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Hi Scott,

I am really sorry for all the frustration caused. The problems you are experiencing are probably due to the fact that we only tested our scripts with the EN_US version of windows. The good news is that with version 1.7 of MaaS generating PXE images is no longer required. Windows will be deployed using full disk images, already sysprepped.

The MaaS team is working on an image builder system that will allow you to just pass in an ISO and it will generate the image for you. Unfortunately, its not released yet. I will write up a quick document explaining how to manually generate it until the image-builder is released.

The procedure, consisting mostly of simply installing a new windows VM on top of KVM, copying over a few scripts, and doing a sysprep. The resulting image needs to be archived and uploaded to MaaS.

I will update this answer with a link to the document as soon as I have had a chance to write it up.

Again, I am sorry for any hard time you may have had.

Gabriel

Hi Scott,

I am really sorry for all the frustration caused. The problems you are experiencing are probably due to the fact that we only tested our scripts with the EN_US version of windows. The good news is that with version 1.7 of MaaS generating PXE images is no longer required. Windows will be deployed using full disk images, already sysprepped.

The MaaS team is working on an image builder system that will allow you to just pass in an ISO and it will generate the image for you. Unfortunately, its not released yet. I will write up a quick document explaining how to manually generate it until the image-builder is released.

The procedure, consisting mostly of simply installing a new windows VM on top of KVM, copying over a few scripts, and doing a sysprep. The resulting image needs to be archived and uploaded to MaaS.

I will update this answer with a link to the document as soon as I have had a chance to write it up.

Again, I am sorry for any hard time you may have had.

Gabriel

Hi Scott,

I am really sorry for all the frustration caused. The problems you are experiencing are probably due to the fact that we only tested our scripts with the EN_US version of windows. The good news is that with version 1.7 of MaaS generating PXE images is no longer required. Windows will be deployed using full disk images, already sysprepped.

The MaaS team is working on an image builder system that will allow you to just pass in an ISO and it will generate the image for you. Unfortunately, its not released yet. I will write up a quick document explaining how to manually generate it until the image-builder is released.

The procedure, consisting mostly of simply installing a new windows VM on top of KVM, copying over a few scripts, and doing a sysprep. The resulting image needs to be archived and uploaded to MaaS.

I will update this answer with a link to the document as soon as I have had a chance to write it up.

Again, I am sorry for any hard time you may have had.

Gabriel

Update:

We have updated the openstack imaging tools to allow MaaS image creation. Its not yet merged upstream, but you can take it for a spin if you would like. It can be downloaded from:

https://github.com/gabriel-samfira/windows-openstack-imaging-tools/tree/persist-driver-option

Usage info:

https://github.com/gabriel-samfira/windows-openstack-imaging-tools/tree/persist-driver-option#generate-maas-compatible-image

Please take note, that this only works on Windows. Also, in order to get a fully functional MaaS image, the commandlet will need to install the Hyper-V role on your Windows machine (if you do not have it already).

It will create an image from the desired ISO, it will boot up the image, run updates (if selected), install Cloudbase-init, sysprep and generate the required file.

Let me know if it works for you.

Hi Scott,

I am really sorry for all the frustration caused. The problems you are experiencing are probably due to the fact that we only tested our scripts with the EN_US version of windows. The good news is that with version 1.7 of MaaS generating PXE images is no longer required. Windows will be deployed using full disk images, already sysprepped.

The MaaS team is working on an image builder system that will allow you to just pass in an ISO and it will generate the image for you. Unfortunately, its not released yet. I will write up a quick document explaining how to manually generate it until the image-builder is released.

The procedure, consisting mostly of simply installing a new windows VM on top of KVM, copying over a few scripts, and doing a sysprep. The resulting image needs to be archived and uploaded to MaaS.

I will update this answer with a link to the document as soon as I have had a chance to write it up.

Again, I am sorry for any hard time you may have had.

