Make Bare Metal to Win2003/2008 Jobs Faster, and Compatible with More Hardware Under Deployment Solution for Dell Servers 3.1

Deployment Solution for Dell Servers 3.1 has introduced support for Bare Metal to Windows Server 2008 scripted installs via WinPE. This article will show you how to speed up this job by utilizing the Linux environment in the hardware configuration phase, which also has the benefit of giving you a wider range of hardware you can configure.

The Basic Steps of Bare Metal to OS

Bare Metal to OS is one of the most powerful features of Deployment Solution for Dell Servers. The individual steps involved in this process is most easily seen by interacting with the job builder.

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Each item in the list presented by the job builder is a step of the bare metal install process. When an item is checked and "Build Job" is clicked, you can name this new job, and generate it for use in the linux or winpe preboot environment.

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The Pros and Cons of Each Preboot Environment

Each preboot environment has it's own pros and cons:

With this knowledge of each environment's pros and cons we can easily construct hybrid jobs using the job builder. This will expand the scope of Dell Hardware we can use and make our jobs run faster.

SCSI Controller Support

Before we go further, we should probably mention which SCSI controllers are supported by each environment. This can be found by consulting the Dell DTK documentation available from the Tools->Dell Help->Dell DTK - User's Guide in the Dell Console. For convenience, the list is below with highlighted controllers only configurable in the linux preboot:

• PERC 3/DC, PERC 3/QC, PERC 3/SC
• PERC 4/SC, PERC 4/DC, PERC 4/Di, PERC 4/IM
• PERC 4e/DC, PERC 4e/Di, PERC 4e/Si
• PERC 5/E Adapter, PERC 5/I Integrated, PERC 5/i Adapter
• CERC SATA 1.5/6-Channel (CH), CERC SATA 1.5/2S, and PERC 3/Di (These controllers are supported in Linux only.)
• SAS 5iR Integrated, SAS 5iR Adapter 118 RAIDCFG
• SAS 6iR Integrated, SAS 6iR Adapter
• PERC 6/E Adapter, PERC 6/i Integrated, PERC 6/i Adapter

Building Hybrid Jobs

Since all controllers that are supported in WinPE are supported in Linux, building Bare Metal to OS hybrid job is pretty much a no-brainer. We can simply do all steps in the Linux preboot and leave the last step ("Scripted OS Install") to WinPE if we are installing Windows 2003 64bit, or Windows 2008.

The only pre-requisite beyond having Deployment Solution for Dell Servers installed, is making sure you have installed support for both the Linux and WinPE preboot. If you have only installed support for one or the other, launch the Configuration Wizard ( Tools->Dell Tools->Configuration Wizard), and go to page 3.

Example: Suppose you have a Dell PowerEdge 2900 and you want to perform a Bare Metal to OS deployment of Windows Server 2003 64-bit. Perform the following steps:

1. Launch the Job Builder, and check all items in the list exception "Scripted OS Install". For each item you check, make sure you select your desired configuration options.
   
   

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2. Press "Build Job", name the job, and only check the "Linux", since this will be the "Linux" portion of the Bare Metal to OS.
   
   

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3. Press "OK" and watch for the job to appear in the "Job Builder" folder within the linux jobs folder.
4. Uncheck all the items in the job builder, then check only "Scripted OS Install" making sure to select Windows Server 2008 as the OS to install.
5. Click "Build Job". It isn't important to name the job anything significant because we will be deleting it soon. Just make sure to check only "WinPE" as the preboot.
   
   

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6. Click "OK" and watch for the job to appear in the Job Builder folder within the WinPE jobs folder.
7. Once the WinPE job has appeared, click it and select all the tasks and press ctrl + c, to copy them.
   
   

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8. Next, navigate to the job you just created in the linux job builder folder, and paste those tasks at the end. You may delete the WinPE job.

You're Done! This hybrid job will perform all the Dell hardware configuration tasks including the clearing of the hard disks in linux preboot, and will only boot into WinPE for the last step.