This document is part of Unattended, a Windows deployment system.

Step-By-Step Unattended Preparation Guide


Documentation:

1. What is Unattended http://unattended.sourceforge.net
2. Unattended OS Setup http://unattended.sourceforge.net/os.html
3. Unattended Application Setup http://unattended.sourceforge.net/apps.html
4. Customize Unattended for your site http://unattended.sourceforge.net/advanced.html
5. Install XYZ using Unattended http://unattended.sourceforge.net/installers.html

Requirements:

  DHCP server on your network
  Server capable of sharing files
  Cygwin is installed [ http://www.cygwin.com ]

How to read this document:

  $ is a command typed into the cygwin bash prompt
  c:\> is a command typed into the CMD prompt

Overview - What can unattended do after it is setup?

 

a. Install an OS from scratch, automated

 

I. Boot ‘clean’ and get on the network

  a. Boot using an Unattended Boot disk
  b. Load a network card driver
  c. Obtain an IP via DHCP
  d. Map a drive z: to \\servername\sharename
 

II. Prepare the Disk

  a. Create a partition (optional)
  b. Format (optional)
 

III. Install Windows

  a. Run z:\dosbin\install.pl via Perl
 

b. Install Updates and Applications, automated

 

I. Map drive z: to \\servername\sharename

  a. authenticate using information written by the OS Setup portion
  c:\netinst\ fillthisinformationin
 

II. Make a list of OS Updates and applications to install using todo.pl

  c:\netinst\ fillthisinformationin2
 

III. Install OS Updates and Applications

  z:\bin\todo.pl --go

1. Prepare the Unattended Server

 

a. Unattended

 

I. Download Unattended main distribution

  http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/unattended/
  unattended-x.xx.zip
 

b. Unzip the Unattended-x.xx.zip file to c:\unattended

  *** WARNING - If you dont yet have cygwin installed you cannot use cygwin to extract the archive ***
  $ unzip unattended-x.xx.zip /cygdrive/c/unattended/
 

c. Setup the Unattended File Share

 

I. Create the SMB file share for unattended

  c:\> net share install=c:\unattended\unattended-x.xx\install
 

II. Decide what windows user will authenticate with the server when accessing the share.

  Keep in mind, you can authenticate with any username / password that has access
  a. Change the permissions on the files to allow the appropriate user to access it.
  c:\> set unattendeduser=guest
  c:\> cacls c:\unattended\unattended-x.xx /T /E /G:%unattendeduser%
  b. (optional) If you will be using the guest account then make sure it is enabled
  c:\> net user guest /ACTIVE:YES /DOMAIN
  c:\> cacls c:\unattended\unattended-x.xx /T /E /G:%unattendeduser%

 

2. Prepare the Unattended Boot Disk

 

a. DOS Boot Disk

 

I. Download Unattended DOS boot disk

  http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/unattended/
  unattended-x.xx-dosboot.zip
 

II. Unzip unattended-x.xx-dosboot.zip to c:\unattended\

  *** WARNING - If you dont yet have cygwin installed you cannot use cygwin to extract the archive ***
  $ unzip unattended-x.xx-dosboot.zip /cygdrive/c/unattended/
 

III. Download djgpp and apps for DOS and extract them to c:\unattended\unattended-x.xx\install\djgpp

  ftp://ftp.delorie.com/pub/djgpp/current/v2/djdev203.zip
  ftp://ftp.delorie.com/pub/djgpp/current/v2misc/csdpmi5b.zip
  ftp://ftp.delorie.com/pub/djgpp/current/v2gnu/perl561b.zip
  ftp://ftp.delorie.com/pub/djgpp/current/v2apps/pico396b.zip
 

IV. Creating the boot media

  Unattended's dos boot disk can be booted from CDROM, Floppy or PXE
  a. Bootable CD
  the cd image can be found under: \bootdisk\bootdisk.iso
  b. Bootable Floppy
  the floppy image can be found under: \bootdisk\images\*.imz
  c. PXE - "nothing but net"
  http://unattended.sourceforge.net/os.html#netboot

 

 

b. Linux Boot Disk (Experimental)

 

I. Download Unattended Linux boot disk

  http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/unattended/
  unattended-x.xx-linuxboot.zip
 

II. Unzip unattended-x.xx-linuxboot.zip to c:\unattended\

  *** WARNING - If you dont yet have cygwin installed you cannot use cygwin to extract the archive ***
  $ cd /cygdrive/c/unattended/
  $ unzip unattended-x.xx-linuxboot.zip
 

III. Creating the boot media

 

Unattended's linux boot disk can be booted from CDROM or PXE

  a. Bootable CD
  the cd image can be found under: \linuxboot\linuxboot.iso
  c. PXE - "nothing but net"
  http://unattended.sourceforge.net/os.html#netboot

 

3. Prepare the Unattended OS Distribution Point

 

a. Copy OS's to the network share.

