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I have used salt-cloud to create a VM in my vSphere instance and am wanting to carry out a completely unattended Windows server 2022 install.

From research I have found out about windows answer files but I am not sure where this answer file needs to go in my iso file, or even if that is the correct way to do this. Does it need to be attached to my VM separately? I'm sure there must be a way for a completely unattended windows install but I am at a loss at the moment.

Also, I'm not completely set on the idea of an answer file. I'm more than happy to use another method.

The end goal here is to create a VM, install windows and other software and then delete the VM. The only sticking point at the moment is the windows install.

If this question should be asked on a different "stack" site, please let me know which one is appropriate.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks

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  • The unattended happens after first startup post sysprep. It's some files in a specific Windows directory before you run sysprep. If you are trying to automate the VMware mount of an ISO and defining the VM properties of the VM you are spinning up, you will likely need command line to interface with the VMware hypervisor. It can be done with PowerShell or other esxi commands perhaps at that level. Otherwise you have to mount and define the VM and boot to the ISO which would be a sysprep'd and unattended configured machine. I use templates or clones personally in VMware world but not unattended.
    – Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style
    Commented Mar 10, 2023 at 0:30
  • I'm more a server sysadmin but the PC guys use unattended and I've helped some with it before but for servers in VMware, vSphere, vCenter, etc. I use a sysprep'd close but no unattended post configuration but should be possible but that's the basic of it in a nutshell. It's really just trivial. But in my solution, I still have to initial the deploy of the clone to another VM, assign its resources, cluster, network, etc. manually but with some scripting and trivial work, that could be automated with prompt only to unique values per VM being spun up.
    – Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style
    Commented Mar 10, 2023 at 0:32
  • there's tools out there that will generate the answer file. I think its a 'simple' matter of throwing it into the root of your ISO?
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Commented Mar 10, 2023 at 0:47
  • @JourneymanGeek Unfortunately I have tried throwing the answer file in the root of the iso but to no avail. The VM refused to acknowledge it, and would even let me install windows manually
    – user1779962
    Commented Mar 10, 2023 at 8:41
  • @user1779962 See this post: serverfault.com/questions/1081111/… and also this MS post learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/… but all this is just trivial and you can figure out with trial and error. Between these two posts, this should clarify what you need on the configuration side.
    – Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style
    Commented Mar 10, 2023 at 10:14

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