Advanced RIS Management

EDITOR'S NOTE: Portions of the following article were adapted from Sean Daily and Darren Mar-Elia's The Definitive Guide to Windows 2000 Administration (Realtimepublishers.com).

In "Understanding Remote Installation Services," February 2001, I explained the basic steps involved in setting up Microsoft Remote Installation Services (RIS) servers and clients and performing essential RIS management tasks such as adding servers and images. However, to get the most from RIS, you must go beyond these basic management activities and customize your RIS deployments. Fortunately, Microsoft provides several ways for you to customize your RIS deployments.

Managing RIS Answer Files
Each Windows 2000 deployment technology can each stand on its own, but these technologies are more useful when you put them together. For example, RIS can use unattended setup answer files to create automated installations. Answer files are text files associated with typical Win2K installations (i.e., winnt or winnt32 Setup-based installations) that use the /U:answerfile parameter. An answer file, which you can create manually or by using the Win2K Setup Manager utility (i.e., setupmgr.exe in the \support\tools folder of the Win2K CD-ROM), automates a Win2K installation by answering questions that Win2K Setup asks during installation. You can use answer files for more than standard Win2K installations. RIS can automatically create an answer file for each new image you place on the server.

By default, Win2K names the answer file for each RIS image ristndrd.sif, and each RIS answer file has a format similar to standard unattended setup answer files. (For more information about answer files and unattended installations, see "Related Articles in Previous Issues.") The ristndrd.sif file for a RIS image is in the \i386\templates subfolder of the image's main folder. For example, if a RIS image folder is on the server's D drive in an image folder called win2000.pro, the image's ristndrd.sif file would be in a folder called \remoteinstall\setup\english\images\win2000.pro\i386\templates.

To customize your RIS installation, you can modify ristndrd.sif or create additional RIS answer files. You can also use the Win2K Setup Manager utility to customize RIS answer files. One of the utility's first dialog boxes asks which type of unattended setup answer file you're creating, and, as Figure 1 shows, offers Remote Installation Services as a choice. If you want to use Setup Manager to customize a RIS answer file, selecting this option is important because a RIS answer file contains settings that aren't in other answer file types. If you decide to manually create a RIS answer file, make sure that the file contains the following settings (you need to use the exact capitalization that the example shows):

[data]
floppyless = "1"
msdosinitiated = "1"
OriSrc = \\%SERVERNAME%\RemInst%INSTALLPATH%\%MACHINETYPE%
OriTyp = "4"
LocalSourceOnCD = 1
[SetupData]
OsLoadOptions = "/noguiboot /fastdetect"
SetupSourceDevice = "\DeviceLanmanRedirector\%SERVERNAME%RemInst\%INSTALLPATH%"

After you've created your customized answer file, you need to associate the file with a RIS image. The following process walks you through how to do so:

1. Run the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in on a RIS server.
2. In the left pane, right-click the RIS server that contains the image for which you're associating an answer file, and select Properties.
3. On the Remote Install tab of the Properties dialog box, click Advanced Settings.
4. On the resulting Images tab, click Add to launch the Add Image Wizard.
5. Select the Associate a new answer file to an existing image option, as Figure 2 shows, and click Next.
6. The next dialog box lets you select the source location of the answer file, which can be a Windows image sample answer file or a file on another RIS server or in an alternative location. Select the location and answer file, and click Next.
7. The wizard will display a list of images that are on the RIS server. From the list, select the image you want to associate with the answer file, and click Next.
8. In the resulting dialog box, enter a descriptive name for the image and answer file combination, and click Next.
9. The final dialog box lets you review and confirm your previously selected settings. If you're satisfied with your settings, click Finish.

This process adds a new image selection to the menu of RIS images on the server and copies the selected answer file to the image's \i386\templates subfolder.