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Windows Server 2003 Single CD Installation Reference

This example installation is based on a single CD install of Windows 2003 Server Standard Edition SP2. For the example, we use a global volume named win03_iso. See the iso2class reference for other methods about specifying an ISO image for the installation. You may also use the example below for other Windows editions (Enterprise, DataCenter, and Web).

Note: In the following text, the y in WIN03y indicates the Windows edition that the appliance is based upon (S for Standard, E for Enterprise, DC for DataCenter, and W for Web).

To install and configure a WIN03y appliance using a single CD

1. Execute the following command in a 3T shell. You may then select the desired bits (32 or 64) and operating system:

   util iso2class app_name=win03_install install_size=10G console_type=graphic iso_volume1=win03_iso virt_options=acpi=1 cpu=1 mem=1G 
   

   This command creates and starts the win03_install application, booting the singleton iso2class from the specified ISO image.

   Note: Initially, the volume size is set to 10GB. The system uses this size to verify there is enough disk space for the Windows installation. After the appliance is created, you can resize the volume depending upon the amount of free disk space remaining after the Windows installation (It is recommended to have at least 500MB of free disk space).

2. Access the graphic console of the singleton in one of the following two methods:
   1. Select the application within the application list in the CA 3Tera AppLogic GUI and select Login (graphic).
   2. Open the application in the infrastructure editor and select the singleton iso2class. Use the pull-down Appliance menu to select Login (graphic).

   Note: During Windows installation on a VMware grid, the mouse may not function as expected, due to the absence of VMware tools The following keyboard shortcuts are useful:

   • To navigate between buttons, use Tab key and / or arrow keys
   • To select, use space bar or enter
   • To access the file menu on the selected window, use Alt+f key
3. After the graphical console displays, the Windows 2003 Server installation should be visible.

   Proceed through the installation with the following notes:

   1. Use a single NTFS partition
   2. Select Custom Setting - Disable file and printer sharing for both network interfaces.
   3. Use a workgroup.
4. After the install is complete:
   • If you are creating a Windows appliance on an ESX grid, install VMware tools as follows:
   1. Stop the application.
   2. In a grid shell, execute the following command:

      3t vol copy _GLOBAL_RO:vmware_tools_windows APPNAME:vmware_tools_windows
      

   3. Open the infrastructure editor in a browser.
   4. Right-click the singleton appliance ‘iso2class’ and select user volumes.
   5. Select volume ‘vmware_tools_windows’ for placeholder iso_volume1.
   6. Save and start the application.
   7. Login through the graphical console.
   8. Press the “Ctrl+Alt+Del” button located on the top center of the graphical console window.
   9. Click anywhere inside the graphical console window.
   10. Using the tab and arrow keys, navigate to “start task manager”.
   11. Using the tab key, navigate to “new task” and press ‘spacebar’.
   12. Type “D:\setup.exe /S /v /qn” to execute the VMware tools installation silently.

   The installation reboots the appliance automatically. After reboot, reopen the graphical console and login to the appliance.

   • Disable the page file:
     1. Open Control Panel, System, Advanced, Performance Settings, Advanced, Virtual Memory, No Paging File, Set to disable the page file.
     2. Restart the application and verify the pagefile C:\pagefile.sys has been deleted. If not, delete it manually. You can view protected operating system files in Windows Explorer by changing the default settings:
     • Open Tools, Folder Options, View and select Show hidden files and folders. Unselect Hide protected operating system files.
5. Increase the default Windows disk device timeout value in your appliance and set the value of the real time clock. Note that these settings require a reboot to take effect.
   1. Open the registry editor (Run > regedt32.exe) and navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/Disk.
   2. Add a new REG_DWORD value named TimeOutValue. If this value already exists, skip this step.
   3. Set the TimeOutValue value to 60 decimal.
   4. Navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/TimeZoneInformation.
   5. Add a new DWORD value named RealTimeIsUniversal. If this value exists, skip this step.
   6. Set the RealTimeIsuniversal value to 1.
   7. Close the registry editor.
6. Verify you have external network access through the external interface of the singleton.

