free) from Microsoft Create in z:\packages\office2k a customized Office distribution (license code, office components, installation path, etc..) Download service pack (i.e. o2ksp3.exe) Use the office2k.bat (or officexp.bat) script from unattended.sourceforge.net
todo.pl .reboottodo.pl “z:\packages\office2k\o2ksp3.exe /q … “todo.pl “msiexec /qb /i Z:\packages\office2k\data1.msi … “
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Installing applications [5/6]
Example: Internet Explorer 6 Download Internet Explorer Administration Kit (free) from Microsoft Create in z:\packages\ie6 a customized distribution of IE6 (components, settings, home page, etc..) Download cumulative patches Use the ie6.bat script from unattended.sourceforge.net
todo.pl .reboottodo.pl ".ignore-err 194 z:\packages\ie6\q88529.exe /q:a"todo.pl .reboottodo.pl ".ignore-err 194 z:\packages\ie6\IE6setup.exe /q /r:n"
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Installing applications [6/6]
Example: Acrobat ReaderThe installer is in “Package For The Web” format:
Register an answer file:AcroReader51.exe /a /r /f1c:\acroread.iss
Create a file z:\scripts\acroread.bat with:start /wait AcroReader51.exe /a /s /sms /f1z:\packages\acroread.iss
Example: Netscape 7.02Just create a file z:\scripts\netscape.bat with:start /wait z:\packages\netscape\NS702base.exe -ms -ira -ispf
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Configuring printers
Use the rundll32.exe with some switches…
Example:Push this command to the “todo list” stack:
start /wait rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /if /r "\\server\printer" /m "HP LaserJet 8150 Series PS"
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How we use it…
90% of installations are performed via PXE At the moment we deploy only WXP in Italian Install.pl script has been customized to ask only:
system partition size computer name IP address and gateway
All the available MS hotfixes are installed silently during installation
Default application set: OffixeXP, IE6sp1, acroread, winzip, netscape7, NortonAV, putty, winscp2, ghostview, JRE, mediaplayer
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Conclusion
Unattended.sourceforge.net is a valid alternative for Remote Installation Service (~OpenRIS !), primarily in a Unix-oriented server environment
It’s completely FREE and presents all of the advantages (and flaws) of an OpenSource project
It has interesting features, like the extreme flexibility of installation scripts
It’s not the optimal choice in the case of homogeneous hardware
No support for application deployment after the installation
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References
http://unattended.sourceforge.net
“ The two basic principles of Windows system administration:
For minor problems, reboot For major problems, reinstall ”
;-)