Help me understand the OSD Bare Metal PXE Boot WIM

Usage and Config OSD
1

I would like to know which boot WIM is used by the Bigfix OSD Bare Metal PXE server.
Does the PXE server creates a new boot WIM?
Does the PXE server uses the WIM in the bundle/ OS resources?
The reason why I would like to know this is because I am trying to add others WinPE components to the WIM.

Thanks,

2

Hi,
OSD Bare Metal server uses the wim file uploaded from the MDT Bundle. But our process converts the wim into a different file format (c:\BigFixOSD\MDTBundle\Content\Deploy$OEM$\BigFixOSD\Boot\PEX64\WPE-amd64.rad), so it is not easy to make changes at this stage.

Probably, you might think to modify the one from ADK (after a safe backup) usually under C:\Program Files\Windows Kits\8.0\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Windows Preinstallation Environment<arch>\en-us\winpe.wim.
Our MDT bundle creation process copies it into a temp dir and installs some components we require and than converts it to rad file.
Then when you upload the new MDT bundle based on the modified WinPE.wim, you need to force the overwrite Pre-Installation Environments.
This approach has some drawbacks:

  • The new uploaded WinPE replaces the old original one on all your OSD servers. And all the new deployments that requires that WinPE version will use the new WinPE.
  • Adding components to WinPE.wim may affects our mdt bundle creation process (you can try)

Hope this helps. Luca

1 Like
3

Hi Luca,

It worked! thanks for the information. I was able add PowerShell successfully. I have looked at the rbagent log before you responded, and I saw that it was using the wimpe.wim form ADK, and just as you said the last part is the conversion of the WIM to the RAD format. I was going to add the new component to the ADK wim, but I just wanted to find out if there was another way to incorporate the process without doing it directly on the ADK WIM.

Thanks,

4

Hi guys,

I need to incorporate a certificate in the WinPE image, will it work ?

Regards