Lenovo Storage DX8200D Updating the Deployment Image (WIM) File First Edition (March 2017) © Copyright Lenovo 2017.
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Table of contents
Document Revision History 3 Recent changes made to this document 3 Modifying the Image File 4 Stage One – Creating the Intermediate Image 4 Stage Two – Creating the Release Image 5 Modifying ADK Content 7 Updating the Hardware Definition File 7 Updating the Product Documentation 7
Document Revision History Recent changes made to this document
First published (January 2017) – Release V1.0
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Modifying the Image File Overview Since the deployment image file is a Microsoft Windows Imaging Format file (‘.wim file’), it can be manipulated as with any other such file by making use of the utilities made available by Microsoft for this purpose. The utility required in this case is the Deployment Image Service Image and Management tool, or “DISM”. The predecessor to DISM, the ImageX tool, has been deprecated since Windows 8 and cannot be used to manage image files for the DX8200D family of appliances.
DISM is distributed by Microsoft as part of the Windows Assessment and Deployment Toolkit and is also available within the Windows Recovery Environment (‘WinRE’).
The DISM utility allows the deployment image file to be mounted to a folder path on a Windows host, whereupon its content may be modified directly as with any other NTFS file system (i.e. using Windows Explorer, a PowerShell session, command line shell etc.). Once the required changes have been made, these are committed to the image and it is unmounted, effectively “re-sealing” it along with the new content. Updating an Appliance Image As part of the Disaster Recovery provision for the DX8200D family, the deployment image file used actually contains within it a copy of itself, so that this might be available to a user should it be necessary for them to perform the recovery of another appliance within their deployed server group. For this reason, the creation of a production ready image is a two- step process;.The first step applies the required changes in content to an existing deployment image file, creating an ‘Intermediate Image’, whilst the second modifies a copy of this intermediate so as it contains a copy of itself. Sealing the modified second-step image yields the ‘Release Image’. Stage One – Creating the Intermediate Image In the first stage, the correct “base” deployment image is mounted on a Windows host, its content becoming available as a mount-point extension to the local file system from where it may be modified
1. At a command Prompt, mount the base image .wim file using the DISM mount-wim command. For example executing the command with the following parameters;
dism /mount-wim /wimfile:"baseImageName.wim" /index:1 /mountdir:C:\WIMmount
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Causes an image file named “baseImageName.wim” to be mounted to the local filesystem path C:\WIMmount\
NOTE: The local folder path named in the /mountdir parameter must already exist, it will not be created by the DISM utility. If a folder path is specified which does not exist, an error will occur.
2. Modify the content of the
3. Apply the changes to the image file and unmount it, using the DISM command unmount-wim. For example, executing the command with the following parameters;
dism /unmount-wim /mountdir:C:\WIMmount /commit
targets the image file currently mounted at C:\WIMmount, causes any changes made to the image’s content to be saved and for it to be unmounted from the local file system. If the /commit switch were omitted, any changes made to the image file would be discarded.
4. Once the new, intermediate image has been unmounted it may be renamed if required. Whatever name is chosen, this should be the same as the intended name of the “release” image, to be created in stage two.
5. A copy of the correctly named intermediate image should made and placed into another folder on the local file system. This is the “recovery” copy, which will be incorporated into the release image in stage two.
Stage Two – Creating the Release Image In this stage, the “recovery” copy of the intermediate image file produced in the previous stage is incorporated into itself, to yield the Release Image.
1. Mount the intermediate image produced in Stage One using the DISM /mount-image command. E.g;
dism /mount-wim /wimfile:"intermediateImageName.wim" /index:1 /mountdir:C:\WIMmount
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2. Copy the “recovery” copy of the intermediate image file, produced in step five of Stage One, to the ADK folder contained within the image. The correct path is
3. Unmount the image, committing the changes. E.g;
dism /unmount-wim /mountdir:C:\WIMmount /commit
4. The resulting modified image file, containing the recovery image copy, is the Release image.
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Modifying ADK Content Overview The deployment image file contains a complete representation of the content of the boot partition (“C: drive”) of the DX8200D appliance, in WIM format. This includes all the expected assets of a Windows 2012 R2 operating system installation.
In contrast, the ADK folder (and it sub-directories) within the image is the location of all DataCore supplied deployment automation assets. Specific ADK Content Updating the Hardware Definition File The deployment automation validates the hardware configuration of the device on which it is executing, prior to commencing a deployment. Valid configurations are defined by content of an XML-based document, the Hardware Definition File (or “definition file”).
The definition file, by default named StorSelect.hwdefinition.xml, must be located in the path .\ADK\Configuration. It may be renamed but the .hwdefinition.xml compound extension must be retained. For example, myDefinitionFile.hwdefinition.xml is valid, whilst hardwareDefinition.xml is not.
Updating the Product Documentation The deployment image contains the production documentation in two formats, PDF and self-contained MIME HTML (.mht). If the documentation masters are updated, new content in both formats should be produced also.
PDF content should be placed in the path .\ADK\media\manual , whilst .mht files should be placed in .\ADK\media\IE.
If any of the .mht files have been renamed as part of the planned modification, then the corresponding links in the file .\ADK\media\IE\start.htm should also be updated accordingly.
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