Server purposing using Automated Deployment Services (ADS) allows you to configure and install multiple Windows servers from bare-metal to fully operational servers without manual intervention. It’s a little known fact that you can also bare-metal deploy VMWare ESX servers (or RedHat Linux servers) using Microsoft’s ADS. In this article we’ll explain how to setup ADS for purposing ESX using Microsoft’s ADS. Included are the task sequence files, sample partition and additional files as discussed in the article.
Assumptions
Let’s start with some assumptions:
- The ADS services (controller service, network boot services and image distribution service) are all installed on a single server.
- ADS is installed on Windows 2003 Enterprise (R2) server with a fixed IP-address, enough memory and disk space.
ADS v1.1 can be found here, Microsoft's Solution for Windows-based Hosting version 4.5 can be found here.
Note: The ADS documentation states 64-bit Windows Enterprise is not supported. Microsoft’s solution for Windows Based Hosting 4.5 states ADS 1.1 is supported on 64-bit Windows.
Note2: I had an issue with Windows 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition service pack 2 and ADS v1.1. When WinPE 2005 was added to the repository, the ADSBuilder service refuses to start. Either don’t use a WinPE 2005 repository, or use Windows 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition service pack 1 for now until a fix is available.
- DHCP services are available and network communication between ADS server and ADS target is not restricted.
- Your ADS targets are able to PXE-boot.
Configure Controller Service
On the ADS server, open the ADS Management console, and then click Services. In the details pane, select and then right-click Controller service. In the drop-down menu, click Properties. In the Controller Service Properties dialog box, select the Service tab, and then set the Controller properties as shown:
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Property
|
Setting
|
|
Global job template
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boot-to-da
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|
Device identifier
|
MAC Address
|
|
WinPE repository name
|
Type WinPE repository name
|
|
Response to PXE action
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Add
|
|
Response to BMDP action
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Add
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|
Device Description for new auto-added device
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|
Job template for new auto-added device
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boot-to-da
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Network Card Properties
Open the networkcard properties and disable the following settings (if applicable):
- Offload TCP Segmentation
- Large Send Offload
- Checksum Offload
Restart the ADS server after you’re done.
Add Drivers
Extend the ADS driver repository with mass-storage and network card drivers not supplied with Windows 2003 Server CD:
- systemdrive\Program Files\Microsoft ADS\nbs\repository\User\PreSystem
Drivers from Presystem are attempted first, then Windows 2003 drivers.
- systemdrive\Program Files\Microsoft ADS\nbs\repository\User\PostSystem
Drivers from Windows 2003 are tried First, then drivers from PostSystem.
For my system I’ve copied the following network card drivers to ADS PreSystem Repository folder:
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Networkcard
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Version
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url
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Remark
|
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NetXtreme Server 32-bit
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12/15/2006,10.24.0.0
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www.broadcom.com
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for the following chipsets: 5700, 5701, 5703, 5704, 5714, 5715, 5721, 5780, 5781, 5786, 5787, 5788, 5789, 5702, 5705, 5751, 5752, 5753, 5754, 5755, 5782
|
|
NetXtreme II
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12/22/2006,3.0.5.0
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www.broadcom.com
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for the following chipsets: 5706, 5708
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And the following mass-storage drivers also to the ADS repository PreSystem folder:
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Storagecontroller
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Version
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url
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|
LSI SYMMPI based PCI MPI
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06/13/2005,1.20.18.00
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www.lsilogic.com
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|
Dell Perc MegaRAID family
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07/16/2004,5.48
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www.dell.com
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|
DELL Perc RAID SAS
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08/24/2006,1.21.0.32
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www.dell.com
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Restart the “ADS Deployment Agent Builder”service after you’re done.
Provisioning & Bulk Import
Each server which will be deployed using ADS needs some variables like ip-address and hostname. Also we want to be able to provision both Windows hosts as well as VMWare ESX (or RedHat Linux) hosts.
We'll assume the following:
- Provisioning for both Windows and Linux Hosts
- The MAC address of the PXE-enabled network adapters are known beforehand. *
- Hostname, IP-address, subnet mask will be defined at deploy-time
- DNS IP-addresses and domain name static is known beforehand
*) Instead of the MAC-address, you can also use the servers UUID.
We will import the servers with all variables into the ADS controller’s database using a comma-separated (.csv) file.
The comma-separated file will use the following variables:
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Variable
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Remark
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Default value
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Windows Host
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ESX Host
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MacAddress
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PXE-enabled network card MAC-address *
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yes
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yes
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MachineName
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Server hostname. Hostname is MAC-address with a “MAC” prefix.
