As delivered by Microsoft, Windows Server 2012 & 2008 and Windows 8 & 7 OS media (ISO files or DVDs) cannot be used for remote, unattended installations. The ISOs must first be made provisionable “Provisioner PXE Server-ready”. This process takes under 5 minutes of system time, as the Provisioner PXE Server does all the work.

Copy your Microsoft-Supplied ISO Files to the Provisioner PXE Server

Place the Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 ISOs in /home/tftpboot/ISOs/windows/win7_2008/ and the Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 ISOs in /home/tftpboot/ISOs/windows/win8_2012/.

Your ISOs can actually be anywhere on the Provisioner PXE Server, but ISOs placed in this directory will be presented to you automatically without having to enter path and file names.

Launch the ISO Preparation (and Install Instance Creation) Script

cd /home/tftpboot/bin

sh windows-create-install-instance.sh

Once you have launched the script, you will be prompted to select a Provisioner PXE Server-ready ISO (that you have already converted) so you can  create a Windows Install Instance, or to create a new Provisioner PXE Server-ready ISO.

In the example below, we will prepare a Windows Server 2012 R2 ISO. Simply answer the questions, and you will be done in about 5 minutes:

Select Windows Processing Option:

1) Windows Server 2008 R2 [2008]

2) Windows Server 2012 R2 [2012]

3) Windows 7 [Win7]

4) Windows 8.1 [Win8]

----> type response and press enter, "q" will quit the process

Select option number 1-4: 2

 

................................................................................

 

Select LinMin-ready ISO from /home/tftpboot/pub/winISOs :

1) Create new LinMin-ready ISO from a Microsoft-supplied ISO

----> type response and press enter, "q" will quit the process

No LinMin-ready ISOs found, press enter to load new media [1 Create new LinMin-ready ISO from a Microsoft-supplied ISO]:

................................................................................

 

Creating a new LinMin-ready ISO from a Microsoft-supplied ISO

 

Select a Microsoft-supplied ISO from /home/tftpboot/ISOs/windows/win8_2012:

1) en_windows_8.1_enterprise_with_update_x64_dvd_4065178.iso

2) en_windows_8.1_with_update_x64_dvd_4065090.iso

3) en_windows_server_2012_r2_with_update_x64_dvd_4065220.iso

4) en_windows_server_2012_r2_x64_dvd_2707946.iso

5) Type in an ISO path and file name as /path/file.iso

6) Find all .iso files on this server excluding LinMin-ready ISOs

7) Return to LinMin-ready ISO selection

----> type response and press enter, "q" will quit the process

Enter number of the ISO or option: 4

... processing Microsoft-supplied ISO: /home/tftpboot/ISOs/windows/win8_2012/en_windows_server_2012_r2_x64_dvd_2707946.iso

 

Windows install options for this Microsoft-supplied ISO:

... /home/tftpboot/ISOs/windows/win8_2012/en_windows_server_2012_r2_x64_dvd_2707946.iso

Windows Server 2012 R2 SERVERDATACENTER

Windows Server 2012 R2 SERVERDATACENTERCORE

Windows Server 2012 R2 SERVERSTANDARD

Windows Server 2012 R2 SERVERSTANDARDCORE

 

A new name for the LinMin-ready ISO file is required

----> type response and press enter, "q" will quit the process

Enter new name or type "s" to select a different ISO: ws2012r2

 

Name of the new LinMin-ready ISO: ws2012r2.iso

----> type response and press enter, "q" will quit the process

Press enter to continue or type "d" to enter a different name:

 

 

Select LinMin-ready ISO from /home/tftpboot/pub/winISOs :

1) ws2012r2.iso

2) Create new LinMin-ready ISO from a Microsoft-supplied ISO

----> type response and press enter, "q" will quit the process

Enter number of ISO or Option to select [1 ws2012r2.iso]:

 

Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERENTERPRISECORE

Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERSTANDARD

Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERSTANDARDCORE

Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERWEB

Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERWEBCORE

 

A new name for the Provisioner PXE Server-ready ISO file is required

----> type response and press enter, "q" will quit the process

Enter new name or type "s" to select a different ISO [w2k8_.iso]: w2k8_r2_x64

 

Name of the new LinMin-ready ISO: ws2012r2.iso

----> type response and press enter, "q" will quit the process

Press enter to continue or type "d" to enter a different name:

 

 

Select LinMin-ready ISO from /home/tftpboot/pub/winISOs :

1) ws2012r2.iso

2) Create new LinMin-ready ISO from a Microsoft-supplied ISO

----> type response and press enter, "q" will quit the process

Enter number of ISO or Option to select [1 ws2012r2.iso]:

 

Your Microsoft-supplied ISO is now Provisioner PXE Server-ready and provisionable. You may create Install Instances now by continuing the script or quit the script and create Install Instances later.

 

Note: if you get see the error message "No Windows install options found, invalid Microsoft-supplied ISO media", this means one of two things:

•Your ISO is corrupt. Check the MD5 Sum. Re-download the ISO, check MD5 Sums and if they match, then proceed (this is nearly always the reason for the error message)

•You do not have an install ISO (if you were to burn it to DVD, a client system could not be installed)