In a quest to automate and standardize our Windows installs, I have begun working to make a custom Windows Install DVD that will hopefully install Windows and all our standard software. This is the first of likely many posts describing the journey. This post describes how to slipstream a service pack and hotfixes into install media.
Slipstreaming is the process of integrating a service pack and hotfixes into a Windows install cd. The end result of this will be a install cd that will have very few updates to download from Microsoft Update after a fresh install. Note that the slipstream process only works with un-customized Windows install media. Thus, you will likely have issues if you attempt this with the media provided by most major hardware vendors. This is really intended for those with a Volume Licensing Agreement or with retail media.
First we need to incorporate Service Pack 2 into the install media. Note, that much of the media shipped in the past two years already has SP2 incorporated. If however, you have media that does not have it, go follow the instructions at the Supersite for Windows;
Slipstreaming Windows XP with Service Pack 2.
With install media containing SP2, you now likely want to install the 60+ updates that have been released since Service Pack 2 was released.
Copy your SP2 loaded install cd to a working directory on your hard drive.
Extract the boot file from the install media. See the instructions in the slipstreaming guide linked above for assistance.
Download all relevant hotfixes. This is much easier said than done. I did it by finding a fully patched Windows XP machine, and running QFECheck to obtain a list of Knowledge Base articles (the six digit numbers e.g. KB909520). With that list, put them into urls of the form http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=xxxxxx and download each hotfix referenced.
You now need to integrate each hotfix into the working directory. Use a command of the form ⟨hotfix.exe⟩ /integrate:C:\⟨workingdir⟩ for each hotfix. You could simplify this process with the command FOR %%f IN (*.exe) DO "%%f" /Integrate:C:\⟨workingdir⟩D, which must be executed in the same directory as the hotfixes.
Use your favorite cd burning application to create a bootable cd. Once again, see the slipstreaming guide above for specifics.
If you are one of those without virgin install media, or you want a simpler method with a gui, check out nLite which puts a GUI frontend on this (and much more).
My boss recieved a phone call from our alarm company about 8pm one evening. He was informed that the temperature sensor in the server room tripped. They didn't know what temperature it was in the room, they only knew that the sensor had tripped and that it was still tripped. When he arrived, the room was 86 degrees. It seems our newly installed AC unit had failed.
As the backup (original) AC unit could not even begin to keep up with our processing machines, he relocated all of those machines to the secondary server room. Thinking the problem temporarily solved, he retired for the night. When I arrived the next morning, that secondary room was almost 80. I arrived about the same time that all of the engineers were arriving and were beginning to use those processing machines more seriously. Within an hour, the room was over 90 and a few of the cases were quite hot to the touch. Once again at a critical temperature, I powered off the machines and investigated my options.
All of our servers are powered by Opteron's, and nearly all of the motherboards support PowerNow, we double-checked that all of our processing machines were configured to take advantage of this dynamically adjusting clock speed (HP's PowerNow for linux instructionsGentoo instructions. With the primary room, maintaining a mid 70s, and the secondary room staying above 80, we forcibly set all of the processors to the slowest speeds available.
Later that day, we had new circuits installed in each of our server rooms to handle our two ton Movincool. And our primary AC unit had been inspected, with a slated time to fix it being the next day once new parts arrive.
Now a portable AC unit like the Movincool is a reasonable backup unit (it had previously been used as the primary cooler in a previous server room), it is not really the best solution. The correct solution is to install two HVAC systems in the server room, either of which could handle the full load of the room. Then, run each of them at half utilization. One day.
