I haven’t written a blog in a while, been busy with the new job at Tanium, but I did write this script recently, and thought I would share, in case anyone else found it interesting. Share it forwards.
Problem
Been working on solutions to upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10 using Tanium as the delivery platform (it’s pretty awesome if I do say so my self). But as with all solutions, I need to test the system with some end to end tests.
As with most of my OS Deployment work, the Code was easy, the testing is HARD!
So I needed to create some Windows 7 Images with the latest Updates. MDT to the rescue! I created A MDT Deployment Share (thanks Ashish ;^), then created a Media Share to contain each Task Sequence. With some fancy CustomSettings.ini work and some PowerShell glue logic, I can now re-create the latest Windows 7 SP1 patched VHD and/or WIM file at moment’s notice.
Solution
First of all, you need a MDT Deployment Share, with a standard Build and Capture Task Sequence. A Build and Capture Task Sequence is just the standard Client.xml task sequence but we’ll override it to capture the image at the end.
In my case, I decided NOT to use MDT to capture the image into a WIM file at the end of the Task Sequence. Instead, I just have MDT perform the Sysprep and shut down. Then I can use PowerShell on the Host to perform the conversion from VHDX to WIM.
And when I say Host, I mean that all of my reference Images are built using Hyper-V, that way I don’t have any excess OEM driver junk, and I can spin up the process at any time.
In order to fully automate the process, for each MDT “Media” entry. I add the following line into the BootStrap.ini file:
SkipBDDWelcome=YES
and the following lines into my CustomSettings.ini file:
SKIPWIZARD=YES ; Skip Starting Wizards SKIPFINALSUMMARY=YES ; Skip Closing Wizards ComputerName=* ; Auto-Generate a random Computer Name DoCapture=SYSPREP ; Run SysPrep, but don't capture the WIM. FINISHACTION=SHUTDOWN ; Just Shutdown AdminPassword=P@ssw0rd ; Any Password TASKSEQUENCEID=ICS001 ; The ID for your TaskSequence (Upper Case)
Now it’s just a matter of building the LitetouchMedia.iso image, mounting to a Hyper-V Virtual Machine, and capturing the results.
Orchestrator
What I present here is the Powershell script used to orchestrate the creation of a VHDX file from a MDT Litetouch Media Build.
- The script will prompt for the location of your MDT Deployment Share. Or you can pass in as a command line argument.
- The script will open up the Deployment Share and enumerate through all Media Entries, Prompting you to select which one to use.
- For each Media Entry selected, the script will
- Force MDT to update the Media build (just to be sure)
- Create a New Virtual Machine (and blow away the old one)
- Create a New VHD file, and Mount into the Virtual Machine
- Mount the LitetouchMedia.iso file into the Virtual Machine
- Start the VM
- The script will wait for MDT to auto generate the build.
- Once Done, for each Media Entry Selected, the script will
- Dismount the VHDx
- Create a WIM file (Compression Type none)
- Auto Generate a cleaned VHDx file
Code
The code shows how to use Powershell to:
- Connect to an existing MDT Deployment Share
- Extract out Media information, and rebuild Media
- How to create a Virtual Machine and assign resources
- How to monitor a Virtual Machine
- How to capture and apply WIM images to VHDx virtual Disks
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| #Requires -RunAsAdministrator | |
| <# | |
| .Synopsis | |
| Auto create a VM from your MDT Deployment Media | |
| .DESCRIPTION | |
| Given an MDT Litetouch Deployment Share, this script will enumerate | |
| through all "Offline Media" shares, allow you to select one or more, | |
| and then auto-update and auto-create the Virtual Machine. | |
| Ideal to create base reference images (like Windows7). | |
| .NOTES | |
| IN Addition to the default settings for your CustomSettings.ini file, | |
| you should also have the following defined for each MEdia Share: | |
| SKIPWIZARD=YES ; Skip Starting Wizards | |
| SKIPFINALSUMMARY=YES ; Skip Closing Wizards | |
| ComputerName=* ; AUto-Generate a random computername | |
| DoCapture=SYSPREP ; Run SysPrep, but don't capture the WIM. | |
| FINISHACTION=SHUTDOWN ; Just Shutdown | |
| AdminPassword=P@ssw0rd ; Any Password | |
| TASKSEQUENCEID=ICS001 ; The ID for your TaskSequence (allCaps) | |
| Also requires https://github.com/keithga/DeploySharedLibrary powershell library | |
| #> | |
| [cmdletbinding()] | |
| param( | |
| [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] | |
| [string] $DeploymentShare = 'G:\Projects\DeploymentShares\DeploymentShare.Win7SP1', | |
| [int] $VMGeneration = 1, | |
| [int64] $MemoryStartupBytes = 4GB, | |
| [int64] $NewVHDSizeBytes = 120GB, | |
| [version]$VMVersion = '5.0.0.0', | |
| [int] $ProcessorCount = 4, | |
| [string] $ImageName = 'Windows 7 SP1', | |
| $VMSwitch, | |
| [switch] $SkipMediaRebuild | |
