make-windows-vm

Why?

There are some automated tests related to windows OS in our work. So we need to find ways to automate the installation and configuration of the windows OS, that's it.

Actually this project is a reconstruction of https://github.com/richm/auto-win-vm-ad and aims to meet our specific requirements and provide a more clear user interface.

Ref: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/automate-windows-setup

Files layout:

make-windows-vm/
├── answer-file-generator.sh
├── AnswerFileTemplates
│   ├── addsdomain
│   │   ├── autounattend.xml.in -> ../base/autounattend.xml.in
│   │   └── postinstall.ps1.in
│   ├── addsforest
│   │   ├── autounattend.xml.in -> ../base/autounattend.xml.in
│   │   └── postinstall.ps1.in
│   ├── base
│   │   ├── autounattend.xml.in
│   │   └── postinstall.ps1.in
│   └── cifs-nfs
│       ├── autounattend.xml.in -> ../base/autounattend.xml.in
│       └── postinstall.ps1.in
├── LICENSE
├── make-win-vm.sh
├── README.md
├── README-options.md
└── utils
    ├── config_ad_client.sh
    ├── gen_virt_mac.sh
    ├── make-samba-server.sh
    ├── test-cert.sh
    ├── test-cifs-nfs.sh
    └── test-ssh.sh

Note: There are four answer file templates AnswerFileTemplates/{base,addsdomain,addsforest,cifs-nfs} directories for different usages. Generally, answer file is used to deploy windows automatically. Usages are listed below:

Directory	Usage
AnswerFileTemplates/base	windows server without any services cofigured
AnswerFileTemplates/addsdomain	active directory child domain
AnswerFileTemplates/addsforest	active directory forest
AnswerFileTemplates/cifs-nfs	windows NFS/CIFS server

Dependencies:

Package	Notes
libvirt	virtual machine service daemon
libvirt-client	virtual machine/network management
virt-install	virtual machine creation
virt-viewer	graphical interface for viewing virtual machine
qemu-kvm	core virt package
genisoimage	for creating the CD-ROM answerfile disk
libguestfs-tools	windows vm registry reader
libguestfs-tools-c	used to check for the wait file
libguestfs-winsupport	windows vm files reader (OPTIONAL)
openldap-clients	for testing AD connection and getting AD CA cert
dos2unix/unix2dos	for byte encoding conversion
libosinfo	used to check windows image information (OPTIONAL)

On RHEL/CentOS:

sudo yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm

sudo yum install libvirt libvirt-client virt-install virt-viewer qemu-kvm dosfstools \
 openldap-clients dos2unix unix2dos glibc-common expect

Steps:

Make sure the dependencies mentioned above are installed and services are started
Download a windows ISO(If you have not bought a license, you can try evaluation versions)
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-server
Run make-win-vm.sh script with the required parameters (see Examples below)
Get information about windows after installation from /tmp directory if necessary
- /tmp/$vnmane.env contains windows IP, FQDN, username, etc.
- /tmp/postinstall.log contains the configuration log of windows installation.

Examples:

Setup Active Directory forest:

./make-win-vm.sh --image /var/lib/libvirt/images/Win2012r2.iso --os-variant win2k12r2 \
    --product-key W3GGN-FT8W3-Y4M27-J84CP-Q3VJ9 --vm-name rootds --domain ad.test -p ~Ocgxyz --cpus 2 \
    --ram 2048 --disk-size 20 --vncport 7777 --ad-forest-level Win2012R2  ./AnswerFileTemplates/addsforest/*

./make-win-vm.sh --image /var/lib/libvirt/images/Win2012r2-Evaluation.iso \
    --os-variant win2k12r2 --vm-name rootds --domain kernel.test -p ~Ocgabc \
    --cpus 2 --ram 2048 --disk-size 20 --vncport 7788 ./AnswerFileTemplates/addsforest/*

Setup Active Directory child domain:

./make-win-vm.sh --image /var/lib/libvirt/images/Win2012r2-Evaluation.iso \
    --os-variant win2k12r2 --vm-name child --parent-domain kernel.test --domain fs  -p ~Ocgxyz \
    --cpus 2 --ram 2048 --disk-size 20 --vncport 7789 ./AnswerFileTemplates/addsdomain/* --parent-ip $addr

Setup Windows as NFS/CIFS server:

./make-win-vm.sh --image /var/lib/libvirt/images/Win2019-Evaluation.iso \
    --os-variant win2k19 --vm-name winfs --domain nfs.test -p ~Ocgxyz \
    --cpus 4 --ram 4096 --disk-size 80 --vncport 7799 \
    --driver-url=https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/archive-virtio/virtio-win-0.1.208-1/virtio-win-guest-tools.exe \
    --driver-url=https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/archive-virtio/virtio-win-0.1.208-1/virtio-win-gt-x64.msi \
    --run-with-reboot='./virtio-win-guest-tools.exe /install /passive'
    --run-post='./qemu-ga-x86_64.msi /passive'
    ./AnswerFileTemplates/cifs-nfs/* --enable-kdc

NOTE:

All the examples above provide as much details as possible but generally not all the parameters above are mandatory. To get more help, see README-options or just use -h (--help).
If the password of windows is too weak, it will fail to deploy windows.
all examples above test pass on Windows Server 2012,2012r2,2016,2019; and Windows 10 pass on basic ./AnswerFileTemplates/base/* on Host(RHEL-7 RHEL-8 Fedora-3X)
[deprecated] libguestfs can't mount ntfs after RHEL-7.2, because libguestfs-winsupport was disabled for some reason. Now it seems only RHEL Server provides libguestfs-winsupport.
[deprecated] For users of other distributions, we provide a workaround: Use USB as answer file media type instead of iso, thus we can write windows guest info on USB instead and still could read them from host (This is done automatically so no extra operations are needed).

