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Adding Plug and Play Drivers to a RIS Image

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Applies To: Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003

If your compute nodes require a hardware driver that is not distributed with the Windows Server 2003 operating system, you will have to add it to the RIS image that you use for the nodes. These drivers are generally of two types: text mode and Plug and Play. The following section discusses adding plug and play drivers.

Adding Plug and Play drivers

Many new 64-bit computers use plug and play drivers which, like the text mode drivers mentioned above, are not yet distributed with Windows Server 2003, Standard x64 Edition. If the RIS image you are using lacks the required drivers, then although automated installation will run to completion, the drivers will not be installed. As a result, the operation will fail.

To use the Automated Addition method of adding nodes, you need to add the plug and play drivers to the base RIS image and specify those drivers by modifying the file RISTNDRD.SIF.

To add Plug and Play drivers to a RIS image

  1. Make sure that you have a valid RIS image, with a valid license key applied.

  2. Plug and play drivers are copied during the text mode portion of Windows setup. During the graphic portion of Windows setup, Windows searches for available plug and play drivers. You need to add an $OEM$\DRIVERS subfolder to the image, then add additional subfolders to hold the specific drivers you are adding. In the following example, the folder structure is modified to hold network adaptor, modem, and video drivers. Your folder structure should look similar to this:

    %RIS_IMAGE_FOLDER%\amd64

    %RIS_IMAGE_FOLDER%\i386

    %RIS_IMAGE_FOLDER%\$OEM$

    %RIS_IMAGE_FOLDER%\$OEM$\$1

    %RIS_IMAGE_FOLDER%\$OEM$\$1\DRIVERS

    %RIS_IMAGE_FOLDER%\$OEM$\$1\DRIVERS\NIC

    %RIS_IMAGE_FOLDER%\$OEM$\$1\DRIVERS\MODEM

    %RIS_IMAGE_FOLDER%\$OEM$\$1\DRIVERS\VIDEO

    Note   The folders %RIS_IMAGE_FOLDER%\amd64 and %RIS_IMAGE_FOLDER%\i386 already exist in the folder structure. You will create the folders shown in bold font as required by the drivers you are adding.

    Note

    %RIS_IMAGE_FOLDER% is the folder that holds the RIS image on the head node. This folder's path might be similar to this: D:\RemoteInstall\Setup\English\Images\WINDOWS

  3. Copy all the OEM-supplied driver files for the device into the folders that you created in the previous step.

  4. Edit RISTNDRD.SIF to specify the location of the plug and play drivers.

    1. In the [Unattended] section, change the OemPreinstall = key value from No to Yes.

    2. Then add the OemPnPDriversPath = key to reflect the new driver paths that you added in step 2. List multiple paths in this key by separating them with a semicolon (;). This portion of RISTNDRD.SIF will look similar to the following (updated portions shown in bold font, note the two driver paths added to OemPnPDriversPath):

      [data]

      floppyless="1"

      msdosinitiated="1"

      OriSrc="\\%SERVERNAME%\RemInst\%INSTALLPATH%\%MACHINETYPE%"

      OriTyp="4"

      LocalSourceOnCD=1

      DisableAdminAccountOnDomainJoin=1

      [SetupData]

      OsLoadOptions="/noguiboot /fastdetect"

      SetupSourceDevice="\Device\LanmanRedirector\%SERVERNAME%\RemInst\%INSTALLPATH%"

      [Unattended]

      OemPreinstall=yes

      OemPnPDriversPath = "Drivers\network adapter;Drivers\Modem;Drivers\Video"

      FileSystem=LeaveAlone

      ExtendOEMPartition=0

      TargetPath=\WINDOWS

      OemSkipEula=yes

      InstallFilesPath="\\%SERVERNAME%\RemInst\%INSTALLPATH%\%MACHINETYPE%"

      LegacyNIC=1

      UnattendMode=FullUnattended

      WaitForReboot=no

    Note

    The %SystemDrive% environment variable string is automatically inserted before each of the listed search paths.

  5. Stop and restart the RIS service on the head node by typing the following at a command prompt:

    net stop binlsvc
net start binlsvc