Installing WHS 2011 on “headless” hardware using AutoUnattend.xml

As a follow up on my previous post “Installing Server 2008 R2 unattended” here is a follow up on how to install “Windows Home Server 2011” on “headless” hardware.

WHS 2011 is a bit different when it comes to running setup.exe, and its therefore not enough to just put a AutoUnattend.xml in the root of the installation media. Also, for reasons I don’t know, Microsoft have decided to implement the possibility to automate the installation with use of a Cfg.ini file, in fact most of the “how-to” I found on the web is based around the Cfg.ini solution.

I think the Cfg.ini solution is okay, but having a mindset focused around xml files I decided to write a guide based on AutoUnattend.xml. Notice I have yet to find the (big) advantage compared to Cfg.ini, so for now the only “exclusive” settings I will do is around Internet Explore.

Let´s go!

 

WARNING – After creating the USB stick, booting on this stick WILL clean your hard disk, so be careful rebooting you workstation if you are not sure on the boot order.

To get started you need the following:

· A (properly licensed) Windows Home Server 2011 DVD.
· An empty USB stick, minimum 8GB.

Step One - Prepare the USB stick

Insert the USB key in your workstation. Press “Windows Key + R” to open the run dialog, and type “diskpart” followed by “OK”. If you have UAC activated you will have to confirm. Please have in mind that you now have easy access to cleaning all disk´s in you system, so be careful.

In diskpart follow these steps:

Type “list disk” to get an overview over the disk attached to you system.

Using the size, locate the disk number of your USB drive. In my case the disk number is “4”, in the following commands please remember to replace the number with the correct number on your system. Type the following series of commands:

Select Disk 4
Clean
Create Partition Primary
Select Partition 1
Format Quick fs=ntfs label=WHS2011 (Important, no spaces in the label name)
Assign (assign the first available letter, in my case “I”)
Active (Important, if you forget this command it is not possible to boot on the USB key)

You should now have an empty USB key that can be accessed like you normal access an USB key, if that´s the case type “Exit” to close the Diskpart window.

Step Two – Copy the “Windows Home Server 2011” installation files to the USB key

Copy all the content from the WHS2011 DVD to the root of the USB key.

Step Three (Optional) – Add drivers for automatic installation

If you have drivers that you would like to be injected during the installation (eg. drivers for your NIC), it can be done in a pretty simple way. Please note that it only works for drivers in .inf format.

Create a folder on the root of the USB key named “Drivers”.

Place all your drivers in this folder. In the AutoUnattend.xml we will add this location, including subfolders, to be searched for .inf files. Here is an example where I add Realtek NIC drivers.

Step Four – Edit the AutoUnattend.xml

(You can edit the AutoUnattend.xml file using notepad, remember to save the edited file with the .xml extension)

Right now we have a bootable USB “Windows Home Server 2011” media. In order to make the installation “unattended” we have to add an AutoUnattend.xml file with all our settings to the root of the USB key.

You can download the a working AutoUnattend.xml here. (it´s a .zip file containing the xml file and cmd file described in step five)

I´m not going to explain all the settings in the AutoUnattend.xml file, but will cover the ones that can be changed.

Regional Settings

The following settings define the regional/language settings. Please notice that the WHS2011 only have one UI language, so for the US edition do not change the <UILanguage> setting. You can see a list of language values here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766191(WS.10).aspx

In my case (Denmark) i will change

<SetupUILanguage>
<UILanguage>en-us</UILanguage>
</SetupUILanguage>
<InputLocale>en-us</InputLocale>
<SystemLocale>en-us</SystemLocale>
<UILanguage>en-us</UILanguage>
<UserLocale>en-us</UserLocale>

To

<SetupUILanguage>
<UILanguage>en-us</UILanguage>
</SetupUILanguage>
<InputLocale>da-dk</InputLocale>
<SystemLocale>da-dk</SystemLocale>
<UILanguage>en-us</UILanguage>
<UserLocale>da-dk</UserLocale>

Drive Configuration

The drive configuration is based on the recommendations from Microsoft. There are 3 partitions:

System Partition – 100 MB
OS Partition – 60GB
Data Partition – The rest

If you want to change the size of the partition for the operating system you can edit the following lines:

<Order>2</Order>
<Size>61440</Size>

More advanced editing is only recommended if your experienced in working with the WAIK/OPK kit.

Drivers

Because different hardware configuration can result in different drive letter assignment to the USB key, I have added three locations to look for drivers. If you have a lot of hard disk´s or a card reader or something you can add more locations.

