Deployment of Windows 7 in an Enterprise Environment - Term Paper Example

Deployment of windows 7 in an Enterprise Environment Andy Padilla ASA College Division of Computer Technology · Table of Contents Introduction …………………… Page3 1 Deployment of Windows 7 …………………… Page3 1.1 Installing Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) …………………… Page4 1.2 Steps to Install Windows Installation Kit (AIK) …………………… Page4 2 Writing Bootable UFD …………………… Page5 2.1 Steps for Creating UFD through Windows Pre Installation Environment Page 5 2.1.1 Tasks executed for ‘boot.wim’ in the Deployment Tools Command Prompt window: Page 6 2.1.2 Tasks executed for ‘Image X’ in the Deployment Tools Command Prompt window: Page 6 3 Installing Windows 7 …………………… Page7 3.1 Steps for Installing Windows 7 on Reference Workstation ……………… Page 8 4 Customizing Windows 7 on the Reference Workstation ……………… Page 9 4.1 Enter System Audit Mode ……………… Page 9 4.1.1 Steps to remove temporary user account ……………… Page 9 5 Generalizing the Image ……………… Page 9 6 Capturing the Image ….……………… Page 10 7 Developing Media for Windows 7 ….……………… Page 10 7.1 Copying custom Windows 7 image to the workstation ….……………… Page 10 7.2 Creating bootable UFD of Windows 7 Volume Licensing media ………… Page 11 8 Preparing UFD to make reference workstation operational ……………… Page 11 8.1 Copying custom images to the UFD containing Windows 7 .……………… Page12 8.2 UFD is Created ….……………… Page 12 References ….……………… Page 13 Introduction In a corporate network scenario, where more than thousands of workstations connected to the network, handling system administration issues is a complex and time-consuming task. Most importantly, windows installation is most frequent procedure as threats and vulnerabilities tends to corrupt it. Some of them are viruses, spywares, Trojans etc. Custom image creation provides the freedom to install windows as well as required software, utilities, device drivers etc. This facilitates system or network administrators largely. In this scenario, we have created a custom windows 7 image. 1 Deployment of Windows 7 In order to install windows 7 in a corporate network environment, custom image creation is required. Likewise, the image creation process incorporates seven key steps. However, custom image creation requires two workstations for a successful image creation process. Workstation 1 is named as ‘Technician workstation” and workstation 2 is named as “Reference workstation”. The technician workstation is utilized to implement tools and reference workstation assist to customize image (Building a standard image of windows 7: Systematic guide). Figure 1.1 illustrates columns for activities on each workstation (Building a standard image of windows 7: Step-by-step guide): Steps Technician workstation Reference Workstation 1 The first step is to install a Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) 2 Develop an environment for startup disk 3 Modify and Install Windows 7 4 Reboot the reference workstation in audit mode in order to delete the image 5 Simplify the reference workstation in order to prepare image of Windows 7 for replication 6 By utilizing Image x, incarcerate the reference workstation 7 For custom image ,develop a new windows 7 installation media Figure 1.1 In order to accomplish these steps following system specifications are required: Windows 7 licensing media Two USB Flash drives with minimum 8 GB space (Required for booting purpose) Reference Workstation (used for constructing and customizing standard image) 1.1 Installing Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) The Windows Automated Installation kit provides the access of tools that are required to build custom image of Windows 7. Most importantly, it provides the access of an essential tool Image X, which will capture the image from the reference workstation along with the required files to build a startup disk for Windows. Moreover, the Windows automated installation kit can be downloaded from Microsoft download center. The extension of the image will be with the International Standard Organization i.e. ‘.iso’. The file named as ‘KB3AIK_EN.iso’ is associated with ‘.iso’ extension will be copied to a DVD or a virtual drive. However, no software is required for burning the file as Windows 7 has the capability to copy or burn ISO extension files to DVD’s (Building a standard image of windows 7: Step-by-step guide ). 1.2 Steps to Install Windows Installation Kit (AIK) These are the steps to install windows AIK (Building a standard image of windows 7: Step-by-step guide): Step 1 is associated with navigating to the windows explorer and clicking on AIK DVD. The second step involves the division of following tasks: For 32-bit hardware architecture: right click the file named as ‘wAIKX86.msi’ and click install, For 64-bit architecture: right click the file named as ‘wAIKAMD64.msi’ and click install, After selecting the appropriate file, click next, Click on ‘I agree’ on the license agreement page and click next, The next step will be the ‘select installation folder’. Select next for installing the task on the default folder and for anyone. The next dialogue box will ask to ‘confirm installation’, click next to start the installation process and click close for finishing installation. 