 

I. Copy Operating Systems to an appropriately named directory

  ex1. xcopy d:\ c:\unattended\unattended-x.xx\install\os\win2ksp4
  ex2. xcopy d:\ c:\unattended\unattended-x.xx\install\os\winxp
  ex3. xcopy d:\ c:\unattended\unattended-x.xx\install\os\winxpsp1
  note: install.pl knows what os is in the folder based on folder content not on the folder name



4. Unattended Updates and application dependencies

 

a. Download Updates and applications that can be grabbed automatically

 

I. Parse all the scripts located in /scripts for necessary files and download them

  ****************************************************************
  *** !!Warning ./prepare will by default download ~1000 MB from the Internet!! ***
  ****************************************************************
  $ cd /cygdrive/c/unattended/unattended-x.xx/install/tools
  $ ./prepare
 

b. Determine what needs to be grabbed off of the original installation media

 

I. Parse all the scripts located in /scripts for necessary files and determine what is missing

  $ cd /cygdrive/c/unattended/unattended-x.xx/install/tools
  $ ./check
 

II. Put the appropriate files where they need to go

 

II. Repeat step 5b until all Updates / Applications you need have no missing files

5. Test Unattended

 

a. Boot a workstation using your chosen boot method (DOS or linux)

  ***********************************************************
  *** !!Warning Unattended can and will destroy data on the workstation!! ***
  ***********************************************************
  follow the prompts
  create a partition
  format the hard drive
  choose what OS to install
  choose what application set to install
 

b. more documentation goes here

6. Customize Unattended (needs more information, incomplete)

 

a. Customize Unattended settings for your site according to the instructions from

  http://unattended.sourceforge.net/advanced.html
 

I. Change the dos boot disk to not ask so many questions

  a. Modify autoexec.bat on the DOS boot disk
  I. change the default UNC to \\yourservername\yoursharename
  c:\> notepad c:\unattended\unattended-x.xx\bootdisk\template\autoexec.bat
  SET Z_PATH=\\[YourServerName]\install
  II. change the default username and password
  SET Z_USER=[YourGuestAccount]
  SET Z_PASS=[YourGuestPassword]
  b. Prepare cygwin to rebuild the images
  I. Packages you will need to have:
  bash, make, gzip, grep, mktemp, sed, fileutils, textutils, perl
  run cygwin's setup.exe to install more packages. http://www.cygwin.com
  c. Rebuild the images
  I. Floppy images
  a. Rebuild the floppy images
  $ cd /cygdrive/c/unattended/unattended-x.xx/bootdisk
  $ make images
  b. Find the new floppy images
  $ cd /cygdrive/c/unattended/unattended-x.xx/bootdisk/images
  $ ls
  c. Make floppies
  http://www.winimage.com
  Making floppies with Mtools
  Unzip chosen image (replace b44 with right name)
  $ cd /cygdrive/c/unattended/unattended-x.xx/bootdisk/images
  $ unzip b44.imz
  Format floppy using bootsector from image file
  $ mformat -B b44.img a:
  Copy all files from image file to floppy
  $ mcopy -i b44.img -s ::* a:
  II. CDROM image
  a. Rebuild the cdrom iso image
  $ cd /cygdrive/c/unattended/unattended-x.xx/bootdisk
  $ make iso
  b. Find the new cdrom iso image
  $ cd /cygdrive/c/unattended/unattended-x.xx/bootdisk/
  $ ls bootdisk.iso
  c. Burn the iso image to cdrom
  http://www.ahead.de (Nero)
  Burning image with cdrecord
  $ cdrecord -dev=1,0,0 bootdisk.iso
  To find out numbers after -dev look for you CD-writer in the output of the following command
  $ cdrecord -scanbus
  To erase CD-RW run
  $ cdrecord -dev=1,0,0 -blank=fast
 

II. Change the config.pl script to not ask so many questions

 

III. Create a site specific unattended.txt in z:\site\

If you have any questions about Unattended or this document feel free to ask questions by joining the mailing list.

--------------------------------------------------------
Changelog
--------------------------------------------------------

3/20/2004 Rev 0.07
Updated the download and extraction steps for all achives. Version 4.0b is now distributed as .zip files

3/19/2004 Rev 0.06
Converted to HTML
Fix Typos

3/19/2004 Rev 0.05
Added ./check to section 5. Unattended Updates and application dependencies
Renamed most sections to be more clear
clarified slightly what was server side and what was workstation side
starting to flesh out section 7. Customize Unattended
Cleanup and restructure section 1. Overview - What can unattended do after it is setup?\
Added http://unattended.sourceforge.net/installers.html to the documentation section

3/18/2004 Rev 0.04
After receiving comments from Sylvain
added section about ./prepare
added note to boot disk sections about making floppies/cdrom
added note about PXE booting
re-organize 2. Unattended Setup, made it more clear that guest was not a requirement
add cygwin as a requirement for installation, it makes life so much easier, and allows the ./prepare script to run
fix the unzip steps to use cygwin tar

3/17/2004 Rev 0.02
General Cleanup
Document restructured

3/13/2004 rev 0.01
Rough Draft - 1st revision
dos djgpp perl installation is still a work in progress