1. Installing Windows 2000
Professional
1.1 Perform an
attended installation of Windows 2000 Professional.
Windows 2000 Professional requires 2 GB with a minimum
of 650MB free space on the boot partition. If
your computer only has a 1GB hard disk with 1GB free space, it meets the
minimum free space requirement but does not satisfy the hard disk requirement.
You still cannot install Windows 2000 on your computer.
Boot
Partition contains the Windows
operating system files (i.e. \winnt) and its support files (i.e.
\winnt\system32). To check which drive is your boot partition, you need to go
to Command Prompt (From Start -> Run, and type CMD) and type echo
%systemroot%
In the above example, your Windows operating
system files are in C:\winnt and your boot partition is on C: drive.
For the Windows
2000 exams, besides boot partition, you also need to know the system partition.
The System Partition is the volume that has the hardware-specific files
(i.e., NTLDR or OSLOADER.EXE, BOOT.INI, etc.) needed to load Windows NT. On x86
based computers, it must be a primary partition that has been marked active for
startup purposes. The user should be careful not to change the drive letter of the
system partition because many MS-DOS and Windows programs make reference to the
C: drive. The system partition can be (but does not have to be) the same
partition as the boot partition.
Some people might mix the System partition with Boot
Partition because they thought the system partition contains system files.
Please remember the following two sentences for the Windows 2000 exams.
1.
The System Partition includes the files to boot Windows 2000.
2. The Boot Partition includes the
System files.
A domain is a logical grouping of
computers that share common security and user account information. A domain
employs the user-level security model. As such, a user can use the same account
to log on from any machine within the domain and get the same permission to
access the resources within the domain. A domain model provides the following
advantages:
1. Single user logon: Users access
network resources according to the rights assigned by the corresponding domain.
For example, after a user ww log on to computer1, he can access the authorized
resources in computer1, as well as the authorized resources in other computers
without extra login requests. Moreover, users can logon to the domain in any
computer of the domain.
2. Centralized administration: A centralized
view of the entire network from any workstation on the network provides the
ability to track and manage information on users, groups, and resources in
a distributed network.
3. Resource universal access: The
administrator can grant users access to shared resources regardless of his
location. Resource universal access makes 'Single User logon' possible.
A FQDN (fully qualified
domain name) is a hierarchical name that provides a naming scheme for TCP/IP
hosts. FQDNs are most commonly used in the Internet with a Domain Name System
(DNS). FQDN consists of two parts: the domain name and the host name. For
example, using the fictional domain, an FQDN for a web server could be www.yahoo.com.
Note that the DNS name can actually be multi-part with each part of the name
separated by a period (.). Microsoft
suggests people use the domain part of the FQDN as the domain name in Windows
2000.
A workgroup model distributes the administration
tasks. Each computer has its own database for user¡¯s name and password. It
is not saying that you cannot access the resource on other computers using
workgroup model, but your login name could be different on another computer.
Therefore, in a workgroup model, you assign passwords to each shared resource.
The shared resource distinguishes people from the password provided. For example,
if you shared a directory c:\ww on a computer, you assign "wwread"
as the read-only password and "wwfull" for Full Access. Anyone knows
the password "wwread" can only read the file on shared the directory,
while those who knows the password "wwfull" can modify the files.
You can set up a Windows 2000 Professional computer join the domain or
the workgroup.
Active Directory is the directory service that
stores user accounts; computer accounts and other network objects and makes
this information available to users and network administrators. Active Directory
gives network users access to permitted resources anywhere on the network
using a single logon process. It provides network administrators with an intuitive
hierarchical view of the network and a single point of administration for
all network objects.
Figure 1.1.1 Active Directory Installation Wizard
Winnt.exe and winnt32.exe are the commands to perform an
installation of or upgrade to Windows 2000. You can find the winnt.exe and
winnt32.exe files under the i386 directory of the Windows 2000 Retail CD. Some
people might be wondering when to use winnt.exe and when to use winnt32.exe.
The rule is quite simple. When you install Windows 2000 from a 16-bit operating
system, you need to run winnt.exe and when you install Windows 2000 from a
32-bit operating system, you need to run winnt32.exe. For those Microsoft
operating systems we mentioned before, MS-DOS is a 16-bit operating system and
Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT and Windows 2000 are 32-bit operating
systems. Therefore, if you want to install Windows 2000 on a Windows 98
computer, you must use winnt32.exe.
