Rollout W2K on non-identical hardware...

[Anonymous]

OK, so I just suffered through an aborted rollout of W2k on dissimilar
hardware. Created master disk image on CPQ Deskpro EN SFF PIII/933
w/NVIDIA TNT PRO video chipset. Attempting restore on machines w/ATI
Rage Pro chipset. Safemode and VGA mode refuse to boot. RestoreConsole
lets me disable services at boot; started w/AGP440.sys and escalated
from there to darn near every boot-time service in attempt to get this
machine to boot the GUI.

I now know more about sysprep.exe and ERD issues than I ever wanted to.
Are mass Windows 2000 PRO rollouts best attempted *only* on all
identical hardware? It seems like the sysprep -pnp option is not
forcing the hardware rescan at the right time. I can live with creating
multiple install images for the OS, but is it possible to salvage the
current master image without reworking/reinstalling all the
applications?

We are putting off the W2k rollout until all the machines can be
booted. The mix of chipsets is unavoidable until next year when all
the equipment goes off lease and I can finally standardize all equipment
to one model line. Aiieeee!!

Stop it!!! You are driving me *mad*!!

Anyone care to lend hindsight advice to a mass W2K setup? (and ditching
all the current equipement for new, standard stuff is not an option )

--
Mark Evinger
MIS Manager
Cowhey Gudmundson Leder, Ltd.
website: http://www.cgl-ltd.com

[Anonymous]

Mark,

I've used sysprep and RIS (Remote Installation Services) on my Win2K network
extensively, with varying degrees of success.

In general, if the video or disk subsystems are different, I do automated
installs from either a network source or (more preferably) from a CD. For
automating CD installs, check out the deploy.cab file for info on automating
installs using a winnt.sif file.

The reason I prefer CD over a network resource is that I can reformat and
repartition the hard disk only by using the CD/winnt.sif option. As long as the
source CD has SP2 on it, and is bootable, you're golden. You can create a Win2K
SP2 bootable CD-ROM by "slipstreaming" SP2 onto a HD copy of the original /i386
folder, then burn it to CD. Use the info here:

http://www.thetechguide.com/win2kbootcd/

Because Win2K has much better hardware support out of the box, I tend to let the
install routing work out the details. At the very least it will boot and you'll
have a decent VGA screen to work with. The ATI Rage Pro chipset may or may not
have intrinsic Win2K support (I think it came out after Win2K did).

One thing to do would be to use the VGA drivers when making the initial master
image, which should take that out of the equation.

I have several master images here, but because our hardware is pretty similar I
can use RIS to recreate a new workstation if required, pretty quickly. However,
because of all of the latest service packs for the application solftware, I
still have to spend quite a bit of time tweaking the machines to bringt hem up
to speed.

In the end, I don't think it's worth it, because of the overhead in setting up
RIS/sysprep images and having to maintain those images with constant software
updates.

Matt
mstachoni@comcast.net
mstachoni@beyerdesign.com



On Sun, 14 Apr 2002 22:03:15 -0700, Mark Evinger
wrote:

>OK, so I just suffered through an aborted rollout of W2k on dissimilar
>hardware. Created master disk image on CPQ Deskpro EN SFF PIII/933
>w/NVIDIA TNT PRO video chipset. Attempting restore on machines w/ATI
>Rage Pro chipset. Safemode and VGA mode refuse to boot. RestoreConsole
>lets me disable services at boot; started w/AGP440.sys and escalated
>from there to darn near every boot-time service in attempt to get this
>machine to boot the GUI.
>
>I now know more about sysprep.exe and ERD issues than I ever wanted to.
>Are mass Windows 2000 PRO rollouts best attempted *only* on all
>identical hardware? It seems like the sysprep -pnp option is not
>forcing the hardware rescan at the right time. I can live with creating
>multiple install images for the OS, but is it possible to salvage the
>current master image without reworking/reinstalling all the
>applications?
>
>We are putting off the W2k rollout until all the machines can be
>booted. The mix of chipsets is unavoidable until next year when all
>the equipment goes off lease and I can finally standardize all equipment
>to one model line. Aiieeee!!
>
> Stop it!!! You are driving me *mad*!!
>
>Anyone care to lend hindsight advice to a mass W2K setup? (and ditching
>all the current equipement for new, standard stuff is not an option )

[Anonymous]

Matt: Thanks for the comments. I am using ImageCast v4.6 to pull a disk image down
from a Quantum SnapServer. The idea was to pre-configure the workstation w/all
applications then send it out over the network. ImgageCast supports this in Win2K
with use of a GUI front-end to sysprep. Only failing there was you can't specify
command options for the sysprep.exe.

