Having trouble installing an OS using Windows Deployment Services

[Shammikit]

hello, im trying to install server 2016 on a virtual machine in remote pc using windows deployment service and in that it requires to specify a wim file for install image and boot image. In my server 2016 CD im able to find a boot.wim but not a install.wim. instead in my cd i have 2 install.swm files known as install.swm and install2.swm. I checked any other options for preparing a wim file out of these 2 swm files and saw some tutorials where they used a software called Imagex to do such tasks however i was not able to find a reliable download location for it. i would appreciate if someone could suggest a way to get around this. Thank you

[Mikensan]

You have to install windows somewhere, configure it the way you want / install whatever applications, and then capture the WIM. ImageX is part of the toolkit.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54259

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/capture-images-of-hard-disk-partitions-using-dism

[Mikensan]

Also to note, your WIM file with a base install should ballpark 30gb. So likely whatever you found isn't going to work.

[leadeater]

Yep, grab the boot.wim and add that to WDS as your PXE image then spin up a temporary VM (if vmware use E1000 NIC) to create a baseline than capture the image with WDS capture task.

[Blake]

On 6/20/2018 at 1:05 AM, Shammikit said:

hello, im trying to install server 2016 on a virtual machine in remote pc using windows deployment service and in that it requires to specify a wim file for install image and boot image. In my server 2016 CD im able to find a boot.wim but not a install.wim. instead in my cd i have 2 install.swm files known as install.swm and install2.swm. I checked any other options for preparing a wim file out of these 2 swm files and saw some tutorials where they used a software called Imagex to do such tasks however i was not able to find a reliable download location for it. i would appreciate if someone could suggest a way to get around this. Thank you

Do you have an install.esd on the iso/disk?

 

run: "dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:[driveletter]:\path\to\install.esd" to find the index of the image you want to deploy, then

run: "dism /export-image /SourceImageFile:[driveletter]:\path\to\install.esd /SourceIndex:[indexfromabovecommand] /DestinationImageFile:path/to/install.wim /Compress:max /CheckIntegrity" Some of these flags are optional.

 

You now have a Windows 10/server2016 WIM file that you can WDS like normal.

 

You can also use powershell, to merge the .swm files:

Export-WindowsImage -SourceImagePath path\to\install.swm `
	-SourceIndex [indexfromstep1above] `
  	-DestinationImagePath path\to\install.wim `
  	-DestinationName "whatever you want" `
  	-SplitImageFilePattern install*.swm

 

[Shammikit]

3 hours ago, Blake said:

Do you have an install.esd on the iso/disk?

 

run: "dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:[driveletter]:\path\to\install.esd" to find the index of the image you want to deploy, then

run: "dism /export-image /SourceImageFile:[driveletter]:\path\to\install.esd /SourceIndex:[indexfromabovecommand] /DestinationImageFile:path/to/install.wim /Compress:max /CheckIntegrity" Some of these flags are optional.

 

You now have a Windows 10/server2016 WIM file that you can WDS like normal.

 

You can also use powershell, to merge the .swm files:

Export-WindowsImage -SourceImagePath path\to\install.swm `
	-SourceIndex [indexfromstep1above] `
  	-DestinationImagePath path\to\install.wim `
  	-DestinationName "whatever you want" `
  	-SplitImageFilePattern install*.swm

 

I have followed this video which shows a easy way to combine the 2 swm files to one wim file with Imagex. He had even included URLs to download imagex application. I manged to successfully install with WDS using the wim file it generated.

 

 

[Blake]

On 6/21/2018 at 3:06 PM, Shammikit said:

I have followed this video which shows a easy way to combine the 2 swm files to one wim file with Imagex. He had even included URLs to download imagex application. I manged to successfully install with WDS using the wim file it generated.

I don't like ImageX as it has been flagged by Microsoft as a deprecated utility. DISM is the replacement. Powershell would be better yet, as that's where windows admining is going.