Creating WinPE boot images for Microsoft Windows systems

The provisioning process uses WinPE for bare metal provisioning of Microsoft Windows operating systems. The following procedure describes how to create the WinPE boot images for Windows operating systems and how to include the drivers required for your networking environment.

Prerequisites

• Install Windows AIK, version 2.1. (For Windows Server 2008 R2, use AIK version 3.x.) See the Installing-the-Microsoft-Windows-Automated-Installation-Kit.

• Obtain all of the drivers that you want to include in the image and make a note of their path names or organize them all into the same directory. During the image creation process, you specify the location of the drivers.

  If you specify a directory name when you are prompted for drivers, the system adds all of the files in that directory to the list. You can then add or delete specific files from the list if needed.

Creating WinPE boot images for Microsoft Windows systems

1. On the AIK server, extract the provision-files.zip file into the C:\provisioningdirectory.

   If AIK is installed on the same server as the data store, skip this step. You already extracted the provision-files.zip files during data store configuration.

2. Log onto the BMC Server Automation Console.
3. On the console menu bar, select Configuration > Provisioning Image Creation. The Image Creation wizard starts.

4. For Image Toolkit Host, browse to the server where AIK is installed. You can identify the server by its IP address.

   If the server is not yet registered in the console, add it now. Right-click Servers, select Add Server, and provide the IP address of the new server.

5. For Image Type, select PXE Image.
6. For Architecture, select x86 for 32-bit images or x64 for 64-bit images.
7. For Win AIK Directory Path, use the path name where you installed AIK. For example, C:\WAIK\.

8. Create the WinPE Script Directory Path. For example, create C:\provisioning\winpe.

   The location of the_ winpe directory assumes that you extracted the provision-files.zip file to C:\provisioning earlier. If you used a different location, adjust this step accordingly.

9. Select the Use TFTP Root as base directory check box.

   Note

   To use the Use TFTP Root as base directory check box, ensure the TFTP server is registered as a server in BSA with a fully qualified domain name (FQDN). The IP address of the tftp ip in the provisioning configurations will be looked up, and the string which is returned is used as the server name. So the TFTP address should match the server object specified in BSA. For example, if the reverse map of the IP address returns server1.domain.com and you have server1 as a server object, then it will result in an error. The IP address with domain name, server1.domain.com must be registered as a server object.  Else, you must manually specify a path.

10. For Boot Image Target Directory, use boot_2_0 for 32-bit images and boot_2_0_x64 for 64-bit images.
11. Click Next.
12. In the Driver Selection panel, you can build a driver.txt file or use an existing one. The driver.txt file lists the source for all drivers that you want to inject in the image.
     To open an existing driver.txt file, select the Open Driver.txt file field on this panel.
    To build a new driver.txt file or to add a path name to an existing file, do the following:
    1. Click Add.
    2. Browse to your drivers source directory and select the directory name to add all drivers in that folder to the drivers.txt file. Alternatively, you can browse to specific driver files and select them one by one. Click OK.
    3. Continue adding (or deleting) drivers until the list is complete. Click OK after each action.
13. (Optional)To create a driver.txt file for reuse later, select the Save New Driver.txt file check box. If this is a one-time list of drivers, skip this step.

14. To begin image file creation, click Finish.

    For information about creating the driver.txt file manually, including the required format and file location, see Creating WinPE 2.0 and later images using the Image Creation wizard.

    A progress dialog informs you that the image file creation process is running. When it completes, the script execution log appears in the dialog.