Microsoft has another
program called setup.exe (in the root directory of the
Windows 2000 retail CD). If you are headache of figuring out whether your
current OS is 16-bit or 32-bit, you can just run setup.exe for the installation
and the setup.exe will detect the current OS and select the correct files
for you.
FAT (File Allocation Table)
is a table maintained by some operating
systems such as MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows 2000 as well as OS/2
to keep track of the status of various segments of disk space used for file
storage. FAT is also called the FAT file system. FAT is the only file system
that is supported by all the Microsoft operating systems. Because MS-DOS can
only support FAT file system, if you want to dual boot MS-DOS with Windows
2000,
you must implement the FAT file system. On a Windows 95 or DOS system, FAT
is limited to 2 GB hard drives. Some people may have found that when they
purchased a 6GB hard disk, they had to partition the disk to three 2GB disks
using the fdisk command and ended up with (c:, d: and e: three
disk drives in their system. This is because of he 2GB limitation of the FAT
file system.
A dual boot is a configuration
that you have multiple operating systems installed on your computer. You can
choose which operating systems you want to start each time you reboot the
computer.
FAT32 is the 32-bit version of FAT.
Although FAT is a 16-bit file system, we usually don¡¯t call FAT FAT16. FAT32
was available on Windows 95 since late 1996 and it increased the drive limitation
to 2TB. FAT32 is supported on Windows 95,
Windows 98 and Windows 2000 while not MS-DOS and Windows NT. Therefore, if
you want to dual boot Windows 2000 with Windows 98, you can either use FAT
or FAT32 file system. However, if you want to dual boot Windows 2000 with
MS-DOS, you can only use FAT.
To check what your current
file system is, you can open Windows Explorer and right clicks the C: drive,
click properties to see if your system is FAT, FAT32 or NTFS.
NTFS (NT File System) is an advanced
file system that was designed for use specifically within the Windows NT operating
system. NTFS supports file system recovery, extremely large storage media,
long filenames, and various features for the POSIX subsystem. It also supports
object-oriented applications by treating all files as objects with user-defined
and system-defined attributes.
For the Windows 2000
exam, you need to know three things about the NTFS:
1.
NTFS only works on the Windows NT or Windows 2000 platform
2.
NTFS has more security features than FAT
3.
You can run most of the MS-DOS and Windows application on NTFS
Suppose we have two hard disks in the system. We
format C: to FAT and D: to NTFS. When you open the Properties of C: and D:
drivers, you will see the following diagram:
Figure 1.1.2 compare FAT and NTFS
In the figure 1.1.2, you will find that D: drive has four more tabs called Hardware, security, Web Sharing and Quota. Hence, you can implement more security issues with NTFS. In fact, when you logon to a Windows 2000 computer locally, anybody can access the folders on the FAT file system. There is no way to prevent anyone from accessing these FAT folders if he can login locally. That¡¯s the reason why Microsoft suggests people use NTFS on Windows 2000. For the drives using NTFS, user-level security can be implemented on different folders and you can prevent users from accessing local system files.
For small directories, the FAT file system may be
faster to get to the file, because:
-
The FAT directory structure is simpler.
-
The FAT directory size is smaller for an equal number of files.
-
FAT doesn¡¯t have to check permissions for an individual file or whether a
specific user has access to the file or directory.
The NTFS file system uses a binary tree structure for all
directories. This structure minimizes the number of disk accesses required
to find a file, which means that the NTFS file system should be faster for
larger directories.
HPFS (High Performance File System) from IBM is the file system introduced with
OS/2 that handles large disks (2TB volumes; 2GB files) and long file names
(256 bytes). It coexists with the existing FAT system. Please note that HPFS has nothing to do with
HP Corporation but is an IBM product.
The following table lists the supported file
system on MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, 95/98, NT as well as Windows 2000.
|
|
MS-DOS Windows
3.1 |
Windows 95 Windows 98 |
Windows NT 3.1,
3.5x |
Windows NT 4.0 |
Windows 2000 |
|
FAT |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
|
FAT32 |
N |
Y |
N |
N |
Y |
|
HPFS |
N |
N |
Y |
N |
N |
|
NTFS |
N |
N |
Y |
Y |
Y |
CDFS is used on a CD-ROM driver. It is read-only and when the
files on CD-ROM are copied to the Windows 2000 system, it converts the file to FAT,
FAT32 or NTFS depending on where the file is
copied to.