Tips

[-1] About Windows iso

Note: our example autounattend.xml just works fine on en-us version's ISO file

so please select language en-us while you download evaluate iso from Microsoft site.

[0] About libguestfs ntfs and libguestfs-winsupport

Ref: http://libguestfs.org/guestfs-faq.1.html

If you cannot open Windows guests which use NTFS. You may see errors like:

 mount: unknown filesystem type 'ntfs'

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux or CentOS < 7.2, you have to install the libguestfs-winsupport package. In RHEL ≥ 7.2, libguestfs-winsupport is part of the base RHEL distribution, but see the next question. "mount: unsupported filesystem type" with NTFS in RHEL ≥ 7.2

In RHEL 7.2 we were able to add libguestfs-winsupport to the base RHEL distribution, but we had to disable the ability to use it for opening and editing filesystems. It is only supported when used with virt-v2v(1). If you try to use guestfish(1) or guestmount(1) or some other programs on an NTFS filesystem, you will see the error:

 mount: unsupported filesystem type

This is not a supported configuration, and it will not be made to work in RHEL. Don't bother to open a bug about it, as it will be immediately CLOSED -> WONTFIX.

You may compile your own libguestfs removing this restriction, but that won't be endorsed or supported by Red Hat.

[1] Get wim images info

From windows:

CMD C:\> dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:F:\sources\install.wim
PS C:\> Get-WindowsImage -ImagePath "c:\imagestore\install.wim" -Name Ultimate
PS C:\> Get-WindowsImage -ImagePath "c:\imagestore\install.vhd"

From linux:

Install dependencies:

sudo yum install libxml2-devel fuse-devel

Install winlib for source (https://wimlib.net/):

git clone git://wimlib.net/wimlib && cd wimlib && ./confiure && make && sudo make install

Mount your windows install ISO file:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/image
ISO=/var/lib/libvirt/images/Win2012r2-Evaluation.iso
sudo mount $ISO /mnt/image

Get all images info:

wiminfo /mnt/image/sources/install.wim
<skip>

# get info of Image with Index=1
wiminfo /mnt/image/sources/install.wim 1
<skip>

# get info of Image with Name="Windows Server 2012 R2 SERVERSTANDARD"
wiminfo /mnt/image/sources/install.wim "Windows Server 2012 R2 SERVERSTANDARD"
Information for Image 2
-----------------------
Index:                  2
Name:                   Windows Server 2012 R2 SERVERSTANDARD
Description:            Windows Server 2012 R2 SERVERSTANDARD
Display Name:           Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard Evaluation (Server with a GUI)
Display Description:    This option is useful when a GUI is required—for example, to provide backward compatibility for an application that cannot be run on a Server Core installation. All server roles and features are supported. You can switch to a different installation option later. See "Windows Server Installation Options."
Directory Count:        19342
File Count:             89400
Total Bytes:            12051460352
Hard Link Bytes:        4403205238
Creation Time:          Fri Mar 21 20:40:33 2014 UTC
Last Modification Time: Fri Mar 21 20:41:07 2014 UTC
Architecture:           x86_64
Product Name:           Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Edition ID:             ServerStandardEval
Installation Type:      Server
HAL:                    acpiapic
Product Type:           ServerNT
Product Suite:          Terminal Server
Languages:              en-US
Default Language:       en-US
System Root:            WINDOWS
Major Version:          6
Minor Version:          3
Build:                  9600
Service Pack Build:     17031
Service Pack Level:     0
Flags:                  ServerStandardEval
WIMBoot compatible:     no

[2] Convert UTF-16 encoded file to UTF-8

install log generated by postinstall.ps1 is UTF-16 format, need convert to utf8

iconv -f UTF-16LE -t UTF-8 <filename>

[3] Windows KDC and Domain Controller how-to

Ref1: https://adsecurity.org/?p=483
Every Domain Controller in an Active Directory domain runs a KDC (Kerberos Distribution Center) service which handles all Kerberos ticket requests.

Ref2: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/uktechnet/2016/06/08/setting-up-active-directory-via-powershell/
Now, you will need to promote your server to a domain controller as per your requirements - there are several commands that you can use to do this. I will provide a list and description so that you can figure out which one best suits your needs. However, for this article, we are going to use the Install-ADDSForest command.

Commands to Promote Server as Domain Controller:

Command	Description
Add-ADDSReadOnlyDomainControllerAccount	Install read only domain controller
Install-ADDSDomain	Install first domain controller in a child or tree domain
Install-ADDSDomainController	Install additional domain controller in domain
Install-ADDSForest	Install first domain controller in new forest
Test-ADDSDomainControllerInstallation	Verify prerequisites to install additional domain controller in domain
Test-ADDSDomainControllerUninstallation	Uninstall AD services from server
Test-ADDSDomainInstallation	Verify prerequisites to install first domain controller in a child or tree domain
Test-ADDSForestInstallation	Install first domain controller in new forest
Test-ADDSReadOnlyDomainControllAccountCreation	Verify prerequisites to install read only domain controller
Uninstall-ADDSDomainController	Uninstall the domain controller from server

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