Creating an Unattended Install File for Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition

In this tutorial, you will create an unattend.xml file for a Windows Server 2008 installation. To complete this tutorial, you will need to install the Windows AIK and have the Windows Server 2008 installation media available. The unattend.xml file you create will provide the bare minimum options for providing an unattended installation. You won't create a distribution share for this exercise, but if you are going to create an image that will require the loading of third-party device drivers or you want to perform unattended installs of other software during installation, you need to create and use a distribution share. Refer to the Windows System Image Manager documentation for more advanced options.

1. Log on to the computer where Windows AIK is installed.
2. Insert the Windows Server 2008 installation media into the CD/DVD-ROM drive.
3. Choose Start | Programs | Windows AIK | Windows System Image Manager (SIM).
4. Right-click the Windows Image pane and choose Select Windows Image.
5. Select Catalog files (*.clg) from the Files of Type drop-down list and select \Sources\install_Windows Longhorn SERVERENTERPRISE.clg on the Windows Server 2008 installation media; then click Open.
6. Right-click the Answer File pane and select New Answer File.
7. In the Windows Image pane, expand Windows Longhorn SERVERENTERPRISE and then expand Components.
8. Expand x86_Microsoft-Windows-Setup_6.0.6001.16510_neutral and highlight DiskConfiguration. (The version number might be different on your computer based on the version of the Windows Server 2008 installation media you provided.)
9. Right-click Disk and select Add Setting to Pass 1 windowsPE.
10. In the Answer File pane, expand Components\1 windowsPE\x86_Microsoft-Windows-Setup_neutral\DiskConfiguration\Disk.
11. Select Disk, and in the Disk Properties pane, set the following values under Settings:
    DiskID: 0
    WillWipeDisk: true
12. Right-click CreatePartitions, and select Insert New CreatePartition.
13. In the CreatePartition Properties, set the following values to create a 10GB primary partition:
    Order: 1
    Size: 10000
    Type: Primary
14. Right-click ModifyPartitions, and then select Insert New ModifyPartition.
15. In the ModifyPartition Properties, set the following values to format and configure the partition you will create as a result of step 14:
    Active: true
    Extend: false
    Format: NTFS
    Label: Local Disk
    Letter: C
    Order: 1
    PartitionID: 1
16. Now specify the location to install Windows Server 2008. In the Windows Image pane, expand Components\x86_Microsoft-Windows-Setup_6.0.6001.16510_neutral\ImageInstall\OSImage.
17. Right-click InstallTo and choose Add Setting to Pass 1 windowsPE.
18. Under the Answer File pane, make sure the Components\1 windowsPE\x86_Microsoft-Windows-Setup_neutral\ImageInstall\OSImage\InstallTo component is selected, and then in the InstallTo Properties, set the following values:
    DiskID: 0
    PartitionID: 1
19. Now you fill in the registration information. In the Windows Image pane, expand Components\x86_Microsoft-Windows-Setup_6.0.6001.16510_neutral.
20. Right-click UserData and choose Add Setting to Pass 1 windowsPE.
21. In the Answer File pane, select Components\1 windowsPE\x86_Microsoft-Windows-Setup_neutral\UserData. Then in the UserData Properties screen, set the following values:
    AcceptEULA: true
    FullName: Roney Hant
    Organization: MyComputer Inc
22. Expand the UserData component in the Answer File pane and then select ProductKey.
23. In the ProductKey Properties, enter the following:
    Key: Your Windows Server 2008 product key in the format 12345-12345-12345-12345-12345
    WillShowUI: OnError
24. Finally, your last configuration step is to assign a password for the default Administrator account. In the Windows Image pane, expand Components\x86_Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup_6.0.6001.16510_neutral\UserAccounts.
25. Right-click AdministratorPassword and choose Add Setting to Pass 7 oobeSystem. Since you added it to the oobeSystem pass, this will set the Administrator password when the system boots into Welcome Screen mode but before the user first logs on.
26. In the Answer File pane, select Components\oobeSystem\x86_Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup_neutral\UserAccounts\AdministratorPassword.
27. In the AdministratorPassword Properties, set the following:
    Value: P@ssword123
    Obviously, you can change P@ssword123 to whatever your default Administrator password should be. This is encrypted in the unattend.xml file, so you don't have to worry about anyone retrieving this password later.
28. On the Windows SIM menu bar, choose Tools | Validate Answer File. Verify that no error messages are displayed in the Message pane. If any errors or warnings appear, you may have forgotten to fill out one of the fields. Go back and make any necessary changes.
29. Choose File | Save Answer File.
30. Save this answer file to the WdsClientUnattend folder in your RemoteInstall folder on your WDS server. You can give this any filename, but to make it descriptive, call it server2008en.xml.

Attaching an Answer File to the Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition Image

Now that you have created an answer file, you need to tell WDS to use that answer file whenever installing Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition.

1. Log in to your WDS server.
2. Expand your server in the WDS Management console.
3. Expand the Install Images folder in the WDS console.
4. Click the image group containing your Windows Server 2008 Base Image.
5. Right-click Windows Server 2008 Base Image and choose Properties.
6. On the General tab, check the Allow Image to Install in Unattend Mode checkbox.
7. Click the Select File button.
8. Enter the path or click Browse to select the unattend file you created in the preceding exercise; then click OK.
9. Click OK in the Image Properties dialog box to save the changes.

You can now install Windows Server 2008 in unattend mode on a server by booting it up using PXE, selecting your Windows Server 2008 Setup (x86) boot image, and then selecting Windows Server 2008 Base Install from the list of available Install images.

NOTE: Since you specified the creation of a 10GB partition in your unattend file, the server must have at least a 10GB hard drive for the partition creation to be successful.