2 Writing Bootable UFD Bootable UFD can be utilized to boot the reference workstation in order to capture an image of the hard drive after the installation and customization of Windows 7. As windows pre installation environment does not possess Image X, a step is added to copy the file named as Image.exe from the folder of AIK installation to the source files of windows pre installation environment before creating ISO file of Windows pre installation environment (Building a standard image of windows 7: Step-by-step guide ). 2.1 Steps for Creating UFD through Windows Pre Installation Environment Step one starts by clicking the start menu - all programs -- Microsoft Windows AIK, Second step includes mouse navigation to right click ‘Deployment tools Command Prompt’ click ‘Run as Administrator’, Third step is involves executing the deployment tools command prompt with administrative rights, The fourth step comprises of the following tasks: For 32-bit hardware architecture type ‘copype.cmd x86 C:\winpe_x86’ For 64-bit hardware architecture type ‘copype.cmd amd64 C:\winpe_amd64’ 2.1.1 Tasks executed for ‘boot.wim’ in the Deployment Tools Command Prompt window: For 32-bit hardware architecture, type copy ‘C:\winpe_x86\winpe.wim C:\winpe_x86\ISO\sources\boot.wim’ For 32-bit hardware architecture, type copy ‘C:\winpe_amd64\winpe.wim C:\winpe_amd64\ISO\sources\boot.wim’ 2.1.2 Tasks executed for ‘Image X’ in the Deployment Tools Command Prompt window: For 32-bit hardware architecture, type copy ‘"C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\ImageX.exe" C:\winpe_x86\ISO\’ For 32-bit hardware architecture, type copy ‘"C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\amd64\ImageX.exe" C:\winpe_amd64\ISO\’ After selecting the appropriate hardware architecture UDP will be loaded in the workstation, the command’ diskpart’ will be executed in the Deployment Tools Command Prompt window, followed by ‘enter’, 2.1.3 These tasks will be executed to organize UFD for the Reference workstation Type list disk followed by ‘enter’ The next step will include Identification that will be conducted from the list of disk for the number of UFD. It is important to identify the disk, as it will be formatted. Moreover, the requirements for space and size are also essential for UFD. The next step includes the selection of disk number of the UFD followed by the ‘enter’ key. User will enter syntax ‘clean’ followed by the ‘enter’ key. User will enter syntax ‘create primary partition’ followed by the ‘enter’ key. User will select partition 1 followed by the ‘enter’ key. The next step is to select the format type. User will type ‘formatfs=fat32’ quick followed by the ‘enter’ key. After selecting the format type, user will press the ‘enter’. The last step is to type the syntax ‘exit’ followed by the ‘enter’ key. 3 Installing Windows 7 So far two steps have been completed i.e. installation of AIK and creation of bootable UFD. User has the required tools to capture custom image. These steps will be executed on the reference workstation. For installing windows on the reference workstation, a windows 7 volume licensing CD is required. Moreover, after installing windows, users can customize windows by installing utilities, updates, system software, antivirus etc (Building a standard image of windows 7: Step-by-step guide). 3.1 Steps for Installing Windows 7 on Reference Workstation After inserting Windows 7 installation disc in to the DVD-Rom, following steps are followed (Building a standard image of windows 7: Step-by-step guide): Windows will directly display the Windows boot up screen from the DVD-Rom. In order to boot from DVD-Rom, configuration of device start up is required from the BIOS. The next step is to select the language for the image, along with time and currency format list. After selecting these options, the location for image installation is selected. The next step is to set he input method list for keyboard layout. After providing all the parameters, user will click on ‘install now’ to start the installation process. The next page will appear for license agreement that will be accepted by the user in order to continue installation. User will click next after accepting the license agreement. The next option will ask installation type, if a user wants to install windows other then the default installation folder, customer installation will be selected in order to specify any other location. After completion of windows installation, user will log in the system by entering temporary username and password that can be deleted afterwards. In order to activate windows, user will provide the Windows 7 product key on the activation page followed by ‘next’ 4 Customizing Windows 7 on the Reference Workstation For customizing Windows 7, user will update the system by installing recommended updates. However, user can install any additional software to the custom image. After any additional installation and recommended system updates, user will now clean up the image by deleting the temporary user account and user profiles, as afterwards no modification is possible. 