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!

 

Create a bootable ISO file with Oscdimg.exe

When you install the WAIK or OPK kit, you also automatically get Oscdimg.exe installed. It can be used from the WAIK/OPK cmd prompt.

Let´s say you have a copied the content of a Windows DVD to “C:\Work\MyCustomWinDVD”, made some changes, and are now ready to burn the .iso file. The syntax would be like this:

“oscdimg –bC:\Work\MyCustomWinDVD\boot\etfsboot.com -h -u2 -m –lMyCustomISO C:\Work\MyCustomWinDVD C:\Work\MyCustomISO.iso”

Options explanation:

-b - Specifies the location of a boot sector file, in this case found in the boot folder of the Windows DVD

-h - Include hidden files and directories

-u2 - Specifies that only the UDF file system is used

-m - Ignore the maximum (CD) size of a image

-l - Is used to label the iso file

Installing Server 2008 R2 unattended

I stumbled over a post on wegotserved.com, explaining how to install Windows Server 2008 R2 on a HP WHS box. I will give the author credit for being creative but I would like to point out an alternative, the AutoUnattended.xml.

This post is a basic “how-to” and I am not going to explain the whole concept and all the tools around “Windows Automated Installation Kit”. Also i will add that i don´t own a HP whs box, the following is a general description and should work on all systems that´s capable of booting on a USB drive. (From what I understand, the HP hardware will boot on USB if no boot info is found on the hard disk)

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 Server 2008 R2 DVD.
· An empty USB stick, minimum 4GB.

Let´s get started!