Hello! I have setup av virtual Windows Server 2008 R2 which I would like to use as a golden template for deployment. I have come so far that I have installed WAIK on my Windows 7 client PC, but there I am kind of stuck. I have added the image and chosen Win 2k8R2 standard. But the choices in components are immense, and I was just wondering if there is another choice? The server is now set up with latest updates, firewall, antivirus, drivers and so on. I would love the xml file to just insert the serial (do I really need that, I already did), and join my domain. How do I do that in easiest way possible?

The WAIK tools are a not so good start actually. These tools are essential when doing deployments but they are not user friendly. Therefore Microsoft has created the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) which is a solution built to ease the deployment of not only clients but also servers. There are built in templates that you can use to easily add and customize your servers during deployment. It is for example possible to fully automatically deploy a Server 2008(R2) making it a DC (new one or addtional one in an existing domain) etc. Easily put, MDT is a GUI for the WAIK tools. Download from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=25175 and please do not hesitate to ask additonal information in the MDT forum at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/mdt/threads Blogging about Windows for IT pros at www.theexperienceblog.com

Soooo. DeploymentWorkbench is much easier and better? Was kind of hard to know where to start. I have done some adjustments on the server I have set up. Do I sysprep it, and how do I capture the wim-file from it? God I look forward to the weekend!

This is supposed to be a wmvare vsphere template by the way. I have set up a server, downloaded upgrades, installed some apps, done some adjustments. What I was additionally thinking was: 1 Golden Template for regular servers. 1 Golden Template for terminal servers. Is that a good idea or a horrible terrible idea? But how do I capture my server? I was thinking about sysprepping it, and using unattend.xml file -> Golden template.

Yep, Deployment Workbench is really easy compared to inventing the wheel again :) You can build but also capture images basically from Deployment Workbench. That means you do not have to worry about sysprepping or having an unattended.xml file, this is done automatically. In deployment workbench there are templates for various scenarios, for example Standard server task seqeunce which is used to install a server edition. You also have sysprep and capture which will run sysprep and capture it to an image for you.Blogging about Windows for IT pros at www.theexperienceblog.com

How do I capture my virtual server? I have installed MTD on my local computer, and wishes to capture my virtual server to use as a golden template on vmware. How do I do that? Thanks for the help so far.!

Hi, I suggest discussing this issue in our MDT forum: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/mdt/threads Tim Quan

I ended up with sysprepping and creating a template in vmware environment. Seems to be working ok. Thanks for the help lads and ladderettes!