1.2
Perform an unattended installation of Windows 2000 Professional.
1.2.1
Install Windows 2000 Professional by using Windows 2000 Server Remote Installation
Services (RIS).
More and more
devices support plug and play nowadays. In the future, a computer itself can be
plug-and-played. People had a dream that after connecting the computer to the
network, you don¡¯t need to configure the network setting, you do not need to
install the software, and you can just use the computer. Microsoft¡¯s RIS
technology makes this dream come true. RIS technology represents the future of
the computers. No wonder there are lots of RIS related questions in the MCSE
exams.
RIS (Remote
Installation Services) is a technology that allows an administrator to remotely
set up new client computers that support remote booting, without having to
visit each client. Remote Installation Services must be installed on a Windows
2000 Server computer. Currently, Windows 2000 Professional is the only operating
system that can be installed using the RIS. You cannot install a Windows 2000
server through the RIS.
PXE (Preboot EXecution
Environment) is a technology that enables a PC to boot from the server. PXE
supports remote booting (boot the OS) or boot the installation program to
install the OS.
Therefore, if your
client uses PXE compliant network adapter or is a NetPC, you can use it as
a RIS client. If your computer is not a NetPC or has a PXE compliant network
adapter installed, you can use rbfg.exe in the Command Prompt to create the
remote boot disk for the RIS client and the RIS client can use it to boot
the computer.
Figure 1.2.1.1 Window 2000 Remote Boot Disk Generator
The RIS
server must contain the operating system image to be installed in either
compact disc (CD) or Remote Installation Preparation wizard (RIPrep) image
format.
Figure 1.2.1.2 Implement RIS in your network
Creating the CD image is quite simple, after you install the RIS service
on a Windows 2000 Server, you can specify the location of the Windows 2000
Professional CD and copy it to a network share that can be accessed from the
RIS client computers.
1.2.2
Install Windows 2000 Professional by using the System Preparation Tool.
If you install
hundreds of Windows 2000 Professional computers for your company, most
computers might have the identical hardware configuration. The most efficient
installation method should be disk duplication using third party tools such as
Ghost.
Every computer must have a unique security ID (SID) in the network. If
you duplicate the hard disks, it also duplicate the SID so all the computers in
your network might have the same SID. To solve this kind of the problem, the
System Preparation Tool sysprep.exe is introduced.
To install the System Preparation Tool sysprep.exe in your computer,
create a directory Deploy folder such as c:\deploy in your computer. Browse the
Windows 2000 Retail CD and find the deploy.cab in the support/tools directory.
Double click the deploy.cab file and extract all the files to the deploy folder
you have created. After that, use Windows Explorer to run the sysprep.exe
program and you will see the following warning dialog box.
Figure 1.2.2.1 Windows 2000 System Preparation Tool
After performing the initial setup steps on a single system, you can run
SysPrep.exe to prepare the sample hard disk for cloning. After that, you can
use the disk duplication tools such as Ghost to clone the sample hard disk.
SysPrep assigns a unique SID to each target computer the first time the
computer is rebooted. Sysprep also creates a Mini-Setup wizard which runs the
first time the target user reboots the machine. This shortened GUI-mode setup
takes five to six minutes instead of 45 to 60 minutes and prompts the end user
only for required and user-specific information, such as the End User License
Agreement, Product ID, and user name and company.
The syntax for the sysprep is:
Where:
-quiet suppresses confirmation dialogs
displayed to the user.
-nosidgen informs Setupcl.exe not to
generate new SIDs on the reboot. This switch can be used if you want to make a
duplicated copy of your current hard disk.
-reboot forces the computer to reboot
instead of shutting down (useful during auditing only).
-pnp The Mini-Setup wizard will
automatically detect new or different plug and play devices on the destination
computer and disable those that were used on the master computer but not found
on the destination computer; however, you may want to use the -pnp switch to
enable legacy device detection or to re-enumerate the devices on the
destination computer. Using this switch adds a few extra minutes to the
end-user's experience in order to do a complete hardware redetection.
HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) is the translation layer in Windows 2000
that resides between the kernel and I/O system and the hardware itself. A
uniprocessor system and a multi-processor system use the different HALs.
Because we can use ¨Cpnp switch when using Sysprep, the master and
destination computers don¡¯t need to be totally identical. They just need to
use the same HAL and mass storage controllers (IDE or SCSI). Those plug and play devices such as modems,
sound cards, network cards, video cards, etc. do not have to be the same, but
drivers for those devices should be available.
