Comments on: How to Sysprep Windows Server 2008

By: Nathan Boyd

Nathan Boyd — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:41:53 +0000

Thanks James, for the nice concise explanation!

@Hayden: That’s by design. Sysprep returns the installation to the “first reboot after installation” but with the whatever updates installed. Typically any customizations and/or settings will be wiped during sysprep. If you want customization after Sysprep, then look for the link to Brian Madden’s blog above.

By: David Nilson

David Nilson — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:23:32 +0000

@Hayden Hancock
That is the EXPECTED behaviour of Sysprep . Read “What is Sysprep” at:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc783215(WS.10).aspx

By: David Nilson

David Nilson — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:20:33 +0000

@NoCertsJustLife
You are correct that duplite WSUS SIds will cause one and only one of the machines with duplicates to show up in WSUS at one time.
But thats a different SID and is easily solved by deleting the WSUS SID fro mthe registry, it will auto-create on next boot.
Try this in a .CMD file on an effected machine or in logon scripts:

net stop wuauserv

REM — Clear out history and downloaded updates – start Fresh
cd %windir%\SoftwareDistribution
del DataStore /q
rmdir Download /S /Q

REM – Normal
:SUS_normal
Reg DELETE “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update” /v LastWaitTimeout /f
Reg DELETE “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update” /v DetectionStartTime /f
Reg Delete “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update” /v NextDetectionTime /f

REM – d.a.n. To regenerate SUSclientID
reg delete “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate” /v SusClientId /f

net start wuauserv

:SUS_end
wuauclt /resetauthorization /detectnow /reportnow

:SUS_End2

By: Hayden Hancock

Hayden Hancock — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:19:17 +0000

I’ve tried performing this method in a virtual environment (VirtualBox). Everything seems to work fine except that my VHD changes what I had in my domain. For instance, I used company.com as my domain but after sysprep, it put that into the WORKGOUP field.

Any suggestions on what I am doing wrong? Thanks!

By: NoCertsJustLife

NoCertsJustLife — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:10:27 +0000

A note to the cloners – Failure to change the SID, although not required, will make a WSUS database fail. Near as I can tell WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) has a SQL database that is key’ed on the machine SID and it ignors domain SID.

If you clone server “A” to make “B”, “C”, etc., you may only find server “A” in your WSUS database. If you group your servers in WSUS to allow/deny selected updates, you may be selecting all type “A” servers by selecting just “A”. Always “Generalize” your clone source, or find and use NewSID.

And oh, by the way, if your source computer is already joined to a domain, remove it from the domain (make it a workgroup computer) before SYSPREP. This is another source of pain.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 00:04:48 +0000

Hi James,

i did a sysprep using the sysprep in windows 2008 R2 sysprep.exe in the system32 folder. I clicked (OOBE) and shutdown option i selected “Quit” and i rebooted my machine manually . It prompted me to change password when i entered my old password it said “Access Denied” . What exactly happened ? i am lost , and i did not clone the syspred image from that machine as i was afriad it would happen to all my machines if i cloned it. Would you advise me ? Thanks.

By: William Hatten

William Hatten — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:39:03 +0000

I trying to sysprep a 2008 server and use Imagex to get the image file but it keeps failing as it does not find the image file. Could you please help with that process.

By: James

James — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:46:42 +0000

You set up the initial server, run sysprep to re-seal the OS, and then transfer it to another server. Note that the servers need to have identical hardware (or close to it) otherwise the sysprepped image won’t boot.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:38:44 +0000

I’m a little confused since this is the first time I’m trying to use sysprep. I hope you can clarify how to use the sysprep tool for cloning an OS. I want to take an image of a Windows Server 2008 and copy it onto other servers. I have already created the image of the server. Do I load the image onto another server and then once loaded and installed, I run sysprep to change SIDs, computer name, activation code, etc.?

Or do I run through sysprep steps first on the host I want to clone, then create an image, then copy the image to a server and the sysprep will guide me through the first time booting up?

By: Shery

Shery — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 08:11:04 +0000

Thanks Jack,
That helped.
– Shery