Where I’m @

20040528

RIS Notes, II
Our department is getting new computers and we have had the distinct frustration of learning about how to install OS images on Dell OptiPlex GX270s. Seemed straightforward enough. There’s even a KB article or two on what to do. (Never mind that the examples in the KB articles are somewhat contradictory. Now, more than ever, MS needs a good copyeditor.) But it didn't work. Somehow we kept being told that the network adapter drivers were not present. Finally, through a search whose terms we foolishly neglected to note, we came across a very helpful post on the Dell forums enumerating what steps to take.

Which worked fine, except for the BSOD once the image install started. We reasoned that there were further drivers or other important geegaws missing, and decided to take a bit of a jump forward and install a riprep image from a known working Dell that our colleagues were setting up as the master computer. Hey presto! and it happened just like that.

So now the next test was to install an image on a virgin box straight outta Compton (or at least right out of the shipping box). And here we get to the really interesting part, which is that trying to PXE boot the virgin box got us an error of “Error allocating Mem BAR . . . ” and stuff about the NIC not working. So we go in and look at the BIOS system log and mark it as read, and turn off the sound from the BIOS and then it works. Huh?!

References:

• MS KB article on RISing with OEM drivers
• MS KB article on imaging with OEM drivers; includes info on RIPREP, Unattended, Sysprep, and RIS
• Intel solution page for imaging with particular Intel NIC adapters
• Stepwise guide at Dell forums

20040517

Jew / Not a Jew
Not a Jew, but still concerned.

20040514

RIS Notes, I
When RISing boxen (or testing, as we were), you may find (as we did) that you RIS a computer, change the naming convention, and get the old name when you RIS again. What it seems to have been in our case was that the first RIS install created an account in the AD, and associated the machine's UUID with that computer account. When it RISed again, it looked first for any preexisting account, found one and used it rather than the new naming convention.

How does this help us in our circumstance? We are going to soon be in charge of maintaining RIS images for on the order of 100 boxen, and we were wondering (information exchange with the previous managers is dicey) how we were going to manage to keep the same computers with the same names at the re-imaging. (Au reïmaging, en français.)

20040506

How a T-Shirt Can Elect a President
Voting at Designs on the White House starts tomorrow, but design submissions are welcome through the 22nd of May, so get ’em in!