F Setting up a Netboot Environment for Microsoft* Windows

F.1 Requirements
F.2 Providing a Hyper-V Netboot Environment

Setting up Compute Nodes running Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2, Microsoft Windows Server 2012, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 or Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 requires to configure the Administration Server to be able to provide the netboot environment for node installation. The environment is generated from a machine running Microsoft Windows Server or Microsoft Hyper-V Server.

F.1 Requirements #

The following requirements must be met to successfully deploy Hyper-V:

Provide a separate machine running Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2, Microsoft Windows Server 2012, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 or Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012. The machine must be able to access the Administration Server and the Internet.
Install Samba (package samba) and the Microsoft Hyper-V tools (package hyper-v) on the Administration Server.

F.2 Providing a Hyper-V Netboot Environment #

To provide a Hyper-V netboot environment on the Administration Server, a samba share, that can be mounted on the Windows machine, is created on the Administration Server. Among others, this share contains the Hyper-V tools which provide Windows scripts to generate the environment.

Procedure F.1: Preparing the Administration Server #

Ensure that the requirements listed at Section F.1, “Requirements” are met.
If you have more than one hard disk, edit /srv/tftpboot/adk-tools/build_winpe.ps1 and adjust the value for $install_media accordingly.
Make sure the Samba daemons smb and nmb are automatically started during boot and are currently running by executing the following commands:
```
systemctl enable smb nmb
systemctl start smb nmb
```
Edit the Samba configuration file /etc/samba/smb.conf and add the following share:
```
[reminst]
        comment = MS Windows remote install
        guest ok = Yes
        inherit acls = Yes
        path = /srv/tftpboot
        read only = No
        force user = root
```
By default, the workgroup name is set to WORKGROUP in the [global] section of /etc/samba/smb.conf. Adjust it, if needed.
Reload the smb service:
```
rcsmb reload
```

When Samba is properly configured on the Administration Server, log in to the machine running Microsoft Windows Server or Microsoft Hyper-V Server and generate the environment:

Procedure F.2: Netboot Environment Generation #

Log in to the Microsoft Windows Server or Microsoft Hyper-V Server machine. Connect the device name X: to the Samba share \\crowbar\reminst configured on the Administration Server (which is named crowbar by default) in the previous step. This can either be done from the Explorer or on the command line with the net use x: \\crowbar\reminst command.
Device X: contains a directory X:\adk-tools with image creation scripts for either Windows Server 2012 R2 build_winpe_windows-6.3.ps1), Windows Server 2012 (build_winpe_windows-6.2.ps1), Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 (build_winpe_hyperv-6.3.ps1) or Hyper-V Server 2012 (build_winpe_hyperv-6.2.ps1). Build the image by running the following commands on the command line:
Windows Server 2012 R2
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass x:\adk-tools\build_winpe_windows-6.3.ps1
Windows Server 2012
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass x:\adk-tools\build_winpe_windows-6.2.ps1
Hyper-V Server 2012 R2
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass x:\adk-tools\build_winpe_hyperv-6.3.ps1
Hyper-V Server 2012
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass x:\adk-tools\build_winpe_hyperv-6.2.ps1
Executing the script requires Internet access, because additional software needs to be downloaded.

After the netboot environment is set up, you can choose either Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 or Hyper-V Server 2012 as the Target Platform for newly discovered nodes from the Node Dashboard.

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