Windows 2003 unattended headache...=(

[pik4chu]

Well here is the thing. We get a lot of similar servers for client networks. And since we often have a lot of stuff to do it would be great to be able to automate a windows install, atleast for a good portion of it for these servers. So I go about using setupmngr from the CD to create a basic answer files, then I add in computer name, cd key and a few other minor things. Now it comes to the true undertaking. These servers all have Adaptec SCSI S2120/2200 Raid controllers in them. I think hey thats great! with unattended setup you can auto install mass storage drivers during setup so you dont have to hit F6 at just the right time.

So I follow the instructions found in the help file (deploy.chm) combined with a microsoft 2003 automated deployment document from the 2003 deployment resoruce kit. or for the downloadable book http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...a4-71c1-4ee9-b974-66214651a23b&displaylang=en and the chapter Im reffering to is 04_CHAPTER_2_Designing_Unattended_Installations.doc

Anyways, since reburning a bootable CD isnt really an option because this would require creating multiple new CDs each time drivers changed rather than just making a new floppy disk. I find you can redirect the $OEM$ folder using the answer file with the OemFilesPath option, so now for where the headache comes in.

The following is my txtsetup.oem and winnt.sif answer file

TXTSETUP.OEM

;
; Adaptec I2O RAID Host Adapter Drivers for 32bit Windows 2000, XP, & 2003
;
; Text Setup Installation File For Microsoft 32bit Windows 2000, XP, & 2003
;
; Version 1.11-32bit
;
; Edited 07/14/03
;

[Disks]
d1 = "Adaptec I2O RAID Driver Disk for 32bit Windows 2000, XP, & 2003", \dpt_i2o, \

[Defaults]
scsi = dpti2o

[scsi]
dpti2o = "Adaptec I2O RAID Adapters for 32bit Windows 2000, XP, & 2003"

[Files.scsi.dpti2o]
driver  = d1, dpti2o.sys, dpti2o
catalog = d1, dpti2o.cat
inf     = d1, oemsetup.inf
inf     = d1, adptmgt.inf

[Config.dpti2o]
value = "", Type, REG_DWORD, 1
value = "", Start, REG_DWORD, 0
value = "", Group, REG_SZ, "SCSI miniport"
value = "", ErrorControl, REG_DWORD, 1
value = Parameters\Device, NumberOfRequests, REG_DWORD, 040

[HardwareIds.scsi.dpti2o]
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0011044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0021044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0031044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0041044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0051044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C00A1044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C00B1044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C00C1044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C00D1044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C00E1044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C00F1044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0141044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0151044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0161044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C01E1044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C01F1044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0201044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0211044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0281044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0291044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C02A1044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C03C1044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C03D1044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C03E1044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0461044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0471044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0481044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0501044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0511044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0521044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C05A1044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C05B1044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A511&SUBSYS_C05F1044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0641044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0651044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A501&SUBSYS_C0661044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A511&SUBSYS_C0321044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A511&SUBSYS_C0331044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A511&SUBSYS_C0661044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A511&SUBSYS_C0341044", "dpti2o"
id = "PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A511&SUBSYS_C0351044", "dpti2o"

and winnt.sif

;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
    AutoPartition=1
    MsDosInitiated="0"
    UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]
    UnattendMode=FullUnattended
    OemSkipEula=Yes
    [b]OemPreinstall=Yes
    OemFilesPath=A:\[/b]
    TargetPath=\WINDOWS

[MassStorageDrivers]
[b]    "Adaptec I2O RAID Driver Disk for 32bit Windows 2000, XP, & 2003" = "OEM"[/b]

[OEMBootFiles]
[b]    dpti2o.sys
    dpti2o.cat
    oemsetup.inf
    adptmgt.inf
    txtsetup.oem    [/b]

[GuiUnattended]
    AdminPassword="------"
    EncryptedAdminPassword=NO
    OEMSkipRegional=1
    TimeZone=10
    OemSkipWelcome=1

[UserData]
    ProductKey=--------
    FullName="---------"
    OrgName="------"
    ComputerName=INTERFACE	

[Display]
    BitsPerPel=32
    Xresolution=1024
    YResolution=768
    Vrefresh=70

