Apply Windows Server 2012 R2 Image to HP DL380 G9 Physical Server - Step-by-step

In the year of 2017, I worked on a migration project where I had to upgrade the Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 machines to Windows Servers 2012 R2.

Since there were only few physical Windows Server 2012 R2 machines to be built, I syspreped and customized the image for HP physical servers based on the requirements of our Government client.

Below are the steps to apply the custom Windows Server 2012 R2 image to HP DL380 G9 servers.

RAID Configuration

Configure RAID before loading the Windows Server 2012 R2 image on the new physical server (HP Server – Model: DL380 G9). Following are the steps to configure the RAID level 1.

1. Power on the HP DL380 G9 Server
2. Press F9 when you see the below screen.

3. Press Enter button to select the “System Configuration” option when you see the below screen.

4. Select the “Embedded RAID 1 : Smart Array P440ar Controller” from System Configuration” screen below.

5. Select the “Exit and launch HP Smart Storage Administrator (HPSSA)” option.

6. When you see the below screen, click on “Smart Array P440ar” on the left hand side pane, and then, click on “Configure” button under Actions on the right hand side window. 

7. Click on “Create Array” button under Actions.

8. Now, select the “Select All” checkbox and click on “Create Array” button at the bottom right corner of the screen.

9. On the below screen, by default, the RAID level option will be set to “RAID 1”. Leave all options on this screen as is, and click on “Create Logical Drive” button.

10. Once the RAID is configured, you will see the below screen. Click on “X” (Close button) at the top right corner of the screen.

11. Now, you will see a prompt saying “Are you sure you want to exit the application?”. Click on “OK” button.

12. On the below screen, at the top right corner, click on power button to reboot the server.

13. Server will start rebooting now. Ensure that the Bootable Windows PE USB with our customized Windows Servers 2012 R2 image is plugged into server while it is rebooting. When you see the below screen, press F11 for the Boot Menu.

Partition the hard drive and apply an image

Following are the steps to partition the hard drive and apply our customized Windows Server 2012 R2 image to the HP DL380 G9 server.

1. Boot the destination computer to Windows PE and then, use the DiskPart tool to create the partition structures on your destination PCs. From the below screen, select the Bootable Windows PE USB.

2. Once server is booted to Windows PE, you will see the below screen.

3. Type in “diskpart” and press Enter button. Now, execute the following commands with Diskpart to create three partitions for a UEFI/GPT-based Physical Server.

Note: The temporary drive letters are assigned here: Windows=W and System=S. Do not use X, because this drive letter is reserved for Windows PE. Within Diskpart, you can execute "list volume" command to display what drive letters have been assigned to each volume before executing the following commands.

select disk 0

clean

convert gpt

create partition efi size=500

format quick fs=fat32 label="System"

assign letter="S"

create partition msr size=128

create partition primary size=99328

format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows"

assign letter="W"

list volume

exit

4. Use the DISM tool to apply images to your Windows partition.

dism /apply-image /imagefile:U:\my-windows-partition.wim /index:1 /ApplyDir:W:\

Note: Two partitions were created on the Bootable Windows PE USB. The customized Windows Server 2012 R2 image captured was copied to a 2nd partition of this USB. In the above DISM command, the drive letter U: is for the 2nd partition of this USB.

5. The final step of applying image is to set up a basic system partition. You can use the BCDboot tool to copy a simple set of system files to a system partition. These files include boot configuration data (BCD) information that is used to start Windows:

Use the BCDboot tool to copy common system partition files and to initialize boot configuration data:

W:\Windows\System32\bcdboot W:\Windows /s S:

6. After setting up a System Partition, unplug the Bootable Windows PE USB from server, and type in “exit” and press Enter to reboot the server.

7. Once Windows Server 2012 R2 OS is loaded from the internal hard drive, you will see the below screen. Click on the “Next” button.

8. On the next screen, click on “I accept” button to accept the license terms.

9. Now, you will be prompted to setup the local administrator password. Set the Administrator password to “Password1”.

10. Once you log into the server as an Administrator, change computer name and restart the server.

11. Log back in as an administrator, once server is up and running again.

12. Launch “Local Security Policy” console and rename the Administrator account to “NIRAV”.

13. Install any missing Windows Updates and reboot server.

14. Now, you will see the Administrator’s account name changed to “NIRAV”. Log in and shutdown the server.

Appendix

Appendix explains the Drive Partition Rules, Windows Partition Requirements and Partition Layout.

Drive Partition Rules

When you deploy Windows to a UEFI-based device, you must format the hard drive that includes the Windows partition by using a GUID partition table (GPT) file system. Additional drives may use either the GPT or the master boot record (MBR) file format.

A GPT drive may have up to 128 partitions.

Each partition can have a maximum of 18 exabytes (~18.8 million terabytes) of space.

Windows Partition Requirements:

• System partition

The device must contain a system partition. On GPT drives, this is known as the EFI System Partition, or the ESP. This partition is usually stored on the primary hard drive. The device boots to this partition.

The minimum size of this partition is 100 MB, and must be formatted using the FAT32 file format.

• Microsoft® reserved partition (MSR)

Beginning in Windows 10, the size of the MSR is 16 MB.

Add an MSR to each GPT drive to help with partition management. The MSR is a reserved partition that does not receive a partition ID. It cannot store user data.

• Windows partition

The partition must have at least 20 gigabytes (GB) of drive space for 64-bit versions, or 16 GB for 32-bit versions.

The Windows partition must be formatted using the NTFS file format.

The Windows partition must have enough 10 GB of free space after the user has completed the Out Of Box Experience (OOBE).

Partition layout

The default partition layout for UEFI-based PCs is: a system partition, an MSR and a Windows partition.

References:

Apply Images Using DISM

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/apply-images-using-dism

UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions - Creating partitions before applying the image

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/configure-uefigpt-based-hard-drive-partitions