Datasheet

CHAPTER 1 GETTING AND INSTALLING SP1

Rolling Out SP1 with a GPO

In Mastering Windows Server 2003’s Chapter 12, we showed how to create a domain-based group

policy object (GPO) that would deploy software to domain members. You can use software deploy-

ment GPOs to roll out SP1 as well, quite simply. There are just a few steps.

1. Extract the files in the SP1 installer with the -x option, as you’ve already read.

2. Create a share accessible by your 2003 servers, and put the extracted i386 folder in that

share.

3. Create a software-deploying group policy object. Use the computer Software Installation cat-

egory, not the user Software Installation category.

4. Look in the i386\update folder and you’ll see a file named update.msi. As its extension

suggests, it is a Microsoft Installer package file. Configure the GPO to deploy this file to your

2003 servers. Assign the file, do not publish it, or it won’t work.

How do you ensure that this only gets to your 2003 Servers, and not your 2000, XP, or Vista sys-

tems? Simple—2000 and later are smart about service packs. 2000, XP, and Vista will not even try

to install 2003’s SP1.

Preinstalling SP1: “Integrating”

As you probably know, the folder that contains the Server 2003 installation files on 2003’s Setup

CD is called i386, the same name as the folder in the unpacked SP1. You may also know that it’s

been possible in every version of NT since NT 4.0 to take a service pack and incorporate it into the

i386 folder of an existing Setup CD. When you do that, you end up with an i386 folder that con-

tains all of the files needed to install a brand-new copy of NT that starts out life with the service

pack already installed. That’s nice for two reasons: first, it saves you the time of first installing the

OS and then installing the service pack, as now you need only install the OS and, second, you end

up with a more secure system from the very beginning. And if the reason for that’s not clear, try

installing the RTM version of Windows XP on a computer directly connected to the Internet.

RTM XP is vulnerable to a number of vicious worms, and it’s a pretty good bet that between the

time that you boot up this freshly installed RTM copy of XP and when you get the XP Service Pack 2

CD into the computer’s drive, your new system will have already caught something nasty. That’s

why it’s nice to do all new XP installs from a Setup disk that has SP2 incorporated into it; all

of a sudden, XP setup isn’t a footrace between the worms and the poor guy installing the XP

patches. It’s the same story with Server 2003.

How to take SP1 files and incorporate them into an i386? With a few simple steps.

1. Copy the i386 folder from a Server 2003 Setup disk to your computer’s hard disk. (After

all, you can’t modify files on a CD-ROM.) For the sake of example, I’ll say that we’ve

copied it to e:\I386. The folder must have the name i386, no matter how deeply buried it

is in your disk’s folder structure. In other words, e:\i386 is fine, e:\myfiles\i386 is fine,

e:\files\setup\project\i386 is fine—but e:\2003setupfiles would not be. You

will not be able to “integrate” — SP1’s new word for what it used to call “slipstreaming”—

SP1 files into a Server 2003 i386 unless the folder’s name is i386.

56452.book Page 12 Wednesday, August 30, 2006 4:52 PM