Unattended Installs (mostly UDF)

S@N

Hey, I just used the setupmgr to create an answer file, which I removed from the sysprep folder and onto a floppy, I booted and everything worked ok. Cool.

This may seem... really... basic, but UDF's kinda baffle me a little.

I'd like to use one to deploy a large amount of PC's either over a network or manually.

A few questions, when you add computer names into a UDF how does the wizard assign a name? Does the user select name from a list?

Second, to use the answer file I used the sysprep tool, which required little intervention, however from what I can tell I need to use a command prompt to specify that I wish to use a UDF?

So far all attempts at making a bootdisk to enter these commands results in being unable to see either the CDROM, or the local disk, I can't see command prompt being useful in XP as it's just a shell from the OS.

Sorry to drivel on, I was wondering if anyone had any more info on this stuff, or links to some that I could take a look at, perhaps it's not as complex as I think?

This is kinda important to me as it's one part of the 70-270 that I'm unsure of, but it also affects my work

(if these kind of questions arn't allowed here, please let me know!)

Cheers.

jmoorse

S@N wrote:

Hey, I just used the setupmgr to create an answer file, which I removed from the sysprep folder and onto a floppy, I booted and everything worked ok. Cool.

This may seem... really... basic, but UDF's kinda baffle me a little.

I'd like to use one to deploy a large amount of PC's either over a network or manually.

A few questions, when you add computer names into a UDF how does the wizard assign a name? Does the user select name from a list?

Second, to use the answer file I used the sysprep tool, which required little intervention, however from what I can tell I need to use a command prompt to specify that I wish to use a UDF?

So far all attempts at making a bootdisk to enter these commands results in being unable to see either the CDROM, or the local disk, I can't see command prompt being useful in XP as it's just a shell from the OS.

Sorry to drivel on, I was wondering if anyone had any more info on this stuff, or links to some that I could take a look at, perhaps it's not as complex as I think?

This is kinda important to me as it's one part of the 70-270 that I'm unsure of, but it also affects my work

(if these kind of questions arn't allowed here, please let me know!)

Cheers.

I could never get this method to work in production either, bummer.

Although for my 270, all I needed to know was the syntax

dynamik

I'm off to bed, so I don't have time to get into this, but TE has a great XP installation guide: http://www.techexams.net/technotes/xp/installing.shtml

You'll probably be able to get a few pointers there.

And yes, you are allowed to ask these types of questions here. Welcome to the site

S@N

Hey there,

Well I stumbled upon this webset, and am truly grateful I did, it's awesome, I have read the guide you linked, but I have trouble understanding how it works?

Here's an example of a simple .udf file, which can be used in combination with the answer file above:

;SetupMgrTag
[UniqueIds]
1=UserData
2=UserData

[1:UserData]
ComputerName=xpclient1

[2:UserData]
ComputerName=xpclient2

I'm not sure how this relates to the answer file, also how many sets of UserData can you put in? Infinite? How does the wizard choose which computer name to assign?

Thanks for the welcome!

dynamik

This is from the deploy.chm that inside of deploy.cab (this in support\tools on the XP installation CD):

Microsoft wrote:

/udf:id[,UDB_file]

Indicates an identifier (id) that Setup uses to specify how a Uniqueness Database (UDB) file modifies an answer file (see the /unattend entry).
The UDB overrides values in the answer file, and the identifier determines which values in the UDB file are used. For example, /udf:RAS_user,Our_company.udb overrides settings specified for the RAS_user identifier in the Our_company.udb file. If no UDB_file is specified, Setup prompts the user to insert a disk that contains the $Unique$.udb file.

If you start the computer with the Windows product CD and run an unattended Setup, you cannot use the /udf command-line option for Winnt32.exe.

I think that answers a lot of your questions.