[LicenseFilePrintData]
    AutoMode=PerServer
    AutoUsers=125

[Identification]
    JoinWorkgroup=WORKGROUP

[Networking]
    InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

Ok now in the second part you will notice some bolded items. These are the ones ive been screwing with the most. Now onto the issue. I have a floppy disk that contains the answer file and the prep program. On the floppy there is an $OEM$\Textmode folder per instructions in the documents I listed above. And in there are the files under the OEMBootFiles tag. Catch #1 When I boot the computer and start setup it reads the disk and starts processing based on the answer file, when it goes to load the SCSI driver it gives an error that says

txtsetup.oem caused na unexpected error (18) atr line 1814 in d:\srv03rtm\base\boot\setup\oemdic.c
Press any key to continue

Now here is where it gets really wierd. IF the txtsetup.oe file is int eh $OEM$\Textmode folder on the floppy drive then pressing a key to continue results in a blue screen OD with no error code or anything, you have to hard reset. If it is NOT in that folder a few more things load then setup gives the error:

Setup could not load file \OEM\dpti2o.sys Setup cannot continue. To reboot your computer press F3

Wierdness #3. I have a second server (identical) and I went about installing this w/o answer file or anything, pressed F6 at start to load the SCSI drivers manually. Well when I select the drivers off the disk (there is only one driver set, these had to be downloaded from mfr website as for some reason they were not on the CD) It reads the disk then states that this version is older than the one that windows has... Ok, so that means that windows has this driver? that would make sense as to why we had to manually download them. This would also possibly account for the errors in the unattended file because its trying to overwrite drivers and setup doesn't allow that?

So I took my answer file and changed the [MassStorageDrivers]
"Adaptec I2O RAID Driver Disk for 32bit Windows 2000, XP, & 2003" = "OEM"

line to [MassStorageDrivers]
"Adaptec I2O RAID Driver Disk for 32bit Windows 2000, XP, & 2003" = "Retail"

Note: I also removed all lines associated with the Oem files, including [OEMBootFiles], OemFilesPath and changing OemPreinstall to =No

And restarted the install on the original server. Sure enough it got past everything, watching the bottom 'task info' bar I see it say that windows is loading the proper driver. But when it gets past all this I get the error of "Setup could not locate any storage devices on this machine, setup cannot continue, blah blah" Umm, so where did the drivers go?

Any help is much appreciated as this would save us a good deal of time on server builds!

A few things Ive heard but cant quite confirm while searching for solutions based on error messages and such. I saw one mention that the OemFilesPath object cant be used if installing from a CD, but I cant find any MS supporting that statement. I have also seen someone say a fix for them was to remove the spaces in this line and putting it in quotes from the txtsetup.oem file
[Disks]
d1 = "Adaptec I2O RAID Driver Disk for 32bit Windows 2000, XP, & 2003", \dpt_i2o, \
so it looks like this
[Disks]
d1 = ""Adaptec I2O RAID Driver Disk for 32bit Windows 2000, XP, & 2003",\dpt_i2o, \"

Another suggestion was to shorten the name of the "disk" listed in the line above and its counterpart in the winnt.sif file under
[MassStorageDrivers]
"Adaptec I2O RAID Driver Disk for 32bit Windows 2000, XP, & 2003" = "OEM"

So that the name is <31 characters.

The things listed above I have not tried as they sound a bit odd to me, but there have been reports that they have worked for some people.

I've tried dozens of other things tho, including different drivers and rewriting portions of the txtsetup.oem and winnt.sif files to use different files/drivers etc as I change them out, as well as redownloading the drivers alltogether. And different OS driver versions (like ones for 2000 and XP) to no avail.

Someone help me

*edit* added links to MS documents
*edit2* just came across the 'Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Reference' file.

 

[Ebola]

Just use nlite. http://www.nliteos.com/

I built a slipstreamed version of 2003 with pretty much everything I needed and a lot of the wizard automated. You can do a totally automated version with nlite if you want to. I did one with xp. I just pop in the cd and 15 minutes later xp is up and running.

 

[pik4chu]

Just use nlite. http://www.nliteos.com/

I built a slipstreamed version of 2003 with pretty much everything I needed and a lot of the wizard automated. You can do a totally automated version with nlite if you want to. I did one with xp. I just pop in the cd and 15 minutes later xp is up and running.

Thanks but I already stated why re-building the disc image isnt exactly an option =\ Not to mention not every server is the same so changing an entry here and there in an answer file is much easier than re-creating and reburning an image for each variance.

 

[pik4chu]

/bump...

 

[pik4chu]

/bump?