Intro

This repository contains resources which can be used to quickly and easily hydrate a new lab environment based on Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows Server 2016.

Overview

The hydration process consists of a main script which controls the creation of required VHDs and VMs. All configuration in the VMs is done by PowerShell Desired State Configuration which is injected into the respective VHD. The script can be run even after the initial deployment when the DSC configuration has changed to adapt an existing setup instead of creating a new one from scratch.

The overall process has the following steps:

Stop VM
Create VHD
Create VM
Customization
Copy unattend.xml
Copy assets/bits required for this node
Copy DSC modules
Build and copy LCM configuration
Build and copy DSC configuration
Start VM

Prerequisites

The hydration process uses a parent VHD to create differencing disk. You can use Convert-WindowsImage.ps1 to create an appropriate parent disk. Additionally when available the process copies sources to the target machine which will be installed by DSC during configuration. Currently the following sources are supported:

SQL Server 2016
SQL Server Management Studio 16.5
System Center Operations Manager 2016

Create Parent VHD

Windows Server 2012 R2 (including KB3172614 and KB3066437):

Convert-WindowsImage -SourcePath "Windows Server 2012 R2 x64.iso" -Edition "ServerStandard" -VHDPath "server2012r2.vhdx" -SizeBytes 80GB -Package Windows8.1-KB3172614-x64.msu,Win8.1AndW2K12R2-KB3066437-x64.msu -Verbose;

Windows Server 2016 (including KB3197954):

Convert-WindowsImage -SourcePath "Windows Server 2016 x64.iso" -Edition "ServerStandard" -VHDPath "server2016.vhdx" -SizeBytes 80GB -Package AMD64-all-windows10.0-kb3197954-x64_74819c01705e7a4d0f978cc0fbd7bed6240642b0.msu -Verbose;

Source preparation

In order for the bootstrapper to copy the sources to the respective disk they need to be provided as follows:

<LabBootstrapper root>
 |_ Assets
 |__ Bits
 |___ DB
 |___ SSMS-Setup.ENU.exe (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=832812)
 |____ SQL
 |_____ Source
 |______ (extract SQL Server 2016 iso here)
 |___ OM
 |____ prereqs
 |_____ ReportViewer.msi (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=816564)
 |_____ SQLSysClrTypes.msi (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42295)
 |____ Source
 |_____ (extract Operations Manager iso here)

Running the Bootstrapper

The Bootstrapper comes with some parameters of which most are predefined and can be used as-is. If you want to customize your lab refer to the following table for available parameters.

Parameter	Required	Description	Default Value
LabPrefix	Yes	Prefix used for VM creation and domain name	-
LabVms	No	Name of the VMs to create	@("DC", "DB", "OM", "OR")
MasterVhdPath	Yes	Path of the master VHD	-
VhdPath	Yes	Path wehere VHDs should be placed	-
VmPath	Yes	Path where the VMs should be placed	-
BitsPath	No	Path where the sources are located	.\Assets\Bits
HvSwitchName	Yes	Hyper-V switch name to use	-
OsProductKey	No	Product key for the OS customization (defaults to Windows Server 2019 KMS activation key	N69G4-B89J2-4G8F4-WWYCC-J464C
OsOrganization	No	Organization used for OS customization	$LabPrefix
OsOwner	No	Owner used for OS customization	$LabPrefix
OsTimezone	No	Timezone used for OS customization	W. Europe Standard Time
OsUiLanguage	No	UI language used for OS customization	en-US
OsInputLanguage	No	Input language used for OS customization	de-DE
OsPassword	No	Password used for OS customization and account creation	Admin123
NetworkPrefix	No	Network prefix used for VMs	10.4.0

Create a lab with Windows Server 2012 R2:

Invoke-LabBootstrapper.ps1 -LabPrefix Test -VhdPath "server2012r2.vhdx' -VmPath C:\ -HvSwitchName "LAB" -OsProductKey "D2N9P-3P6X9-2R39C-7RTCD-MDVJX";

Create a lab with Windows Server 2016:

Invoke-LabBootstrapper.ps1 -LabPrefix Test -VhdPath "server2016.vhdx' -VmPath C:\ -HvSwitchName "LAB";

Node LCM configuration

Each nodes' LCM is configured to the following:

ConfigurationModeFrequencyMins = 15
RebootNodeIfNeeded = $true
ConfigurationMode = "ApplyAndAutoCorrect"            
ActionAfterReboot = "ContinueConfiguration"
RefreshMode = "Push"
DebugMode = "All"

Node DSC Configuration

Each node which is to be created needs a DSC configuration. By default the nodes DC, DB, OM and ORare created and already have a configuration. The configuration for the domain controller contains the creation of the domain, appropriate users and groups.

If you want to add additional nodes to your lab, make sure that a configuration exists. The signature of the configuration needs to adhere to the following:

[Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
[string] $DomainName,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
[pscredential] $Credential,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
[string] $NetworkPrefix,

peterschen/LabBootstrapper