Answer Files

An automated operating system (OS) deployment solution utilizing answer files. This solution streamlines the installation of Windows and Linux systems through unattended files, ensuring consistent, repeatable, and hands-free deployment across physical and virtual environments.

Features

• Unattended installation for UEFI-based systems running Ubuntu Server 24.04, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022, and Windows Server 2025.
• OpenSSH Server pre-installed to streamline post-deployment configuration (e.g., khangvum/windows-config).
• VMware Tools installed on supported virtual machines (VMs).
• Remote Desktop Services (formerly Terminal Services) enabled.

Filesystem Hierarchy

Ubuntu

├── boot
│   └── grub
│       └── grub.cfg
└── nocloud
    ├── meta-data
    └── user-data

Windows

├── sources
│   └── $oem$
│       └── $$
│           └── Setup
│               └── Scripts
│                   ├── OpenSSH-Server-x64.bat
│                   ├── OpenSSH-Server-x64.msi
│                   └── VMware-Tools-x64.exe
└── autounattend.xml

Troubleshooting

1. Windows 11 Unattended Installation Fails on Version 24H2 and later

• Windows 11 24H2 and later use a new setup process:

  Version	Process
  23H2 and earlier	X:\setup.exe is invoked.
  24H2 and later	X:\Sources\setup.exe is executed, which runs SetupHost.exe, which in turn invokes SetupPrep.exe.

• The solution is to explicitly invoke the legacy setup process:

  <settings pass="windowsPE">
      <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
          <RunSynchronous>
              <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                  <Description>Switch to Legacy Setup</Description>
                  <Order>1</Order>
                  <Path>reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup" /v CmdLine /t REG_SZ /d "X:\sources\setup.exe" /f</Path>
              </RunSynchronousCommand>
          </RunSynchronous>
      </component>
  </settings>

2. OpenSSH Server Installation Fails on Windows Server 2025

• Starting with Windows Server 2025, OpenSSH Server is installed by default and is no longer labelled as a preview feature. As a result, the firewall rule created during installation differs compared to other Windows OS:

  OS	Firewall Rule
  Other Windows OS	OpenSSH SSH Server Preview (sshd)
  Windows Server 2025	OpenSSH SSH Server (sshd)

• Update the OpenSSH-Server-x64.bat batch script for Windows Server 2025 to reflect the new firewall rule name.