   The singleton has two network interfaces: Local Area Connection, which is the external interface, and Local Area Connection 2, which is the internal interface.

   Open a command shell and ping www.google.com.

   If the ping fails, perform one of the following:

   • Access Control Panel, Network Connections, Local Area Connection, Properties, Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Properties.

     Click Use the following IP address and enter usable values for your grid, such as IP Address, netmask, gateway, DNS server.

   • In the command shell:
     • netsh interface ip set address name="Local Area Connection" static [ip-address] [netmask] [gateway] 1
     • netsh interface ip set dns name="Local Area Connection" static [dns-ip]
7. Install Service Pack 2 and high priority updates:
   1. Open IE and use Tools, Internet Options, Security level of this zone- Custom Level, Reset custom setting – Reset to Medium’ to set the Internet security to medium.
   2. In IE, select Tools, Windows Update and install SP2. Reboot when the install completes.
   3. Remove the restore files associated with the installation of SP2:
      1. Use Windows Explorer to delete the folder c:\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$
      2. Empty the Recycle Bin.
      3. Use Windows Explorer to compress the folder c:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles and all sub-directories:
      4. Right-click the folder and select Properties, Advanced, Compress contents.
   4. In IE select Tools, Windows Update and install all the high priority updates. Optionally decline the IE7 install when asked. Reboot when the install completes.
   5. Use Windows Explorer to remove the restore files associated with the installation of the high priority updates:
      1. Delete c:\WINDOWS\$*$ (approximately 30 folders)
      2. Empty the Recycle Bin.
8. Install the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools:
   1. Point IE at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9D467A69-57FF-4AE7-96EE-B18C4790CFFD&displaylang=en (or search online for Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools).
   2. Install the tools in their default location C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools.
9. (Optional) Install windows components which you want available on this appliance and which require access to the installation ISO image(s). Select Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs, Windows Components and install optional components such as IIS.
10. Prevent system shutdown dialogs from popping up (reason for system shutdown)
    1. Open the Start menu and execute the following command:

       gpedit.msc 
       

    2. Go under Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates.
    3. Click System.
    4. On the right pane double-click on Display Shutdown Event Tracker.
    5. Click Disabled and click Apply.
11. Activate Windows as required.
12. For 64-bit appliances, a Microsoft Windows bug prevents a 32-bit application to access the System32 folder on a computer running a 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003. For more information this issue and fix this issue, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942589 and apply this hotfix according to its instructions.
13. To transform this singleton into a fully managed CA 3Tera AppLogic appliance, install the Windows Server msi. This self-executing installer can be downloaded from the grid controller through the internal interface. This interface has already been properly configured through DHCP.
    1. To find the internal IP address of the controller, in a command line shell execute the following command and note the IP address of the DHCP server for Local Area Connection 2.

       ipconfig /all 
       

    2. Point IE at http://IP-address:8080/download/ and download the current Windows Server msi (for example, Server_Windows-1.0.0-1.msi):
       • Right-click the msi file and select Save Target As to download the file to the desktop.
    3. Double-click the msi file on the desktop to perform the installation.
    4. Delete the MSI file and empty the Recycle Bin.
    5. If you manually configured the external interface, use Control Panel, Network Connections, Local Area Connection, Properties, Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Properties to reset the interface to DHCP (Obtain an IP address automatically).
14. If this is a 64-bit appliance, use Windows Explorer to copy shutdown.exe from C:\WINDOWS\system32 to C:\WINDOWS\SYSWOW64.

    If Windows Explorer refuses to copy but instead moves the executable:

    1. Move shutdown.exe to C:\WINDOWS using Windows Explorer
    2. Open a bash shell and perform the following command. This copies the file into the C:\WINDOWS\SYSWOW64 directory:

       cp -p /cygdrive/c/WINDOWS/shutdown.exe /cygdrive/c/WINDOWS/system32/shutdown.exe (this command actually copies the file into C:\WINDOWS\SYSWOW64)
       

