Settings not taken by sysprep for w7 desktop

Latest response

Hello,

I'm testing multi domain feature.

My rhev manager 3.0 is configured also as an IPA server and DNS server and I have also configured its named.conf to forward queries for the LAB.ADTEST.ORG Win2008 R2 AD domain to its domain controller.

This way I was able to join both domains in my closed lab:

# rhevm-manage-domains -action=list
Domain: test.org
    User name: admin@TEST.ORG
    This domain is a remote domain.
Domain: lab.adtest.org
    User name: rhevadmin@LAB.ADTEST.ORG
    This domain is a remote domain.
Manage Domains completed successfully
 

rhevadmin is the user configured in AD with delegated controls for

• Join a computer to the domain.
• Modify the membership of a group.

 

From a w7 vm configured in a workgroup with some installed apps I followed instructions to make it a template, with regedit and sysprep.

I then created a cloned vm based on it, specifying the AD domain and then run once with a:\sysprep attached.

After about 5-10 minutes of applying computer settings I got a reboot and vm started but domain settings were not taken..

Where to find logs and correct on rhevm?

I found some files under c:\windows\ such as

setupact.log

bootstat.dat

TSSysprep.log

DTCInstall.log

 

I also have configured the w7 prod key and in fact I get it with

# rhevm-config -a |grep ProductKey

ProductKeyWindow7: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX version: general
 

If I try then to join the domain giving the rhevadmin user it succeeds, so it seems to me it is ok.

 

BTW: in general tab of vm in linux webadmin it says

Template: Blank

even if it was created from a template named w7template

 

A bug to report for webadmin portal tech preview: when you open once a spice console for a vm and then shutdown the vm, you are then not able to open another spice console for it (no icon appears any more). Quick logout/login fixes it as a workaround...

 

Thanks in advance,

Gianluca

GC
Log in to join the conversation

Responses

GC Active Contributor 247 points
27 February 2012 11:34 AM

Reading again 7.1.1 paragraph, it contains this:

 

Before beginning the Sysprep process to prepare a virtual machine to be used as a template, ensure that the following settings have been configured:
• The Windows Sysprep parameters have been correctly defined. If not, click Edit VM and enter the required information in the Operating System and Domain fields.

 

Is it true? I thought that the domain part was a part regarding vm creation, not template preparation. So that the parameter in sysprep file would be fille d in based on vm definition.....

Or do I have to set only one AD domain to use with sysprep through rhevm-config as in 2.2?
 

Dh Pro 654 points
28 January 2013 4:41 PM

I've been trying to get this working since early versions of RHEV 3.0 . Finally spent some time on it and turns out that there are several issues keeping the Windows Setup from behaving:

(a) In a pool configuration, I don't think that the floppy drive gets mounted on machines started afresh. This is true even if the machine was sysprep-ed and templated with the sysprep floppy mounted. Pointing the UnattendFile path to a network location might be a better idea.

(b) The sysprep template file itself is not properly constructed. Moving TimeZone to oobeSystem gets reflected immediately in subsequent testing - when Windows Setup doesn't ask for the Time Zone setting anymore. Tests conducted using a sysprep-ed image and Run Once with the sysprep floppy mounted, UnattendFile pointing to a:\sysprep.inf .

Other worry is that this only works with Generalize ticked in sysprep. That takes an awful lot of time for Windows to prepare itself upon first boot - which is always true for a virtual machine belonging to a pool.

A sample sysprep.w7 file, which I created using the Microsoft AIK tool and somewhat works for me, can be found here: http://pastebin.com/0i6dQF3p . Haven't included the Product Key section in that though.