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MAC
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yes
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yes
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Description
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““ **
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no
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no
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AdminPassword
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Local admin or root password
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“” **
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yes
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yes
|
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Workgroup
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Name of the workgroup to join
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Myworkgroup
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yes
|
no
|
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Domain
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Domainname to join
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Mydomain.local
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yes
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no
|
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DomainUsername
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Domain join using this username
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““ **
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yes
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no
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DomainPassword
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Password of the username
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““ **
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yes
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no
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Static_or_DHCP1
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DHCP or static IP-address
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static
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yes
|
no
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Nic_Name1
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Network card name
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“Local Area Connection” **
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yes
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no
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IPAddr1
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IP-address of the first network card
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127.0.0.1
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yes
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yes
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Mask1
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Subnet mask of the first network card
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255.255.255.0
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yes
|
yes
|
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DefGW1
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Default gateway of the first network card
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““ **
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
GWMetric1
|
1
|
yes
|
no
|
|
DNS1
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DNS server(s) of the first network card
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1.2.3.4,2.3.4.5
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Static_or_DHCP2
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static
|
yes
|
no
|
|
Nic_Name2
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““ **
|
no
|
no
|
|
IPAddr2
|
|
““ **
|
no
|
no
|
|
Mask2
|
|
““ **
|
no
|
no
|
|
DefGW2
|
|
““ **
|
no
|
no
|
|
GWMetric2
|
|
2
|
no
|
no
|
|
DNS2
|
|
““ **
|
no
|
no
|
*) In this example we’re using the MAC address. You could also use the servers UUID.
**) If you’re using Excel to populate the comma separated file, fill the empty fields with two double quotes (“”).
The variables are usually the MAC address and MachineName. Other settings (like username or domain name) are usually pretty static
Sample Excel sheet:
Sample comma-separated file in Notepad:
In the download section you’ll find a sample import comma-seperated import file.
Importing
To import we’ll use the bulkimport.cmd from the Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting.
Open a command prompt and type:
”bulkimport.cmd myfile.csv” (sans quotes):
Sample bulk import:
Bulkimport.cmd comes from Microsoft's Solution for Windows-based Hosting version 4.5 and is also included in the download.
Sample import results:
FAT16 Partition
Microsoft’s ADS only supports FAT and NTFS partitions. We will install the files needed to start the ESX installation onto a FAT16 partition. Using a DOS based Linux boot loader we can (kick) start the ESX Linux installation You can create your own partition or import the sample partition included in the download.
Create a partition:
To create the partition we’ve used the following steps:
1. Download DR-DOS 7.03 (or MS-DOS or FreeDOS)
2. Create a new VM (or use a physical machine) and boot from the DR-DOS bootable floppy.
3. In DOS, fdisk a new FAT16 partition of about 2024 Mb. Format the new partition and make sure it’s bootable.
4. Add the system to the ADS database and let it boot into ADS
5. Use the Sequence Editor to create a partition capture job:
Note: The image capture job is included in the download.
Note2: Be sure to name the image: “DOSFAT16” (sans quotes).
6. In ADS, run a one-time job with the task sequence file created in the previous step.
Import the partition:
A sample image is included in the download. All that needs to be done is to import the image into ADS.
1. On the ADS server, open the ADS Management console, and then click Images. From the Action menu, click Add Image
Path to image file:
\DOSFAT16.img
Image name: DOSFAT16
2. Click OK to start adding the image, click Cancel to close the Add Image window
DOS FAT16 Image in ADS console:
Access to ESX Files
The ADS server needs access to some files from the ESX CD. Because in our scenario the ADS server is also used as an FTP server to install ESX from, we’ve copied the whole CD to D:\ESX301 so ADS can access some of the files present on the ESX installation CD:
You can find these files on the ESX installation CD: :\images\pxeboot
Linux loader for DOS. You can find this file on the ESX installation CD: :\ dosutils
Note: Some people had issues with loadlin.exe and used linld.com (a refactored LoadLin.exe) instead.
Kickstart
To allow ESX to install unattended, a kickstart file is used. This file almost identical to a RedHat kickstart file with some added VMWare ESX specific parameters. The kickstart file needs to be modified with machine specific settings like hostname and IP-address. Use the following syntax to allow ADS to find and replace the variable strings of the ADS device. These variables were set during the provisioning stage:
^ADS_IP_ADDRESS^ - ESX ip-address
^ADS_SUBNET_MASK^ - ESX subnet mask
^ADS_COMPUTER_NAME^ - ESX hostname
For example:
network --device eth0 --bootproto static --ip=^ADS_IP_ADDRESS^ --netmask=^ADS_SUBNET_MASK^ --hostname=^ADS_COMPUTER_NAME^
In our scenario we’ve named the file ks.cfg and placed it in D:\ESX301\ks.cfg.