4.1 Enter System Audit Mode In order to remove user accounts and profiles, user will execute the system preparation tool (Sysprep). The cleanup action list will display ‘enter system audit mode’, after selecting this option, the user will reboot the system by selecting ‘restart the system in audit mode’. Now the operating system will start in audit mode. User will login by administrative credentials to remove the temporary user account and profiles. 4.1.1 Steps to remove temporary user account Right click  My Computer  Manage  click console on the left pane  click local users and groups  double click users on the middle pane after highlighting the temporary account right click and select delete click yes for confirmation of deleting the particular account. 5 Generalizing the Image To generalize the image, workstation needs to be in the Audit mode by using ‘Sysrep’. The user will select the option ‘Enter System Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE)’ from the action list. The next step will be the Selection of the Generalize check box. After selecting options, user will select shutdown to execute ‘sysrep’ and turn off the workstation. 6 Capturing the Image The first step is to open a boot device list from the BIOS and select optical media containing UFD bootable disk, as the first boot device. In order to execute commands, user can interrupt the windows boot process to enter the console mode. This is required to find the drive containing image.exe in the root. If a window 7 is an enterprise edition than these commands will be compatible (Building a standard image of windows 7: Step-by-step guide): “E:\imagex /compress fast /check /flags “Enterprise” /capture D: E:\install.wim “Windows 7 Enterprise” “Windows 7 Enterprise Custom”” 7 Developing Media for Windows 7 So far, application, system updates and system software are captured by windows 7 image. Now windows installation will take place by using the custom image from another bootable UFD. The files of the original media of windows 7 will be copied to the bootable UFD DVD. After successfully copying the files, the last step will be to replace install.wim file from the install.wim file on the bootable UFD DVD (Building a standard image of windows 7: Step-by-step guide ). 7.1 Copying custom Windows 7 image to the workstation Steps required for copying custom image are: Insert the customize bootable UFD DVD including the custom windows 7 image, in the optical drive of the workstation The next step would be to copy the file named as install.wim from the bootable UFD DVD to the hard drive ‘C: \install.wim’ and remove the UFD that contains the custom windows 7 image from the workstation. 7.2 Creating bootable UFD of Windows 7 Volume Licensing media Steps for creating bootable UFD of licensing media are: Click start menu  all programs  highlight Microsoft Windows AIK  right click Deployment Tools Command Prompt  click ‘run as administrator’ Click yes on the dialogue box to open the Deployment Tools Command Prompt with administrative rights. Insert a UFD in to the computer. Do not insert the UFD to which you captured the custom Windows 7 image, however, as you will be formatting this UFD. In the next step, user will type ‘diskpart’ in the Deployment Tools Command Prompt followed by ‘enter’ 8 Preparing UFD to make reference workstation operational The steps are: User will type the syntax ‘list disk’ followed by ‘enter’. The list disk option will display the list of disk available. User has to specify appropriate identification of UFD, as it needs to be formatted. Type select disknumber, where number is the disk number of the UFD, and then press ENTER. User will type the syntax ‘clean’ followed by ‘enter’ User will type the syntax ‘create partition primary’ followed by ‘enter’ User will type the syntax ‘select partition () followed by ‘enter’ User will type the syntax ‘format fs=fat32 quick’ followed by ‘enter’ User will type the syntax ‘active’ followed by ‘enter’ Lastly, exit command will be executed. After performing these steps, user will insert the Windows 7 Volume Licensing media into the DVD drive. After launching the Deployment Tools Command Prompt window, user will type ‘xcopy /s E:\*.* F:\*.*,’ The commands illustrates that the E is the drive letter for Windows 7 Volume Licensing media and F represents the UFD that was formatted in previous steps (Building a standard image of windows 7: Step-by-step guide ). 8.1 Copying custom images to the UFD containing Windows 7 User will type the syntax ‘xcopy /r C:\install.wim E:\sources\install.wim’ in the Deployment Tools Command Prompt window indicating E as a drive letter for UFD created in the previous step. 8.2 UFD is Created So far bootable UFD is created that includes the custom Windows 7 image that can be used on other workstations to install windows 7. References Building a standard image of windows 7: Step-by-step guide Retrieved 5/9/2011, 2011, from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee523217(WS.10).aspx Read More