Automating Windows Server Deployment

tcerling · ‎03-02-2016

The amount of time wasted on setup, consistent configuration, and deployment of operating systems should not be ignored. Manual server operating system installation is a huge waste of resources and time, which translates into wasted money. Besides wasting time and money, manually performing these tasks is often prone to error, possibly resulting in production downtime or delayed implementations. Automation of the OS installation ensures a consistent, error-free installation that meets all the standards required by an organization.

The goal of this document is to provide you with the knowledge to enable you to create an environment that makes the deployment of Windows Server quick and easy. Key capabilities include:

Use of Cisco UCS PowerTool to access information from the Service Profile that can be used to tailor the installation.
A ‘portable’ deployment system – can be deployed on a laptop and used anywhere without any supporting infrastructure; just need network access to UCS Manager
Very tailorable – this document provides sample procedures that can be readily customized to varying environments
Tested with:
- Windows and Hyper-V Server 2012 R2
- Windows and Hyper-V Server 2016
- Windows Server 2016 Nano Server

Microsoft PowerShell is THE tool for automation of Windows tasks. It is stated within the Microsoft community that if you are not learning PowerShell, you are limiting your career options. Cisco recognizes PowerShell’s importance and has released modules (Cisco PowerTool) that can be added to PowerShell to manage both Cisco UCS and CIMC systems.

In the document, we focus on combining the automation capabilities of Windows PowerShell with Cisco UCS servers (although similar capabilities could be accomplished with Cisco IMC servers). Using configuration files and built-in capabilities of Microsoft tools, this document describes how the power of UCS Manager can be tapped to ‘on-the-fly’ tailor a Windows Server installation by reading information from the UCS Manager Service Profile of the server to which the operating system is being installed.

Though the samples provided can be used ‘as is’, you are encouraged to use your own imagination to augment what can be done. Even though these sample scripts have been tested in my environment, they should be tested in your lab environment before any release to production. Each individual is going to find other things that would benefit from automation. Give it a go! Once you start, you often find additional things you would like to automate.

No support or warranty is implied for the use of these scripts and procedures, but if you have any issues, feel free to post back here with questions. I will do what I can to help guide you.

Lastly, please return here to share with others what you have learned, ideas you have to improve this, or other automation scripts you have found useful.

wangkanai · ‎07-20-2017

Dear Timothy,

Right now need to deploy a cluster of Cisco UCS C240 M4 with Windows Nano Server 2016.

I see have a list example chipset drivers needed to add to winpe

Directory of E:\Share\Automation\Drivers\Intel-Chipset

39,638 Chipset.cat

14,634 Chipset_SMBus.inf

61,224 Chipset_System.inf

9,182 Chipset_Thermal.inf

6,618 Chipset_USB.inf

8,154 Chipset_Win78only.inf

I extract the intel chipset drivers and the following lists. which have a very difference structure then what you have propose. Could you please help highlight which one are needed.

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM avoton

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM broadwell-de

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM coletocreek

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM common

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM cougarpoint

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM crystalwell

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM denverton

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM haswell

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM haswelle

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM ivybridge

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM ivytown

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM jaketown

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM kabylake

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM knightslanding

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM lewisburg

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM lynxpoint

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM null_heci

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM pantherpoint

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM patsburg

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM skylake

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM skylake-e

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM sunrisepoint-h

d----- 7/21/2017 11:43 AM wellsburg

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\avoton

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103976 avoton.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 10127 AvotonSystem.inf

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 3035 AvotonUSB.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\broadwell-de

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103543 broadwell-de.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 47990 Broadwell-DESystem.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\coletocreek

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103541 coletocreek.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 3267 ColetoCreekSystem.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\common

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103531 common.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 3540 CommonSystem.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\cougarpoint

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103996 cougarpoint.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 10739 CougarPointSystem.inf

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 3284 CougarPointUSB.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\crystalwell

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103541 crystalwell.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 3756 CrystalwellSystem.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\denverton

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103992 denverton.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 3065 DenvertonPorts.inf

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 14854 DenvertonSystem.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\haswell

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103533 haswell.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 4349 HaswellSystem.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\haswelle

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103535 haswelle.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 40449 HaswellESystem.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\ivybridge

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103537 ivybridge.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 4773 IvyBridgeSystem.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\ivytown

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103533 ivytown.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 34963 IvyTownSystem.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\jaketown

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103535 jaketown.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 22360 JaketownSystem.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\kabylake

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103996 kabylake.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 5347 KabylakeSystem.inf

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 2924 KabylakeSystemGMM.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\knightslanding

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103547 knightslanding.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 14395 KnightsLandingSystem.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\lewisburg

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103988 lewisburg.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 18797 LewisburgSystem.inf

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 2959 LewisburgUSB.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\lynxpoint

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103537 lynxpoint.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 10749 LynxPointSystem.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\null_heci

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103537 null_heci.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 4287 NULL_HECISystem.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\pantherpoint

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103543 pantherpoint.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 11984 PantherPointSystem.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\patsburg

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103984 patsburg.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 9698 PatsburgSystem.inf

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 3265 PatsburgUSB.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\skylake

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103992 skylake.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 4620 SkylakeSystem.inf

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 2926 SkylakeSystemGMM.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\skylake-e

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103537 skylake-e.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 14617 Skylake-ESystem.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\sunrisepoint-h

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 104503 sunrisepoint-h.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 13945 SunrisePoint-HSystem.inf

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 5122 SunrisePoint-HSystemLPSS.inf

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 2914 SunrisePoint-HSystemThermal.inf

Directory: F:\Automation\Drivers\Chipset\intel\wellsburg

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:54 PM 103988 wellsburg.cat

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 14906 WellsburgSystem.inf

-a---- 8/3/2016 3:41 PM 3264 WellsburgUSB.inf

Thank you very much

Best regards,

Sarin Na Wangkanai