How to - System Image - Sysprep, Capture and Deploy (4232511)

The purpose of this document is to describe best practices to sysprep, capture and deploy Windows 11 System Images. This document applies to System Deployment Appliance version 9.3 and higher. The article assumes that a KBE exists, and DHCP settings are in place for PXE boot. 

Part A.1 suggests to create a VM and install Windows on it. Do not use upgraded Windows to capture images, these cause problems. Deploy a fresh Windows OS install instead. 

A. Sysprep

PART 1:

1. Create a Virtual Machine in VSphere or Hyper-V (select install OS later)
2. Download and Install an official Windows 11 ISO VL media in VM. (VMware templates might cause problems, don’t use them.)
3. Customize the image:
   1. Download and install the applications required in the system image, this process will be different for each company. Some apps might require to be handled in a post install task.
   2. Do not install Anti-Virus, VM tools, Kace Agent or join VM to a domain)
   3. Do not multiple users profiles, this will cause issues when deploying the image, use USMT online or USMT offline instead. 
4. Run system updates, and patch it as much as possible. Each company will determine the security requirements for the OS in the system images. 
5. Organizations may also want to consider removing bloatware that comes with Windows installations before running sysprep.  There are many tools and scripts out there to help clean up a Windows image. For more information Click Here
6. Once the image is created, it is advisable to take a snapshot of the image in your Virtual Hypervisor.  Shut down the machine and create the snapshot so that when it is time to update the image, you can revert to this clean state.

PART 2:

1. From your KACE System Deployment Appliance (SDA), on the left navigation pane, click Library | Sysprep Unattend Files to display the Sysprep Unattend Files page
2. Select Choose Actions | Sysprep Creator Wizard
3. On the System Information Page, follow the Sysprep Creator Wizard. (for more information in detail about each field, click here)
   
4. Click Download Unattend File with Sysprep Executor to download the Unattended.xml file generated using this newly created configuration, together with the KACE Sysprep Executor.
   
5. Copy the unattend.xml file and Sysprep Executor to "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop" on the VM ready to capture the image. 
6. Launch the executor file. It will check for pre-requisites on the system. If there are things that may prevent sysprep from completing successfully, allow the tool to fix the issues or you can manually fix the issues.
   
7. Once all the checks are successful, run sysprep and select the Sysprep Now, and use the shutdown option.
   
8. When sysprep completes, and the machine shuts down, it is ready for the image to be captured.

• C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\Panther\setupact.log → Shows the history of actions executed during Sysprep.
• C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\Panther\setuperr.log → Contains specific details about detected errors.
• C:\Windows\Panther\UnattendGC\setupact.log → Related to the execution of the unattend.xml file.

B. Capture

1. Boot the VM to network and launch the KBE.
2. From the KBE Main Menu, select: Imaging | Capture Image of this device
3. Name the image, ONLY select C driver as the Image Source, and select Capture directly to server, then Start Capture
   
4. The image captured will be available from you SDA at: Deployments | System Images
   

C. Deploy

1. From the SDA, go to Deployments | System Images access the system image recently captured, and from the Details page setup the Installation Plan.
2. We recommend to setup the installation plan exactly as in the screenshot below. Then test it, and if the deployment succeeds, add more tasks as needed.
   
3. To run the deployment, boot to the KBE, and go to Imaging | Deploy image to this device.
4. Select the image to be deployed to the client machine.
5. Click Start deploy (see screenshot below)