Unattended install MetaData

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A bit on metadata for Server 2008. Unattended Vista installs use the ProductKey stored in the unattend.xml to determine which SKU to install. Server 2008 works the same way but since the Server Core SKU’s share the same Product Keys as their full OS counterparts additional Metadata needs to be added to unattend.xml to completely automate a Preinstall. Without this Metadata your unattended install will stop and prompt for which Server OS to install.

Valid Pass:

windowsPE

Hierarchy:

Microsoft-Windows-Setup | ImageInstall | OSImage | InstallFrom | MetaData

Key=

Value=

Where Key=
/IMAGE/INDEX
or
/IMAGE/NAME
or
/IMAGE/DESCRIPTION

Value=, is obtained by reviewing the Metadata output from install.wim. Type imagex /info install.wim and review the output to get the appropriate INDEX, NAME, or DESCRIPTION data. Plug this into the ImageInstall MetaData section of your unattend.xml

Example: (unattend.xml)

…

            <ImageInstall>

              <OSImage>

                    <InstallTo>

                        <DiskID>0</DiskID>

                        <PartitionID>2</PartitionID>

                    </InstallTo>

                    <InstallToAvailablePartition>false</InstallToAvailablePartition>

                    <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>

                    <InstallFrom>

                        <MetaData wcm:action="add">

                            <Key>/IMAGE/NAME</Key>

                            <Value>Windows Longhorn SERVERSTANDARD</Value>

                        </MetaData>

                    </InstallFrom>

                </OSImage>

            </ImageInstall>