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How to Create Windows Images

Submitted by fapeeler on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 13:00

How to Create a VCL Windows Image: 

  1. Select "Reservation System" from the VCL home page
     
  2. Select "Manage Images" from the left navigation bar
     
  3. Select "Create / Update an Image" and then click Submit
     
  4. From the base image pull-down menu, select a base image to start with.  Examples:
    • No Apps (Windows XP)
      • "Bare-metal" Windows XP image with no specialized applications
      • Use this if you plan to install resource intensive applications
    • Windows 2003 Server (NCSU)
      • "Bare-metal" Windows 2003 server image with no specialized applications
      • Use this if you plan to install resource intensive applications or server based software
    • No Apps (WinXP vmware)
      • VMWare Windows XP image with no specialized applications
      • Use this if you plan to install applications with less stringent resource requirements
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (KickStart)
      • "Bare-metal" RHEL5 image with no specialized applications
         
  5. Select the Now under "When would you like to start the imaging process?" and click Submit

  6. The Current Reservations page will appear. If the image you have choosen is already preloaded, your wait time should be less than a minute.  If the image is not preloaded you may have to wait 10-20 minutes while the computer is being loaded.
     
  7. Click the Connect button on the Current Reservations page when it appears. The connection information will be displayed:
    • The remote VCL computer's IP address
    • The user ID you will use: Administrator
      Note: the user ID is always Administrator for Windows imaging reservations
    • A one-time password for the Administrator account
       
  8. Login using Remote Desktop Connection. You can either enter the connection information manually after launching the Remote Desktop Connection program or you can use a pre-configured RDP file:
    • Click the Get RDP File button
    • Save the RDP file to your computer
    • Double-click the RDP file to launch the Remote Desktop Connection program with the VCL connection information pre-configured

 

You have up to 8 hours to configure and save your image before the reservation expires and the node is wiped clean.
 

  1. Run Windows Update
     
  2. Reboots are OK.  It usually takes about 4-6 minutes for the computer to reboot before you can connect via RDP again
     
  3. Install your applications
    • Some suggestions/tips on loading software to the remote machine:
      • If you have access to enough AFS space, it may be easier to copy the software installation files in network filespace and access them from the remote machine through Wolfcall (J: drive).
         
      • Put media on a webserver and download on the remote node.
         
      • Another option that has worked, is to share the cdrom from a local windows workstation and mount the shared CDrom on the remote machine.
         
      • Remote Desktop Connection allows access to your local workstation drives, installing with this method typically does not work (IO is not fast enough for installer). Copying the media to the remote machine and then running the installer tends to work better, though it does take a while to copy.
         
      • Copy the media contents through SCP. If you have a personal machine with ssh server you can use this method. This would also work for ftp.
         
      • Upload the file to http://velocity.ncsu.edu and then download from the VCL image

         

    • Post install of software:
      • remove any copies of software media (needlessly takes up space in the image which increases the loading time for new reservations of the image)
         
      • make sure all wanted icons are in "All users" desktop.
         
      • Configure any application customizations
         
      • See this page on customizing the default profile to make changes to the default user profile
         
      • We have a simple vbs script that can be provided to you to check for AFS(K:) being mounted and start Wolfcall if needed before launching the application.
         

Save the Image

When you're done configuring the remote computer and are ready to save the image:

  1. Log off of the remote VCL computer
     
  2. From your own machine, return to the Current Reservations page on the VCL website
     
  3. Select Create Image
     
  4. Select Create New Image and then click Submit
     
  5. Enter an image name.  Something simple related to the applications you installed is fine. The image name is displayed when a user makes a reservation and can be changed later if needed.
     
  6. The minimum specs can be left at the defaults
     
  7. Confirm the image properties are correct
     

  8. Click Submit 

After about 20-25 minutes, you will receive an email saying your image ready for testing when the image creation process is done (occasionally, if there is a lot of software installed in the image or if the system is extremely busy, this can take as long as 90 minutes).

Grant access to use the image

Once you have tested that the image works correctly, access to use the image will need to be granted to other users. If you have the appropriate access, you can follow the instructions on granting access to new images. If you don't have access to everything mentioned there, you will need to contact your IT support to have it done.