Creating an image in a Virtual Machine

[ignotiev]

First off, I thought this question would be better asked in the Operating Systems forum rather than the Windows Software forum. If I'm wrong, my bad.

I have 10 computers with identical hardware that I use in a computer lab and It's come time for me to re-image them. In the past, I've built a new image onto one of the computers, sysprepped it and then used PING (Part Image is Not Ghost) to deploy the image to the other computers.

However, this time I'd like to build the image inside a virtual machine first. This would make it easier to manage the image and it's variants and I wouldn't have to take one of the machines out of the lab to build the image. My problem is that I don't know how to build a virtual machine that mirrors the hardware properties of the real machine or even if this is possible.

My virtual machine experience is with VBox, but if there is a better program out there for this I'm willing to give it a try. I'm also aware that vmware makes a conversion program that can convert a physical machine's image to a virtual machine and I will start my experimentation with that.

The operating system that forms the basis of the image is Windows 7 Enterprise x64.

If anyone has any ideas on how to clone a real hardware environment into a virtual one or knows of some other way that I might create a centralized image in a virtualized environment, let me know!

Thanks.

 

[imagoon]

Windows 7 can be configured to check a driver store that is on a networked server. In the sysprep utility you are using you can add the driver store in one of the stages (from memory it might be stage 4? I don't have it front of me) from that you install the drivers for your hardware and the image on first boot will go out to the driver store and get the drivers. I do seriously recommend looking at the windows AIK as you can so really neat things with it that would make you not need a third party tool as long as you have 1 licensed 2008 (r2) server to use. There is a process to also inject drivers in to the WIM but I found that a bit clunky.

 

[ignotiev]

My main problem is that I don't have Windows Server and management has turned down my request for a copy. I've played around with WAIK and Windows Deployment Toolkit before, but I found them to be too technically challenging to master. I might try again if I don't find a suitable virtual solution.

 

[yinan]

Get a technet subscription and it is included. They are hard tools but they are good to know and learn. If you can demonstrate that you showed initiative and could demonstrate that would definitely be appreciated and you would look real good.

 

[imagoon]

My main problem is that I don't have Windows Server and management has turned down my request for a copy. I've played around with WAIK and Windows Deployment Toolkit before, but I found them to be too technically challenging to master. I might try again if I don't find a suitable virtual solution.

Give them a try, the time spent learning them will save you a ton of time later. You can use it to build a DVD that is preconfigured.