Sysprep.inf is a file created with Setup Manager that we will
discuss later to customize the Mini-Setup routine that will run the first time
the target user reboots the computer. Sysprep.inf can be used to automate the
Mini-setup. To automate the Mini-setup, you can either put the Sysprep.inf into
the Sysprep folder on the system
partition of the master computer, or save the Sysprep.inf to a floppy disk, and insert the disk at the
beginning of Mini-Setup.
1.2.3
Create unattended answer files by using Setup Manager to automate the installation
of Windows 2000 Professional.
Microsoft might be happy for you to deploy several hundreds Windows 2000
Professional computers in your network. However it would be tedious work for
the administrator who needs to respond to every prompt from every installation
while Windows 2000 is being installed. Unattended installation saves a lot of
time and effort if you have to install a large number of Windows 2000
Professional computers.
Before we discuss
the unattended installations, let¡¯s review the general installation process
for the Windows 2000 Professional. If you have the Windows NT or Windows 98
running, you can run winnt32.exe for the installation of Windows 2000
Professional. If you start the computer using the MS-DOS, you must run
winnt.exe for the installation.
Unattended installation is the method by which the administrators install Windows 2000 in unattended mode. It might take a little more preparation to begin the unattended installation, but it saves your overall time because after the unattended installation, you do not need to response to any prompts when Windows 2000 is being installed. As we have learnt before, if you want to install Windows 2000, you can run winnt.exe or winnt32.exe on the command line.
To start Windows NT Setup in unattended mode
(as an unattended installation), you must specify the following command from
the i386 directory on the Windows 2000 Retail CD.
WinNT[32] /u:<answer
file> /s:<install source>
Where <answer file> contains the information to automate the
installation process and <install source> specifies the source location
of the Windows 2000 installation files. For example, i386 directory in Windows
2000 retail CD. You can also copy all files in i386 directory to the hard disk
and specify the corresponding location in the hard drive. <Answer file>
is referred to as the Unattend.txt file that we will discuss later.
If you compare the regular installation and unattended installation, you
will find:
-
Both regular installation and unattended installation use winnt.exe or
winnt32.exe
-
Unattended installation needs to specify the source location of the Windows
2000 installation files (or run winnt.exe/winnt32.exe from where the
installation files located) and the answer file.
In fact, three files are important for the unattended installation. They
are unattend.txt, UDF and sysdiff.exe.
The Unattend.txt file answers the prompts during the installation. Unattend.txt
file is also called the Windows 2000 Professional Setup Script File.
A sample unattend.txt file is on the Windows 2000 Professional Retail
CD and provides a solution for the simplest installation.
An answer file usually consists of section headers, parameters, and
values for those parameters. Most of the section headers are predefined
(although some may be user-defined). It is not necessary to specify all the
possible parameters and keys in the Unattend.txt file if the installation does
not require them. The file format is as the following:
[section1]
;
Section contains keys and the corresponding values for those keys/parameters.
;
keys and values are separated by "=" signs
;
Values usually require double quotes "" around them
key
= value
[section2]
key = value
A more complicated unattend.txt file can be created using Setup Manager. Setup Manager
(setupmgr.exe) is located in the \SUPPORT\DEPTOOLS\ directory on the Windows
2000 Professional retail CD.
Setup Manager can create the unattended installation file not only for
the Windows 2000 unattended installation, but also for the Sysprep install and
Remote Installation Services. (Figure 1.2.3.1)
Figure 1.2.3.1 Setup Manager
UDF (Uniqueness database file) is used to specify the difference between
different installations, (such as the computer name and the user name).
Although unattend.txt file can answer all the prompts during the installation,
some information such as the computer name must be unique for each computer.
You can use /UDF option with either winnt.exe or winnt32.exe to specify
the UDF file. Follow the below format:
/UDF:ID[,database_filename]
Winnt /s:d:\i386\ /u:unattend.txt /UDF:id1,udf1.txt
Means you install Windows 2000 Professional from d:\i386 directory and
use unattend.txt as the unattended answer file. You also use udf1.txt as the
UDF file, which contains a unique ID of id1.
Sysdiff is used to duplicate applications for installation. The System Difference
tool enables you to distribute and install applications automatically during
or after Windows 2000 setup. This can significantly reduce deployment time
and costs. It can be used to record
the changes made to your system when an application is installed; capture
those changes in a "package" and then "apply" or install
the package on another system during or after the setup process. Sysdiff takes
a snapshot before and after installing the applications on a specific computer
and creates a difference file that contains binary files for the applications.