I will try this process setting the video mode to VGA. The OS will download and
install, NTFS will expand or contract to match disc size but the stuff will not
complete the W2K boot sequence. Progress bar quits 3 from the end, usually at
AGP440.sys (part of the Intel 815e/NVIDIA chipset software bridging). VGA mode may
be the trick to work around that problem....

Bootable CD's may work for OS installation, but most of the downgraded desktops here
don't have a CDROM drive 😞 I *told* management that we should
standardize on one set of hardware. Next year for sure.

Thanks again!

Mark Evinger

Matt Stachoni wrote:

> Mark,
>
> I've used sysprep and RIS (Remote Installation Services) on my Win2K network
> extensively, with varying degrees of success.
>
> In general, if the video or disk subsystems are different, I do automated
> installs from either a network source or (more preferably) from a CD. For
> automating CD installs, check out the deploy.cab file for info on automating
> installs using a winnt.sif file.
>
> The reason I prefer CD over a network resource is that I can reformat and
> repartition the hard disk only by using the CD/winnt.sif option. As long as the
> source CD has SP2 on it, and is bootable, you're golden. You can create a Win2K
> SP2 bootable CD-ROM by "slipstreaming" SP2 onto a HD copy of the original /i386
> folder, then burn it to CD. Use the info here:
>
> http://www.thetechguide.com/win2kbootcd/
>
> Because Win2K has much better hardware support out of the box, I tend to let the
> install routing work out the details. At the very least it will boot and you'll
> have a decent VGA screen to work with. The ATI Rage Pro chipset may or may not
> have intrinsic Win2K support (I think it came out after Win2K did).
>
> One thing to do would be to use the VGA drivers when making the initial master
> image, which should take that out of the equation.
>
> I have several master images here, but because our hardware is pretty similar I
> can use RIS to recreate a new workstation if required, pretty quickly. However,
> because of all of the latest service packs for the application solftware, I
> still have to spend quite a bit of time tweaking the machines to bringt hem up
> to speed.
>
> In the end, I don't think it's worth it, because of the overhead in setting up
> RIS/sysprep images and having to maintain those images with constant software
> updates.
>
> Matt
> mstachoni@comcast.net
> mstachoni@beyerdesign.com

[Anonymous]

I've done similar setups using Norton Ghost Enterprise Edition. I've been lucky,
most stuff has been standardized enough (e.g., Intel 440BX chipsets, ACPI
enabled,

>I will try this process setting the video mode to VGA. The OS will download and
>install, NTFS will expand or contract to match disc size but the stuff will not
>complete the W2K boot sequence. Progress bar quits 3 from the end, usually at
>AGP440.sys (part of the Intel 815e/NVIDIA chipset software bridging). VGA mode may
>be the trick to work around that problem....

What chipsets are both motherboards running?

>Bootable CD's may work for OS installation, but most of the downgraded desktops here
>don't have a CDROM drive 😞 I *told* management that we should
>standardize on one set of hardware. Next year for sure.

If you cannot do bootable CD-ROMs (oops!) I suggest putting /i386 on a network
share, slipstreaming SP2, and using a DOS boot floppy to connect to the network
share and run the winnt.exe executable. That gives you a network based install
without worrying about the vagaries of system hardware.

Matt
mstachoni@comcast.net
mstachoni@beyerdesign.com

[Anonymous]

Hi Matt - some more banging of head against walls and a solution sort of
evolved. The master machines are CPQ PIII933 w/NVIDIA TNT PRO chipsets,
plus modern ACPI chipsets which list as "ACPI Uniprocessor Free" in
system hardware.

