Microsoft tools ease Vista deployment

Vista is more than just a pretty face; Redmond has sweated serious bullets making it a business-friendly operating system. A key difference between this Windows and XP Pro is that Microsoft is challenging customers to deploy the OS in a corporate environment using only tools it offers for free or that come with Vista. The company — shockingly — has succeeded (see also the Test Center Analysis “Deploying Microsoft Office 2007”).

Key to this success is Vista’s new imaging technology. Unlike previous iterations of Windows, Vista can be deployed as a file-based image. Moreover, you don’t need to create beaucoup images — one for each department, one for each power user, and one for that special executive with just enough knowledge to crash the world. Instead, Vista allows admins to edit image files live, either prior to installation or even during. That’s a serious boon not just to admins dealing with naughty users, but for those burdened with multiple language installations, application service packs, or specific configurations for mission-critical apps.

Meet the deploy players

The basic tools you’ll need are found in the WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit), which can be had as a stand-alone download or as part of the Microsoft Solution Accelerator for BDD (Business Desktop Deployment) 2007 bundle. We’d recommend grabbing WAIK as part of BDD since the latter comes with additional tools you might like, including the Office Migration Planning Manager, support tools for Windows XP x64, and more.

WAIK comprises four main tools. First, there’s ImageX, accessible separately or as part of BDD 2007’s Deployment Workbench GUI interface. This is a hard core command line tool that allows admins to access and modify the OS images, called WIM (Windows Imaging Format) files, right off the command prompt.

Then there’s WDS (Windows Deployment Services), which handles the bulk of your image issues and replaces Windows 2000/XP’s RIS (Remote Installation Services) tool.

Up next: WinPE (Windows Preinstallation Environment), which is a smaller but still bootable version of Vista that can be run entirely in RAM and is used to begin the image-based installation process.

Last, there’s WSIM (Windows System Image Manager). This puppy lets admins build custom answer files to allow users to manage their own hands-off installation processes.

Image is everything

Creating a Vista image begins with building an answer file — basically a configuration add-on that lets Vista’s master install know which specific features the instance wants installed. To create this file, all we had to do was insert a Vista CD into our workstation, then copy the Install.wim file to the desktop and open it from inside WSIM. Once you’ve got multiple images built, you’ll see a larger list to choose from, but at the start there’s only the one WIM file.

Building your answer file is simply a matter of selecting components and configuration options. You can validate everything from inside the WSIM’s Answer Pane.

Once the answer file is completed, it’s on to the master installation. This should be the most popular customized installation you intend to employ. Creating a master is as easy as installing Vista off the installation using your new answer file — either burn them to one DVD or simply combine the two in a network share. The last step is simply to shut down the workstation using a special command-line instruction. This provides some last-step housekeeping that Microsoft recommends before you snap your master image.

Next, you create a WIM image of your master installation. Though space constrains us from getting into details here, Microsoft has a great systematic guide about the process online. The basic approach is to use WinPE and ImageX to create the image in a self-booting format — again usable as a CD or network install.

Make sure you’re using a fully licensed version of Vista from the get go. Theoretically, you should be able to alter the license key on an existing WIM file, but that didn’t work for us: Our test WIMs built with no-key press copies of Vista Business rolled over and died 120 days after we created them.

Proceed with caution

Deploying images is the WDS’s job. A point that Microsoft can’t stress enough: Installing WDS on a technician’s workstation containing RIS effectively kills RIS, though you’ll still have access to RIS’s image files. So if you’re looking to try WDS before diving in whole hog, your best bet is to create a separate Vista installation console and leave your Windows XP installation alone for the time being.

Installing WDS automatically gives you access to several generic Vista install images. Simply add your own master installation to this list. Subsequently, configure your workstations to pixie boot. This lets the workstation automatically find the WDS server on the network, load WinPE into RAM and proceed with the installation. WDS provides tools for making this installation as restrictive or interactive as you want. Users can either click the button and go get coffee, or they can answer a few personal configuration questions. It’s all dependent on your own totalitarian leanings.

Frankly, we can’t see companies using WDS on a completely user-initiated basis. For one thing, a full install means between one and two hours of downtime for users. Transferring user settings, which is indeed part of Microsoft’s migration toolset, extends that already-lengthy downtime.

Even a departmental installation seems to require you to run individual backups on each station (we can live with that) and, subsequently, the Windows Easy Transfer Tool. Some smaller businesses might take that quick-and-dirty route just to avoid reading the instruction docs on Microsoft’s USMT (User State Migration Toolkit). USMT is easy enough that it’s worth the read, though, even if you’re looking for quick and dirty.

The upshot on Microsoft Vista deployment is that it’s far and away better than what we had in the box with Windows XP Professional. The company did a solid job addressing the needs of most conventional businesses, but there’s definitely room for customization and improvement on the overall smoothness of the operation that third-party desktop management vendors such as Altiris or LANDesk will likely exploit.