You can use a WinPE image to provision a device that does not have an operating system installed.

About this task

Mirage supports running only the WinPE creation script in the English (United States) region. You can stop the WinPE creation script at any point by pressing CTRL+C. The next time you run the WinPE creation process, the previous operation leftovers are cleared.

If you change the output directory of the WinPE image to a path in the network, the script fails to run.

Create a new WinPE image for each new version of Mirage. You do not have to recapture the base layers and app layers.

Prerequisites

  • Install the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows 10 to the default location. Windows ADK is supported only on Windows Vista and later. While the ADK for Windows 8.1 is supported, you must install the latest Win10 ADK.

  • Select the Windows Preinstall Environment option when you install the Windows ADK.

  • Verify that you have administrator privileges.

Procedure

  1. Double-click the file for your environment to extract the WinPE creation environment.

    Option

    Description

    64-bit

    Mirage.WinPE.x64.buildnumber.zip

    32-bit

    Mirage.WinPE.x86.buildnumber.zip

    The WinPE version must match the capabilities of the processor. If the processor is 32-bit use a WinPE 32-bit image. If the processor is 64-bit use a WinPE 32-bit or WinPE 64-bit image.

  2. Edit the BuildMirageWinPE.cmd file.
    1. Right-click the BuildMirageWinPE.cmd file and select an editing program.
    2. Configure the connection to the Mirage server.

      Option

      Description

      Mirage server address

      Address of the Mirage server.

      Mirage server port

      Port of the Mirage server. Default is 8000.

      Use SSL to connect to the Mirage server

      Must be TRUE or FALSE.

      Self Service Provisioning

      Enable or disable the self service provisioning feature that also includes a built-in browser into the WinPE image.

      Self Service Provisioning Web Console URL

      While Self Service Provisioning is enabled, this option cannot be empty. Enter URL in the form "https://Web_Management_Address:7443/ssp".

      Ensure disks are partitioned as GPT with ForceGPT option

      Controls whether GUID Partition Table (GPT) is the layout of the partition table on the disk when booting with Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). Must be TRUE or FALSE. TRUE results in existing Master Boot Record (MBR) partitioned disks to be re-partitioned in when UEFI boot mode. The default is FALSE.

      WinPE language

      Set language for zh-cn, zh-tw, de-de, fr-fr, ja-jp, ko-kr, es-es. For English, the option is empty.

      Directory path to which the WinPE images are saved

      Only local paths are supported.

      Mirage log level

      Level when running the WinPE environment. Can be DEBUG, TRACE, INFO, WARN, or VERBOSE.

      ADK version

      Set version of the tool used for creating the WinPE images.

      Do not use a space before and after the equals sign, for example, SERVER_PORT=12345.

  3. Add the drivers for the WinPE image to the Drivers directory.
  4. Add the certificates for the WinPE image to the Certificates directory.

    Mirage supports .cer, .crt, and .pfx certificate formats.

    1. Export the corporate CA server certificate in .cer format and copy it to the certificates directory to enable secure communication between the Mirage WinPE client and the Mirage server.
  5. Add optional scripts or customized applications that you want to run on WinPE startup to the scripts folder.
  6. Access the command prompt as an administrator and run the BuildMirageWinPE.cmd command from the extracted directory.

    For example, if you extracted the file to your desktop, desktopdir\WinPeCreation.version\BuildMirageWinPe.cmd.

Results

An .iso file for CDs, DVDs, or USB, and a .wim file for a PXE server are created. The location where these files are stored appears at the end of the process.

What to do next

Load the .wim file to the PXE server or burn the .iso file to a CD, DVD, or USB. You can reuse the WinPE image that you create.