Lab manual is cool ch.1

Working on a book today, got a few new ones and i’m feeling inspired by them and also realizing there are a whole bunch of procedural things in lab manuals that I don’t know. I bought the 411 one and started realizing that it was useful and that I was kind of foolish not to get the one for the 410 and at least work through what I can in this format because its probably just as helpful as actually clicking through things on a server build. I realize for continuity’s sake I should probably keep going with the the 411 measureup questions but im kind of digging reading these books at the moment so Ill get back to those eventually but for now im going to work through two books while I await the arrival of another one then probably order the 410 lab manual to work through as well. I think this should get me my last 50 points for the 410 and then I can say im certified on server. Im not sure if I will go back and do a client cert after that to be more marketable in the sense of saying I have a current client and server cert or if I will try for the 411. I guess it depends on what my finances are looking like and what sort of chaos is going on my existance.

So this lab book has what they call “mindest questions” and lab questions so im just going to label both as such and type them out and find answers for the the best I can.

Mindset question: If you have a network infrastructure in place including a domain controller a DNS server and a DHCP server, what are the general steps that you need to perform more before you deploy windows using WDS (Note: why are they not talking about SCCM)?

Answer: First of all your probably going to be installing SCCM to use as a deployment tool so lets find a video about that. WDS still needs to be installed and configured but its still an important note. This TechNet article could also be useful in answering this question but the video is amazing. Glad I found this in the book and discovered this little gem.

Question 1.: What is the default path for the remote installation folder [for WDS]

Answer: I think if you were working through this on a server it would be obvious what the path was however Im not and I have to do some research which isnt always a bad thing So here it appears that we have to configure it but in some older info it looks like it comes preconfigured as C:\RemoteInstall. Without actually walking through this process im not sure but the paired technet resource is very helpful.

Question 2.: Why is the default location not recommended.

Answer: I have no clue this isn’t really listed anywhere and I cant find answers in this book. I would think that using a root directory in most cases would be less than ideal though.

Question 3.: What drive letter was the ISO file mounted to?

Answer: again doing my best with limited resources here but I have no way to find out this info unless there is a youtube tutorial with this lab

This video has nothing to do with the question at hand but it is something ive been looking for none the less, capturing a deployable image

Question 4.: What is the boot image based on?

Answer: The instructions say to browse to the sources folder instead of using a custom WIM file so I can only assume its just a standard install file. Is that what they are asking. It would be nice if there were answers but you know Im kind of into mysterious things and im usually ok at finding answers.

Mindset question: [this is moving into creating an answer file which ive come to question the current necessity of due to vary reasons] So far, you have installed and configured WDS However, right now, the WDS server will only allow you to install Windows remotely just as if you booted from the Windows Server 2012 installation disk What do you need to do to automate the installation?

Answer:I mean I think the answer is create an answer file however when watching vidoes of installs on Hyper-V using this tech it seems fairly automated as is.
Creating an answer file is still confusing to me becuase do I have to deploy it to each machine to a specific location and is there a tool that can do this automatically and how often does it actually work? It seems like a neat trick but im not sure of its viability.  This is helpful when walking through the next few questions.

Question: What are the two ways to create or modify an unattended XML file?

Answer: Check the previously linked TechNet article and it says Windows System Image Manager and this is using the Windows assessment and deployment
kit so im assuming those are the two ways to create an answer file? Again not 100% certain as this book has no answer key.

Mindset: You need to update a Windows Image with a critical patch. What are the general steps to add the patch to the Windows image?

Answer:The answer is outlined in steps but injecting drivers might be an important note here so let’s see if we can find both on youtube.

this one has just basic files and folders but its a helpful point of reference.

This is injecting drivers, hopefully its accurate.

this one is patching using DISM, this is actually really good.

Lab review questions

1. What program did you use to install WDS?
2. What two images did you have to add to the WDS server to handle the Windows installation?
3. What program did you use to create the unattend file?
4. What program should you use to verify a unattend file?
5. How was the Windows System image Manager installed?
6. What two places did you have to define an unattend file?
7. What program did you use to modify a Windows image?

So the answers to these kind of go beyond the book which is good becuase every thing is testable.

Lab review questions

1. Server manager?
2. It looks like its only using the serverstandard wim from a sources folder and it mentions a windows 8 file but im not sure its a bootable image.
3. There are two that you can use Windows ADK is what they are using and as previously mentioned Windows System Image Manager.
4. System image manager is what you use to validate the answer file.
5. Its part of winPE
6. In WDS (not sure how this applies to SCCM) is the only place that I can find
7. DISM

Thats it for chapter 1 hopefully tomorrow I can do chapter 2.