Automate Creation of WIM Files
For full change log and more information, visit my site.
Image Factory Utility is available from:
Please consider supporting my work:
Please report any problems via the ‘issues’ tab on GitHub.
Thanks
-Mike
This utility expects Oracle Virtual Box to be installed in the default location of: C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox
The utility will make changes to your customsettings.ini file, although it will make a backup first. These changes are necessary so that the build process runs automated. Depending on your environment, you may need to make additional changes to your customsettings.ini.
I would recommend running with a separate build share so that:
Here are the settings you’ll need to add to your Bootstrap.ini to automatically log into the build share. Don’t forget to update your build share in MDT and regenerate the boot images.
[Settings]Priority=Default[Default]DeployRoot=[path\]BuildShare$UserDomain=contoso.comUserID=mdt_adminUserPassword=P@ssw0rdSkipBDDWelcome=YES
The password used for SMTP server authentication must be in an encrypted text file. To generate the password file, run the following command in PowerShell on the computer and logged in with the user that will be running the utility. When you run the command, you will be prompted for a username and password. Enter the username and password you want to use to authenticate to your SMTP server.
Please note: This is only required if you need to authenticate to the SMTP server when send the log via e-mail.
$creds = Get-Credential$creds.Password | ConvertFrom-SecureString | Set-Content c:\scripts\ps-script-pwd.txt
After running the commands, you will have a text file containing the encrypted password. When configuring the -Pwd switch enter the path and file name of this file.
Here’s a list of all the command line switches and example configurations.
| Command Line Switch | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| -Build | Location of the build share. It can be the same as the deployment share, and it can be a local or UNC path. | [path] |
| -Deploy | Location of the deployment share. It can be the same as the deployment share, and it can be a local or UNC path. | [path] |
| -Vh | Hyper-V Only - Name of the Hyper-V host if remote. If not set it will default to local. | [hostname] |
| -Vhd | The path to store the virtual hard disk file(s). If using a remote Hyper-V server the path should be relative for that server. | [path] |
| -Boot | The path to the iso file to boot from. If using a remote Hyper-V server the path should be relative for that server. | [path]LiteTouchPE_x64.iso |
| -Vnic | Hyper-V Only - Name of the virtual switch that the VM should use to communicate. | “‘virtual NIC name’” |
| -Ts | The comma-separated list of task sequence ID’s to build. | [W11-21H2,W10-21H2] |
| -VBox | Use this switch to use Oracle Virtual Box instead of Hyper-V | N/A |
| -Compat | Legacy Hyper-V Only - Use this switch if the Hyper-V host is Windows Server 2012 R2 and the script is running on Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016/2019. This loads the older version of the Hyper-V module, so it can manage WS2012 R2 Hyper-V VMs. | N/A |
| -Remote | Hyper-V Only - Use this switch if the Hyper-V server is a remote device. | N/A |
| -L | The path to output the log file to. | [path] |
| -LogRotate | Remove logs produced by the utility older than X days | [number] |
| -NoBanner | Use this option to hide the ASCII art title in the console. | N/A |
| -Help | Display usage information. No arguments also displays help. | N/A |
| -ProgCheck | Send notifications (email or webhook) after each Task Sequence is processed. | N/A |
| -Subject | Specify a subject line. If you leave this blank the default subject will be used | “‘[Server: Notification]’” |
| -SendTo | The e-mail address the log should be sent to. For multiple address, separate with a comma. | [example@contoso.com] |
| -From | The e-mail address the log should be sent from. | [example@contoso.com] |
| -Smtp | The DNS name or IP address of the SMTP server. | [smtp server address] |
| -Port | The Port that should be used for the SMTP server. If none is specified then the default of 25 will be used. | [port number] |
| -User | The user account to authenticate to the SMTP server. | [example@contoso.com] |
| -Pwd | The txt file containing the encrypted password for SMTP authentication. | [path]ps-script-pwd.txt |
| -UseSsl | Configures the utility to connect to the SMTP server using SSL. | N/A |
[path\]Image-Factory.ps1 -Build [path\] -Deploy [path\] -Boot [path\]LiteTouchPE_x64.iso -Vnic [virtual NIC name] -Ts W11-21H2,W10-21H2
This will use Hyper-V VMs on the local machine to build wim files from the task sequences W11-21H2 and W10-21H2. The wim files will be imported to the deployment share specified.
New features:
I’ve added logging to the script and the ability to email the log on completion. I’ve also added a variable to configure the Virtual Switch that the VM’s Network Adaptor should use. This was an oversight on the previous version.
I’ve added hour and minutes to the WIM file creation name as I have been running multiple images of the same Task Sequence within a day and needed some extra data to prevent the image from over writing the previous one. I’ve also made another script, using this one as a base so I can generate VMs to test the deployment of the captured images after I’ve manually renamed them in MDT and added to the task sequences. The VMs are named after the Task Sequence ID and do not delete after the Task Sequence completes.