How to identify, to create, and to deploy an OEM diagnostic partition by using Automated Deployment Services in Windows Server 2003 (875418)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition

SUMMARY

Administrators can build and manage very large deployments of Microsoft Windows-based servers by using Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Automated Deployment Services (ADS). ADS includes a new set of imaging tools and a new infrastructure to quickly deploy Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows 2000 Server.

To quickly and efficiently deploy an operating system and programs to a computer, ADS uses new imaging technology from Microsoft. The imaging process is straightforward. You can use this process to capture and to deploy complete operating system and application bundles to one computer or to many computers at the same time.

Some original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) include a diagnostic partition that is installed from media that they provide. The diagnostic partition may also be named the OEM partition, or the Eisa partition. If you use ADS to deploy an image to a computer that requires a diagnostic partition, you may want to capture and to deploy the diagnostic partition together with your system partition.

This step-by-step article describes how to use ADS imaging to capture and to deploy a diagnostic partition. You must be familiar with the image-capture process in ADS to complete this procedure.

IN THIS TASK

INTRODUCTION

This article describes how to identify, to create, and to deploy OEM partitions by using ADS in Windows Server 2003.

To obtain Automated Deployment Services 1.0, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/overview/adsbenefits.mspx

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Install the OEM diagnostic partition

Install the OEM diagnostic partition on the computer that you will capture the image from. To install the OEM diagnostic partition, you must follow the instructions that are supplied by the OEM of the computer. Typically, the OEM supplies these instructions together with the installation files on the installation media. If you cannot locate the OEM diagnostic partition installation instructions, contact the OEM of your computer.

For information about how to contact computer manufacturers, click the appropriate article number in the following list to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

65416 Hardware and software vendor contact information, A-K

60781 Hardware and software vendor contact information, L-P

60782 Hardware and software vendor contact information, Q-Z

Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information.

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Identify the type of OEM diagnostic partition on your computer

The type of OEM diagnostic partition may not be the same for all OEM diagnostic partitions. Additionally, the type of OEM diagnostic partition may be different for each OEM. Typically, the OEM diagnostic partition has all the following properties:
  • It is a hidden partition.
  • It is a small partition.
  • It is located at the beginning of the first hard disk.
  • It is a non-active partition.
To identify the type of OEM diagnostic partition on your computer, follow these steps:
  1. If the OEM diagnostic partition has not been installed by the manufacturer of your computer, install the OEM diagnostic partition from the OEM installation media on the master destination device computer. The master destination device computer is also known as the "Golden image" computer. The Golden image computer is the computer that you want to capture the image from.
  2. On the Controller computer, run the Boot-to-da.xml template to start the master destination device to the Deployment Agent (DA). To do this, follow these steps.

    Note These steps assume that you have already created and taken control of the device.
    1. In the ADS Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in, click Devices, right-click your master destination device computer in the right pane, and then click Properties.
    2. In the Default job template list, click boot-to-da, and then click OK.
    3. Start or restart the master destination device computer.
    4. Select the option to start the master destination device computer from the network if you receive a message to do this.
  3. On the master destination device computer, run a job that includes the bmpart.exe -g command. To do this, follow these steps:
    1. In the ADS MMC snap-in, click Devices, right-click your master destination device in the right pane, and then click Run job.
    2. Click Next, click Create a one-time job, and then click Next.
    3. In the Description box, type Bmpart job, and then click Next.
    4. Click Internal command, and then click Next.
    5. In the Internal command list, click /bmonitor/bmpart.exe.
    6. In the Parameters (optional) box, type \device\harddisk0\partition1 -g, and then click Next.
    7. Click Finish. When you receive the following message, click OK: Created Job(s)n
    For additional information about the Bmpart.exe command, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

    http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/WindowsServ/2003/all/ADS/en-us/cmd_bmpart.asp

  4. Click History, and then double-click the job that you created. The results on the Output tab in the Job Details dialog box appear similar to the following: 
    Job History log
Job #.........: 5
Description...: New Sequence
Status........: Succeeded
Destination...: MAC01063B0504B6
Command.......: 
Parameters....: 
Exit Code.....: 0
Owner.........: Administrator
Start.........: 6/10/2003 10:00:00 AM
End...........: 6/10/2003 10:00:01 AM 
Output: 
Errors: 
Job #.........: 6
Description...: Partition Disk
Status........: Succeeded
Destination...: MAC01265B0414B0
Command.......: /BMONITOR/bmpart.exe
Parameters....: \device\harddisk0\partition0 -g 
Exit Code.....: 0
Owner.........: Administrator
Start.........: 6/19/2003 10:20:00 AM
End...........: 6/19/2003 10:20:01 AM 
Output:
Disk Geometry for [\Device\Harddisk0] : 
Cylinders ............: 4405 
Media Type ...........: 12 
Tracks Per Cylinder ..: 255 
Sectors Per Track ....: 63 
Bytes Per Sector .....: 512 
Signature ............: 4172189164 
Partition Style ......: MBR 
Partition Information for [\Device\Harddisk0\Partition1] : 
Hidden Sectors .......: 63 
Starting Offset ......: 32256 
Partition Length .....: 32868864 (31 MB) 
Partition Type .......: 222 (Unknown partition type)    
Partition Bootable ...: FALSE 
Recognized Partition .: TRUE 
Partition Information has not changed. 
Partition Information for [\Device\Harddisk0\Partition2] : 
Hidden Sectors .......: 64260 
Starting Offset ......: 32901120 
Partition Length .....: 4293596160 (4094 MB) 
Partition Type .......: 7 (PARTITION_IFS) 
Partition Bootable ...: TRUE 
Recognized Partition .: TRUE
When you view the log file information, notice the partition type for the first partition. For example, in this log file, the following partition type appears:

Partition Type .......: 222 (Unknown partition type)

This partition information is in decimal format. You must convert this information to hexadecimal format when you create or modify the XML task sequence that you use to create the OEM diagnostic partition.
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Capture the OEM diagnostic partition

To use ADS to capture the OEM diagnostic partition, use one of the following methods.

Method one

  1. Use the Boot-to-da.xml template to start the master destination device computer to the DA.
  2. On the Controller computer, run a task sequence that uses the imgbmdeploy.exe command to capture the partition.
Because the OEM diagnostic partition is not a system partition, you do not have to run the Sysprep program on the partition before you create the image.

When you run a task sequence remotely from the Controller computer, the image file is added to the ADS image store. The image file will be available for use after the image capture has completed.

Note To monitor the image capture process, start Task Manager, and then click the Networking tab. When the Local Area Connection usage level returns to its typical values, click the Performance tab. On the Performance tab, monitor the CPU Usage History until the compression process has completed.

Method two

Use the Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) or another 32-bit operating system to run the Imgdeploy.exe command to capture the OEM partition. When you use a 32-bit operating system, you can use some of the increased functionality in the Imgdeploy.exe command. To use the Imgdeploy.exe command, you must have the following files from an ADS computer:
  • Imgdeploy.exe
  • ADSsupport.dll
  • Imglib.dll
If you capture the image by using this method, you must add the image file to the ADS image store. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. In the ADS MMC snap-in, click Images.
  2. On the Action menu, click Add Image.
  3. In the Path to image file box, type the path of your image file.
  4. In the Image name box, type a descriptive name for the image, and then click OK.
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Deploy the image of the OEM diagnostic partition

When images of both the OEM diagnostic partition and your system partition are available in your image store, you can deploy these images to the destination computer. In this scenario, you may want to deploy a system partition that contains an operating system that requires that you run the Sysprep program.

The following XML task sequence creates two partitions and deploys the two images. In this example, the OEM diagnostic partition is named OEM-DIAG, and the system partitions image is named Win2k3Adv-8G Sample. 
<sequence version="1" description="Deploy OS n OEM Part" command="" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ads/2003/sequence" >
<task description="Partition Disk" doesReboot="false" >
<command>/BMONITOR/bmpart.exe</command>
<parameters>
<parameter>\device\harddisk0\partition0</parameter>
<!--Notice that only ONE init parameter is required, even though the second partition command is also creating a partition.-->
<parameter>-init</parameter>
<parameter>-t:0xDE</parameter>  
<parameter>-c:36</parameter>
</parameters>
</task>
<task description="Partition Disk" doesReboot="false" >
<command>/BMONITOR/bmpart.exe</command>
<parameters>
<parameter>\device\harddisk0\partition0</parameter>
<parameter>-c</parameter>
<parameter>-a</parameter>
</parameters>
</task>
<task description="Imaging" doesReboot="false" >
<command>/IMAGING/imgbmdeploy.exe</command>
<parameters>
<parameter>" OEM-DIAG "</parameter>
<parameter>\device\harddisk0\partition1</parameter>
<parameter>-r</parameter>
<parameter>-client</parameter>
</parameters>
</task>
<task description="Imaging" doesReboot="false" >
<command>/IMAGING/imgbmdeploy.exe</command>
<parameters>
<parameter>" Win2k3Adv-8G "</parameter>
<parameter>\device\harddisk0\partition2</parameter>
<parameter>-r</parameter>
<parameter>-client</parameter>
</parameters>
</task>
<task description="Reboot Computer" doesReboot="true" >
<command>/BMONITOR/reboot</command>
</task>
<task description="Boot Harddisk" doesReboot="false" >
<command>/PXE/boot-hd</command>
</task>
</sequence>
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REFERENCES

For more information about ADS, including detailed samples and exercises, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/management/ads/default.mspx

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Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:12/3/2004
Keywords:kbhowto kbinfo KB875418 kbAudITPRO
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