White Paper

Creating Windows Virtual Machine images for use with ESXi compute clusters in HP CloudSystem
• Additional user accounts
An IT organization may or may not want users to control the default administrator account. Alternative administrative
accounts or user accounts with restricted privileges are set here. The passwords are defined here or set to force the
user to set the password on first login.
An alternative to defining an account in the unattended file is to use a feature in the Cloudbase cloud-init package that
allows you to define a single additional user account, which can also be linked into the password setting mechanism of
the CloudSystem Portal instance launch dialog.
• Language and keyboard settings
Settings for language are documented at
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825682.aspx
• Product keys
If you are unfamiliar with Sysprep and SIM, the following link provides a good description of how to create a simple answer file
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749317(v=ws.10).aspx.
Sample unattended file
Creating an unattended file to define the Administrator password
1. Install SIM.
You should have the ADK and SIM already set up on a development system.
2. From the OS media you are using, copy the install.wim file to a location on the system that is running SIM.
3. To start SIM, select Start→Programs→Microsoft Windows OPK (or Windows AIK)→Windows System Image Manager.
4. To point to the OS media install.wim, select File→Select Windows Image
5. To start a new answer file, select File→New Answer File.
6. Set the properties for the unattended file.
a. From Windows Image, expand the Components box and navigate to the parameters you want to set.
b. Right-click and select Add Setting to Pass 7 oobeSystem
When the parameters are added, you can edit them from the box in the upper right corner of the screen.
7. Use the Validate Answer File feature to verify the values you entered.
8. To save the unattended file, select File→Save Answer File.
The default name for this file is autounattended.xml.
Additional parameters to consider setting in a cloud environment include:
7