Gabriel

Update:

We have updated the openstack imaging tools to allow MaaS image creation. Its not yet merged upstream, but you can take it for a spin if you would like. It can be downloaded from:

https://github.com/gabriel-samfira/windows-openstack-imaging-tools/tree/persist-driver-option

Usage info:

https://github.com/gabriel-samfira/windows-openstack-imaging-tools/tree/persist-driver-option#generate-maas-compatible-image

Please take note, that this only works on Windows. Also, in order to get a fully functional MaaS image, the commandlet will need to install the Hyper-V role on your Windows machine (if you do not have it already).

It will create an image from the desired ISO, it will boot up the image, run updates (if selected), install Cloudbase-init, sysprep and generate the required file.

Please note, that sysprep may take a long time depending on whether or not you selected to also run updates. The final image is a RAW disk image compressed into a tar.gz. If you still see a vhdx, wait for the commandlet to exit. You may follow the progress of the sysprep by starting up Hyper-V manager and double clicking on the MaaS-SysprepXXX machine.

Uploading the image to MaaS:

maas root boot-resources create name=windows/win2012hvr2 architecture=amd64/generic filetype=ddtgz content@=$HOME/win2012hvr2-dd

The name here is important. For Hyper-V server 2012 R2, the name must be windows/win2012hvr2.

After uploading the image to MaaS, you must wait for your cluster to finish syncing the image. MaaS will indicate that images are still syncing by displaying a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark in your clusters view. Once sync is done, you will have windows as an option in the edit node view, after you acquire it.

Let me know if it works for you.

Hi Scott,

I am really sorry for all the frustration caused. The problems you are experiencing are probably due to the fact that we only tested our scripts with the EN_US version of windows. The good news is that with version 1.7 of MaaS generating PXE images is no longer required. Windows will be deployed using full disk images, already sysprepped.

The MaaS team is working on an image builder system that will allow you to just pass in an ISO and it will generate the image for you. Unfortunately, its not released yet. I will write up a quick document explaining how to manually generate it until the image-builder is released.

The procedure, consisting mostly of simply installing a new windows VM on top of KVM, copying over a few scripts, and doing a sysprep. The resulting image needs to be archived and uploaded to MaaS.

I will update this answer with a link to the document as soon as I have had a chance to write it up.

Again, I am sorry for any hard time you may have had.

Gabriel

Update:

We have updated the openstack imaging tools to allow MaaS image creation. Its not yet merged upstream, but you can take it for a spin if you would like. It can be downloaded from:

https://github.com/gabriel-samfira/windows-openstack-imaging-tools/tree/persist-driver-option

Usage info:

https://github.com/gabriel-samfira/windows-openstack-imaging-tools/tree/persist-driver-option#generate-maas-compatible-image

Please take note, that this only works on Windows. Also, in order to get a fully functional MaaS image, the commandlet will need to install the Hyper-V role on your Windows machine (if you do not have it already).

It will create an image from the desired ISO, it will boot up the image, run updates (if selected), install Cloudbase-init, sysprep and generate the required file.

Please note, that sysprep may take a long time depending on whether or not you selected to also run updates. The final image is a RAW disk image compressed into a tar.gz. If you still see a vhdx, wait for the commandlet to exit. You may follow the progress of the sysprep by starting up Hyper-V manager and double clicking on the MaaS-SysprepXXX machine.

Uploading the image to MaaS:

maas root boot-resources create name=windows/win2012hvr2 architecture=amd64/generic filetype=ddtgz content@=$HOME/win2012hvr2-dd

The name here is important. For Hyper-V server 2012 R2, the name must be windows/win2012hvr2.. Please make sure you use the latest stable version of MaaS available here:

https://launchpad.net/~maas-maintainers/+archive/ubuntu/stable

After uploading the image to MaaS, you must wait for your cluster to finish syncing the image. MaaS will indicate that images are still syncing by displaying a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark in your clusters view. Once sync is done, you will have windows as an option in the edit node view, after you acquire it.

Let me know if it works for you.