| ) | |
| Start-Transcript | |
| #region Initialize | |
| if ( -not ( get-command 'Convert-WIMtoVHD' ) ) { throw 'Missing https://github.com/keithga/DeploySharedLibrary' } | |
| # On most of my machines, at least one switch will be external to the internet. | |
| if ( -not $VMSwitch ) { $VMSwitch = get-vmswitch -SwitchType External | ? Name -NotLike 'Hyd-CorpNet' | Select-object -first 1 -ExpandProperty Name } | |
| if ( -not $VMSwitch ) { throw "missing Virtual Switch" } | |
| write-verbose $VHDPath | |
| write-verbose $VMSwitch | |
| #endregion | |
| #region Open MDT Deployment Share | |
| $MDTInstall = get-itemproperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Deployment 4' | % Install_dir | |
| if ( -not ( test-path "$MDTInstall\Bin\microsoftDeploymentToolkit.psd1" ) ) { throw "Missing MDT" } | |
| import-module -force "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit\Bin\microsoftDeploymentToolkit.psd1" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Verbose:$false | |
| new-PSDrive -Name "DS001" -PSProvider "MDTProvider" -Root $DeploymentShare -Description "MDT Deployment Share" -Verbose -Scope script | out-string | write-verbose | |
| $OfflineMedias = dir DS001:\Media | select-object -Property * | Out-GridView -OutputMode Multiple | |
| $OfflineMedias | out-string | Write-Verbose | |
| #endregion | |
| #region Create a VM for each Offline Media Entry and Start | |
| foreach ( $Media in $OfflineMedias ) { | |
| $Media | out-string | write-verbose | |
| $VMName = split-path $Media.Root -Leaf | |
| get-vm $VMName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | stop-vm -TurnOff -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | |
| get-vm $VMName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Remove-VM -Force | |
| $VHDPath = join-path ((get-vmhost).VirtualHardDiskPath) "$($VMName).vhdx" | |
| remove-item $VHDPath -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Force | out-null | |
| $ISOPath = "$($media.root)\$($Media.ISOName)" | |
| if (-not $SkipMediaRebuild) { | |
| write-verbose "Update Media $ISOPath" | |
| Update-MDTMedia $Media.PSPath.Substring($Media.PSProvider.ToString().length+2) | |
| } | |
| $NewVMHash = @{ | |
| Name = $VMName | |
| MemoryStartupBytes = $MemoryStartupBytes | |
| SwitchName = $VMSwitch | |
| Generation = $VMGeneration | |
| Version = $VMVersion | |
| NewVHDSizeBytes = $NewVHDSizeBytes | |
| NewVHDPath = $VHDPath | |
| } | |
| New-VM @NewVMHash -Force | |
| Add-VMDvdDrive -VMName $VMName -Path $ISOpath | |
| set-vm -Name $VMName -ProcessorCount $ProcessorCount | |
| start-vm -Name $VMName | |
| } | |
| #endregion | |
| #region Wait for process to finish, and extract VHDX | |
| foreach ( $Media in $OfflineMedias ) { | |
| $VMName = split-path $Media.Root -Leaf | |
| [datetime]::Now | write-verbose | |
| get-vm -vm $VMName <# -ComputerName $CaptureMachine #> | out-string | write-verbose | |
| while ( $x = get-vm -vm $VMName | where state -ne off ) { write-progress "$($x.Name) – Uptime: $($X.Uptime)" ; start-sleep 1 } | |
| $x | out-string | write-verbose | |
| [datetime]::Now | write-verbose | |
| start-sleep -Seconds 10 | |
| $VHDPath = join-path ((get-vmhost).VirtualHardDiskPath) "$($VMName).vhdx" | |
| dismount-vhd -path $VHDPath -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | |
| $WIMPath = join-path ((get-vmhost).VirtualHardDiskPath) "$($VMName).WIM" | |
| write-verbose "Convert-VHDToWIM -ImagePath '$WIMPath' -VHDFile '$VHDPath' -Name '$ImageName' -CompressionType None -Turbo -Force" | |
| Convert-VHDtoWIM -ImagePath $WIMPath -VHDFile $VHDPath -Name $ImageName -CompressionType None -Turbo -Force | |
| write-verbose "Convert-WIMtoVHD -ImagePath $WIMPath -VHDFile '$($VHDPath).Compressed.vhdx' -Name $ImageName -Generation $VMGeneration -SizeBytes $NewVHDSizeBytes -Turbo -Force" | |
| Convert-WIMtoVHD -ImagePath $WIMPath -VHDFile "$($VHDPath).Compressed.vhdx" -Name $ImageName -Generation $VMGeneration -SizeBytes $NewVHDSizeBytes -Turbo -Force | |
| } | |
| #endregion |
Notes
I’ve been struggling with how to create a MDT VHDx file with the smallest possible size. I tried tools like Optimize-Drive and sDelete.exe to clear out as much space as possible, but I’ve been disappointed with the results. So here I’m using a technique to Capture the VHDx file as a Volume to a WIM file (uncompressed for speed), and the apply the Capture back to a new VHDx file. That should ensure that no deleted files are transferred. Overall results are good:
Before: 19.5 GB VHDx file --> 7.4 GB compressed zip After: 13.5 GB VHDx file --> 5.6 GB compressed zip
Links
Gist: https://gist.github.com/keithga/21007d2aeb310a57f58392dfa0bdfcc2
https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/26139167/posts/2120718261
https://community.tanium.com/s/article/How-to-execute-a-Windows-10-upgrade-with-Tanium-Deploy-Setup
https://community.tanium.com/s/article/How-to-execute-a-Windows-10-upgrade-with-Tanium-Deploy-Setup
Keith's Consulting Blog 