    3. Use Windows Explorer to move C:\WINDOWS\shutdown.exe to C:\WINDOWS\system32\shutdown.exe.
15. If you are installing a 64-bit non-English localized version of Windows Server 2003, copy chcp.com from C:\WINDOWS\system32 to C:\WINDOWS\SYSWOW64 as described above.
16. Close the graphical console and close the infrastructure editor, if it is open.
17. The installation is complete. Click Enter in the 3T shell running iso2class to continue. When prompted, select The appliance is fully managed. After this, iso2class stops the application, changes the singleton boundary to that of a generic server appliance, and restarts the application.
18. If iso2class fails to start the application, select option #2 - "Exit from iso2class and investigate manually".
    • Start the application in debug mode: in 3Tshell execute the command app start app_name --debug.
    • Once the application starts successfully continue with the following steps.
19. Change the resulting singleton into a WIN03y catalog appliance class.
    1. Stop the application.
    2. Open the application in the infrastructure editor, right-click on the singleton and select Modify Boundary:
       1. Select the OS icon as windows.
       2. Change the class name to WIN03y.
       3. Enter the description: Windows Server Appliance - based on Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition 32/64-bit SP2. The edition name must be correct.
       4. Change the following resource settings:

          CPU (num)

          Min: 0.1

          Max: 4

          Default: 1

          Memory (bytes)

          Min: 256

          Max: 4G

          Default: 1G

          Bandwidth (bits/sec)

          Min: 1M

          Max: 1G

          Default: 100Mbps

          Please refer to the below resource table at the bottom of the document and change the resource settings based on the Windows edition.

       5. Set the documentation URL to: http://doc.3tera.com/AppLogic35/en/Catalog_Ref/CatGenericWindows.html
       6. Add terminals to the appliance until there is a total of 7 listed interfaces. With the default interface this will provides the maximum 8 interfaces. This step is required to avoid manual user intervention when adding terminals to future Windows appliances that are based off of this Windows server appliance.
    3. Right-click the singleton and select Attributes. Change the instance name to WIN03y.
    4. Start the application. SSH into the appliance and set the Administrator password (net user administrator new_password). Download the current version of TurboGate PV drivers through the internal interface (in the same fashion the Server MSI was downloaded earlier). Install the TurboGate PV drivers. Do not reboot after the install.

       Note: You must change the administrator password because the windows server MSI sets a new random password on initial boot and you must know the administrator password before installing the Turbogate PV drivers.

    5. Open a 3Tshell and perform the following command:

       app restart win03_install --debug
       

    6. A minute after the application begins to start, log in using the graphical console and complete the TurboGate PV drivers install: Click through the hardware setup wizard for the installation of the TurboGate PV drivers for all 8 terminals that are configured in the appliance. At this point:
       • If the app start has not timed out: Shutdown the OS from within the graphical console; this will cause the app start --debug to fail, and then execute app stop win03_install.
       • Otherwise, execute the following command in the 3Tshell followed by shutdown within the graphical console

         app stop win03_install  
         

    7. Execute the following command within the 3Tshell and verify the appliance starts without error:

       app start win03_install 
       

    8. If you have installed TurboGate PV drivers, disable the service named gkservice. This service is installed with the PV drivers and fails to start if there is more than one virtual network interface associated to the appliance. Disabling this service does not affect the performance of the PV drivers.
    9. Execute the following command In a bash shell on the appliance:

       rm -f /appliance/passwd.stamp
       

       We recommend setting a complex Administrator password so nobody can login to the appliance as the Administrator.

       • Set new complex password (net user administrator pq398hpaowht0293j^LWOIFH9htfw9jfe)
       • exit the ssh session
       • ssh into appliance and execute rm -f ~/.bash_history so the password is cleared from the bash history
    10. Stop the application.
    11. Modify the boundary of the appliance again and remove the extra terminals that were added in the previous steps.
    12. Move the singleton into the /system_ms catalog that you have the required privileges. You must assign yourself full access rights to the catalog before you can move the singleton. See catalog modify_acl in the Command Line Shell Reference Guide for more information.

    The WIN03y appliance is now ready for use.

Additional Information

Windows Server 2003 Resources

32-bit appliances

64-bit appliances

Review the Appliance Catalog Reference Guide for details on the behavior of the Windows APK which is installed by all of the Windows MSI's.