Moreover, sysdiff also initializes file and registry setting for applications.
Windiff is used for NT 3.51
for the unattended installation. Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 replaces
it with sysdiff.exe. Because this is the Windows 2000 Professional exam, understand
that windiff as an answer is a trap set by Microsoft to trip you up on those
unattended installation questions. The command Windiff is used in Windows
2000 Professional to compare two files or two directories.
Unattended installation using a bootable CD-ROM is somewhat different
than using the winnt.exe or winnt32.exe command. In order to accomplish this
task, the answer file (unattend.txt) must be renamed to Winnt.sif and saved to a floppy
disk. Moreover, the answer file must include a [Data] section with the appropriate
parameters. The UnattendedInstall value must be set to yes. The MSDosInitiated
value must be set to no. The AutoPartition value must be set to 1. If any
of these parameters are set with incorrect values, then Setup either will
not continue or will prompt the user for input.
The UDF file cannot be used with this method because you don¡¯t have a
chance to specify the ID for the UDF file.
1.3
Upgrade from a previous version of Windows to Windows 2000 Professional
- Apply update packs to installed software
applications.
- Prepare a computer to meet upgrade requirements.
Microsoft will be happy if you upgrade your
Windows 98, Windows 98 and Windows 2000 workstation computers that use
compatible hardware to Windows 2000 Professional. Windows 2000 supports a new
directory service called Active Directory, which was not supported in Windows
95/98/NT computers. If your computer uses incompatible or insufficient
hardware, you can install the Windows 2000 directory service client on
those systems and take advantage of the functionality of active directory
services.
Before installing the directory service client
on Windows 95/98/NT, you must have Internet Explorer 4.01 or later installed.
In a nutshell, if your computer meets the Windows 2000 requirements, you can
upgrade your computer. Otherwise, you can install directory service client
on your computer. To install the directory
service client, insert the Windows 2000 Server retail CD, and run the Dsclient.exe command in the clients\win9x directory.
To upgrade Windows 2000 3.1 and Windows 2000
3.5 computers to Windows 2000, you must upgrade Windows 2000 3.1/3.5 to Windows
2000 3.51 or Windows 2000 4.0 first, then upgrade to Windows 2000. However for Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows
2000 3.51 and Windows 2000 4.0, you can upgrade them to Windows 2000 directly.
To see if your hardware and software meet
the Windows 2000 upgrade requirements, you¡¯d better generate a compatibility
report before performing the upgrade. To generate a compatibility report,
you can either
1. Run winnt32 /checkupgradeonly
This command checks
your computer for upgrade compatibility with Windows 2000. For Windows 95 or
Windows 98 upgrades, Setup creates a report named Upgrade.txt in the Windows
installation folder. For Windows NT 3.51 or 4.0 upgrades, it saves the report
to the Winnt32.log in the installation folder.
2. Run
chkupgrd.exe
You can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/default.asp
Most old applications can run on the
Windows 2000 system. There are three kinds of the applications are not
compatible with Windows 2000, you need remove them before the Windows 2000
installation.
1.
Third party networking protocol and client software that doesn¡¯t have upgrade
in the i386\winntupg folder.
2.
All anti-virus applications. That¡¯s because Windows 2000 upgraded NTFS version
4.0 to NTFS version 5.0. Most anti-virus applications are tied up with the file
system.
3.
Customized power management tools. That¡¯s because Windows 2000 uses new
technologies such as ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) and APM
(Advanced Power Management) for power management.
1.4
Deploy service packs.
Service pack is a
software patch that is applied to the operating system. Before Windows 2000,
you must deploy Windows operating system and service packs separately.
Sometimes you need to reinstall the components previously installed. However
Windows 2000 supports service-pack slipstreaming, which means the service pack
can be intergraded with the Windows 2000 installation files.
The service packs
can be downloaded from Microsoft¡¯s website. You can run Windows Update from
start menu or Internet Explorer to connect to the website that you can download
the service packs.
To slipstream a
service pack, copy Windows 2000 installation files to a network share. Run
update /slip to replace the Windows 2000 installation files. After that, you
can connect the client computers to the network share to perform the
installation.
To install service pack after installing Windows 2000, you can run update.exe to replace the existing Windows 2000 files with the appropriate files from the service pack.
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