The older machines are CPQ Celeron 400, C466 and C500 units with AC'97
era ACPI chipsets and mix of ATI Rage PRO II and III video and the Intel
8xx series onboard video chips.

That was the non-boot issue, the ACPI versions (thus the HAL.dll and
NTOSKRNL.exe) were different. How to solve.... Scrounged up an old 8x
CDrom drive and added it to one of the C400 boxes. Booted from CPQ W2k
disc and installed W2kRPROSP2 over existing install. W2K now boots on
the C400 boxes. Sysprep the box and yank hard drive (easy because of
tools-free small form factor design in Compaq DeskproEN SFF) and pop HDD
into one of C500 with Intel 810 video chipsets. Machine boots OK, W2k
finds and installs correct driver set for Intel video.

Put HDD back in C400 w/ATI chipset and wonder "How am I gonna get all
the software settings from the good master to the newly installed C400
box?". Find AlohaBob on google search. $50 and 14MB download later,
AlhoaBob has created duplicate of systems and application settings from
master to old box. Novell Client32 did not come across seamlessly, no
issue because install base was already on HDD. I need to tweak the path
settings for Land Desktop, and tweak a few more applications but by and
large, the old box is set up and mostly good to go as image master for
rest of old machines. Beats re-installing *every* application and
tweaking *every* setting again. Saved a couple of days anyway.

"Thank you Aloha Bob!!
Mai Tai's for all the newsgroup! Smiles everyone, Smiles!"


We run ImageCast instead of Ghost, was a better deal when purchased 1.5
years ago. Now the old IC3 client doesn't deal very well with some of
the files created by W2K (the %systemroot%\system32\SOFTWARE file to be
specific) and we will probably upgrade to v4.6 of ImageCast. Cost is
still a little less than Ghost for number of clients we would need. I
have a trial copy of Ghost 7.5 though, and may test it out to compare
performance speeds over 100MB network. Good news is I can get away with
only 2 master images, Fast and Slow computers. This time next year the
entire office goes on single lease of one machine style. That will
simplify life even further - one image, one machine type, one boot
floppy, etc.

Thanks for the link on how to create bootable CD w/slipstreamed SP2.
Most informative, and duly bookmarked for future reference. All kinds
of good tips on that site, how folks find the time to dig out that
information is beyond me.

Matt Stachoni wrote:
>
> I've done similar setups using Norton Ghost Enterprise Edition. I've been lucky,
> most stuff has been standardized enough (e.g., Intel 440BX chipsets, ACPI
> enabled,
>
> >I will try this process setting the video mode to VGA. The OS will download and
> >install, NTFS will expand or contract to match disc size but the stuff will not
> >complete the W2K boot sequence. Progress bar quits 3 from the end, usually at
> >AGP440.sys (part of the Intel 815e/NVIDIA chipset software bridging). VGA mode may
> >be the trick to work around that problem....
>
> What chipsets are both motherboards running?
>
> >Bootable CD's may work for OS installation, but most of the downgraded desktops here
> >don't have a CDROM drive 😞 I *told* management that we should
> >standardize on one set of hardware. Next year for sure.
>
> If you cannot do bootable CD-ROMs (oops!) I suggest putting /i386 on a network
> share, slipstreaming SP2, and using a DOS boot floppy to connect to the network
> share and run the winnt.exe executable. That gives you a network based install
> without worrying about the vagaries of system hardware.
>
> Matt
> mstachoni@comcast.net
> mstachoni@beyerdesign.com

--
Mark Evinger
MIS Manager
Cowhey Gudmundson Leder, Ltd.
website: http://www.cgl-ltd.com

[Anonymous]

Mark,

Glad to see you've solved your problem. Thanks for the heads up on AlohaBob -
I'll check out the product!

On Tue, 16 Apr 2002 22:07:04 -0700, Mark Evinger
wrote:

>Hi Matt - some more banging of head against walls and a solution sort of
>evolved. The master machines are CPQ PIII933 w/NVIDIA TNT PRO chipsets,
>plus modern ACPI chipsets which list as "ACPI Uniprocessor Free" in
>system hardware.



Matt
mstachoni@comcast.net
mstachoni@beyerdesign.com