<DriverPaths>
<PathAndCredentials wcm:action="add" wcm:keyValue="1">
<Path>D:\Drivers</Path>
</PathAndCredentials>
<PathAndCredentials wcm:action="add" wcm:keyValue="2">
<Path>E:\Drivers</Path>
</PathAndCredentials>
<PathAndCredentials wcm:action="add" wcm:keyValue="3">
<Path>F:\Drivers</Path>
</PathAndCredentials>
</DriverPaths>

Computer Name

To change the default name replace “MyWHS2011” with a name of your choice.

<ComputerName>MyServer</ComputerName>

Internet Explore

Just to prove the advantage with AutoUnattend.xml compared to Cfg.ini I have added the following Internet Explore settings:

Start Page

<StartPage wcm:action="add">
<StartPageKey>1</StartPageKey>
<StartPageUrl>http://www.google.com</StartPageUrl>
</StartPage>

Disable “First Run Wizard” (the annoying wizard you get when you run IE8 for the first time)

<DisableFirstRunWizard>true</DisableFirstRunWizard>

Disable IE “Enhanced Security Configuration” (If you are going to use your servers browser more than one time, you want to disable ECS)

<IEHardenAdmin>false</IEHardenAdmin>
<IEHardenUser>false</IEHardenUser>

If you don’t want these settings I recommend only deleting the values.

Administrator Password

If you want to set the Administrator password during “Initial Configuration” it is important to leave the password value “Admin”. If you use anything else but “Admin” the password provided during “Initial Configuration” will not be used, and you will get a error in the end about the Administrator password has not been changed. 

If you do want to change the default Administrator password then replace ”Admin” with your own password.

<AdministratorPassword>
<Value>Admin</Value>
<PlainText>true</PlainText>
</AdministratorPassword>

If you change the default “AdministratorPassword” you also have to change the following to match it

<Password>
<Value>Admin</Value>
<PlainText>true</PlainText>
</Password>

Edit 01-07-2011:

In the first version of the guide and sample xml file I used another default password. That resulted in a error at the end of the installation. In the OPK I found that using “Admin” as a password would allow the Administrator password to be changed during “Initial Configuration”.

Step Five – Copying AutoUnattend.xml and winpehook.cmd to the USB key

Copy the AutoUnattend.xml and winpehook.cmd (can be found in the zip folder with the AutoUnattend.xml) to the root of the USB key.

Step Six – Install WHS2011 to you server

Now you need your server to boot on the USB key. If you have a “headless” server it will most likely boot to USB if no boot info is found on the HDD. That means that it can be necessary to move your hard drive to another system to clean it, or use the chance to buy a new drive.

If everything goes right your server installation will now start, and be “completed” within 30-90 min. depending on your hardware.

If your installation success your server will request, and get, an IP address from your router. Look in the DHCP client list of your router to get the IP address.

Please notice that the “base” Server 2008 R2 OS will be installed pretty quick, and your server will appear in your router. That´s not the same as it´s ready for “Initial Configuration”, wait for the link in next step to be active.

Step Seven – “Initial Configuration” of your server

With a normal Windows client/server installation we would be done now. With WHS2011 we still need to configure the “Home Server” part of the installation.

If you have a screen attached to the server, you can just logon and complete the configurations steps. If you have a “headless” server you can use the following URL in a browser (preferred IE):

http://MyWHS2011/setup/launch.aspx

or

http://your_ip/setup/launch.aspx 

Using Internet Explore, you will get a window like this

You will now get a “pop-op” error, so you have to accept pop-up from the website, and reload to continue

You should now get a new window with the first page of the initial configuration.

Go through the required steps. When you get to “Personalize your server” you can change the name of the server. Please notice that you can not change the password. You can type a new one, and it looks like its changed, but its not. That means when you log on to the server for the first time with RDP or the connector, you have to use the password provided in AutoUnattend.xml.

On the final page you will get a message saying that the server is setup, but with some alerts. The alert is because the administrator password did not get changed. When you logon you will get instructions on how to change it.

Edit 01-07-2011:

If you are using the sample xml from after 01-07-2011 you will not see this error.

Step Eight – Connect to you server

You should now be able to connect to your server with both “Remote Desktop” and the Connector software/webpage with

User: Administrator
Password : P@ssw0rd

Troubleshooting

I have tested the provided files several time on Hyper-V, but haven´t had the time to do an test on real hardware. I will get this done soon, and edit the guide if there are any challenges.

The most common error would properly be that hardware does not boot on the USB device. Next issue could be storage or NIC drivers. If the boot image on the WHS2011 DVD does not support your storage controller, the installation fails.

If you want to test if the USB key is bootable, you can test it on your own computer but it is VERY important to remove the AutoUnattend.xml and winpehook.cmd files first.

If you have any problems please leave a comment, and i would try to assist.