Note: You can find a sample kickstart.cfg in the download or try the kickstart.cfg from Altiris
Autoexec.bat
Autoexec.bat will start the installation at the next reboot. Autoexec.bat will execute loadlin.exe which will initiate the ESX bootloader in ramdisk by issuing the following command:
IDE disk
c:\loadlin.exe c:\vmlinuz initrd=c:\initrd.img ramdisk_size=12288 apic ks=hd:hda1/ks.cfg
SCSI disk
c:\loadlin.exe c:\vmlinuz initrd=c:\initrd.img ramdisk_size=12288 apic ks=hd:sda1/ks.cfg
In our scenario we’ve placed the batch file in D:\ESX301\dosutils\autoexec.bat.
Note: You can find the autoexec.bat in the download.
ESX Installation Steps
The following installation steps are in the ADS task sequence file:
1. Partitioning
Microsoft’s ADS only supports FAT & NTFS partitions. We are able to start the ESX installation process using a FAT 16 partition and loadlin.exe to start the Linux boot loader.
2. Apply Image
After the partitioning process created and activated the new partition, we can apply the FAT16 image.
3. Copying files.
Next, we need to copy some files to start the installation:
- Vmlinuz
- initrd.img
- loadlin.exe
- kickstart.cfg
- Autoexec.bat
Note: Change the path to the needed files if needed.
4. Kickstart configuration
Some parameters like hostname and ip-address, will be different for each host. In this step the kickstart.cfg is modified with these specific variables.
5. Set description
The description will be modified to: ESX host
6. Restart & Release Control
Finally the system will be restarted and ADS control of the device is released. After the reboot, the system will start DOS and loadlin.exe will initiate the ESX installation.
The installation steps are available in the tasksequence file that's included in the download.
Import Task Sequence
To import the task ESX Installation task sequence, on the ADS server, open the ADS Management console and then click Job Templates. From the Action menu, click New Job Template and select the following options:
Template type:
(x) An entirely new template
Name and Description:
Name: Bare Metal ESX Installation
Command Type:
(x) Task Sequence
Task Sequence File and Arguments:
Task Sequence File: BareMetal ESX3.0.1.xml
Task Sequence Arguments File:
Destination Device Selection:
(x) None
Run ADS Job
Try to run a ADS job to see if everything is configured correctly. Take control of a device or group of devices and run the Bare Metal ESX Installation job.
Before we run a job, set the host specific variables in the ADS device variables like machinename, ip-address and so on:
Open the ADS Management console and open Job Templates, select the previously imported Bare Metal ESX Installation Job Template and from the Action menu, select Run Job to a Single Device or Set of Devices.
Alternatively, open the ADS Management console and open Devices, select a device and from the Action menu, select Run Job. Select Use an Existing Job Template and select the previously imported Bare Metal ESX Installation Job Template.
Finally, verify in the ADC MMC console the History and view the job's progress in the Job Details:
View sample Job Status report details:
Output:
Errors:
Output:
The Master Boot Record on the disk been re-initialized.
Partition [1] Created with a Partition Size of [2030] MB.
Partition [1] Activated.
Errors:
Output:
Warning: the target volume size is different from the original one, this may make part of the disk space unuseable.
Restore progress: 10% (1 of 14)
Restore progress: 20% (2 of 14)
Restore progress: 30% (4 of 14)
Restore progress: 40% (5 of 14)
Restore progress: 50% (7 of 14)
Restore progress: 60% (8 of 14)
Restore progress: 70% (9 of 14)
Restore progress: 80% (11 of 14)
Restore progress: 90% (12 of 14)
Restore progress: 100% (14 of 14)
Errors:
Output:
File download done.
Errors:
Output:
File download done.
Errors:
Output:
File download done.
Errors:
Output:
File download done.
Errors:
Output:
File download done.
Errors:
Output:
Performing string replacement within file [\??\D:\ks.cfg].
String replacement completed.
Errors:
Output:
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.6
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-2001. All rights reserved.
Errors:
Output:
Errors:
Output:
Errors:
More Information
Download Automated Deployment Services (ADS) 1.1
Windows Server 2003 Automated Deployment Services homepage
Download the Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting version 4.5
Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting homepage
Linux RedHat Kickstart Installations
VMware Technology Network