Before you use the assessment tools, you must configure the Windows® Assessment Services - Client (Windows ASC) to communicate with Windows® Assessment Services. Additional configuration steps include preparing a bootable Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) USB flash drive to gather inventory on the test computers that don't have a running operating system installed. The procedures in this topic describe this process.

In this topic:

Initializing Windows Assessment Services

If your Windows Assessment Services server is running Windows Server® 2008 R2, you must run Windows ASC from the server the first time that you initialize the server. If your Windows Assessment Services server is running Windows Server 2012, you can run Windows ASC from a network-connected client computer and initialize the server remotely.

Important
Port 8000 must be opened on the server so that Windows ASC and the test computers can communicate. Windows Assessment Services initialization adds a firewall rule to open port 8000. The only way that this port is not opened is if a Group Policy setting blocks it.
  1. Click Start, and then type Windows Assessment Services – Client to find and open the application.

  2. In the text box, type the name of the server where Windows Assessment Services is installed, and then click OK.

    The first time that the server is initialized, it can take approximately 15 to 30 minutes. A message will appear when the server is successfully initialized.

Warning
Windows Deployment Services uses the Windows Assessment Services provider as the first in the list of providers for client boot services over the network. The first provider to answer all clients effectively denies requests to all other providers in the list. We don’t recommend that you install Windows Assessment Services on a production server.

Configuring Symbols

Some assessments require access to symbols. If the symbols are not available, the assessment results can be incorrect or incomplete. Internet connectivity and access to the Microsoft public symbol server often satisfy this dependency. In other cases where connectivity to the Internet is not available, like a lab environment, you can configure symbol access by using an unattended answer file during deployment, or it can be configured manually.

To configure the symbol environment variable by using an unattended answer file

  1. Copy the symbols for the third-party components to %systemdrive%\relax\symbols\%PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%\ on the Windows Assessment Services server.

  2. If the test computer doesn't have access to the Internet and can't access the Microsoft public symbol server, connect the test computer to the Internet and follow instructions in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311503 to download the matching Windows component symbols. Then, move the test computer back to the original network, and copy the downloaded symbols to %systemdrive%\relax\symbols\%PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%\ on the Windows Assessment Services server.

  3. Change the unattended answer file template for deployment images, under C:\relax\scripts\tempate, by adding the following in the <FirstLogonCommands> section. Update the order number to the last sequence of the synchronous commands.

      Copy Code 
    <SynchronousCommand>
      Copy Code 
       <Order>8</Order>
      Copy Code 
       <CommandLine>setx _NT_SYMBOL_PATH SRV*%systemdrive%\relax\symbols\%PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%;%systemdrive%\relax\symbols\%PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE% /M</CommandLine>
      Copy Code 
       <Description>"Setting _NT_SYMBOL_PATH"</Description>
      Copy Code 
    </SynchronousCommand>

After Windows Assessment Services deploys the image to the test computer, the test computer will have the _NT_SYMBOL_PATH environment variable.

For more information about how to set the symbol path and download symbols, see MSDN: Symbols Support.

To configure the symbol environment variable manually

  1. Open Computer Properties. To do this, right-click Computer, and then click Properties.

  2. In the Properties window, click Advanced System Settings.

  3. In the Systems Properties window, on the Advanced tab, click Environment Variables.

  4. Under System variables, click New to set the symbol environment variable by using one of the following paths:

    • Use the public symbol server (requires an Internet connection)

      Connect the computer to the Internet so that it can access the Microsoft symbol server, and then configure the _NT_SYMBOL_PATH environment variable to use the Microsoft symbol server at http://msdl.microsoft.com/downloads/symbols.

    • Use a network-connected symbol path (requires a local network connection)

      Connect the computer to the local intranet and then configure the _NT_SYMBOL_PATH environment variable to use an intranet symbol path.

    • Use a local symbol path

      Download the symbols to the Windows Assessment Services server computer, and point the test computer to this location by setting the _NT_SYMBOL_PATH environment variable to use a path to the symbols on the server, like \\WASServer\relax\symbols.

For more information about how to set the symbol path and download symbols, see MSDN: Symbols Support.

Adding Network Adapter Drivers to Boot.wim

Add network adapter (NIC) drivers to the Windows PE images that Windows Deployment Services uses. This step is required only when the test computers require out-of-box NIC drivers so that they have network connectivity during inventory or after the Windows image is deployed. You need the NIC drivers when you boot a bare metal computer (a computer that doesn’t have an operating system installed) in Windows PE.

To add NIC drivers to the boot.wim

  1. On the server, create a folder for the NIC drivers and copy them to the folder. For example, if your drivers are stored on a share, you might use a command like this:

      Copy Code 
    robocopy \\Server\share\drivers  C:\Drivers\amd64NIC /MIR

  2. Click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click Windows Deployment Services.

  3. Expand the Servers node and expand your server name.

  4. Right-click Drivers, and then click Add Driver Package.

  5. In the Add Driver Package wizard, click Select all driver packages from a folder, and then click Browse.

  6. Browse to the folder that contains the out-of-box NIC drivers, and then click OK.

  7. In the Add Driver Package wizard, click Next.

  8. On the Available Driver Packages page, click Next.

  9. On the Summary page, click Next.

  10. When the drivers are copied to the driver store, click Next.

  11. On the Driver Groups page, click Select an existing driver group, verify that DriverGroup1 is selected, and then click Next.

  12. Click Finish.

  13. On the Servers node, click Boot Images, right-click the boot image where you want to inject the driver, and then click Add Driver Packages to Image.

  14. In the Add Driver Package to Boot Image Wizard, on the Before You Begin page, click Next.

  15. On the Select Driver Packages page, click Package Class, and then click Edit.

  16. Delete everything except Net, and then click OK.

  17. In the Add Driver Package to Boot Image Wizard, click Search for Packages, click Next, and then click Next again.

  18. When the drivers are added, click Finish.

Your boot image now has out-of-box NIC drivers. Repeat these steps for each Windows Deployment Services boot.wim architecture.

Preparing the Windows PE USB Drive for Test Computer Inventory

To inventory bare metal computers, you must create a bootable USB drive to start the computer and add it to the inventory. For more information about how to prepare a bootable Windows PE USB flash drive, see Walkthrough: Install Windows PE to CD, USB Flash Drive, or USB Hard Drive. The walkthrough creates bootable media by using the default Windows PE image (WinPE.wim) without customizing it. Before you use the bootable USB flash drive for inventory, you must copy the RelaxWinPE.wim file to the source folder on the USB flash drive.

Important
To inventory x86-based test computers, you must use an x86-based Windows PE image. To inventory AMD64-based test computers, you must use an AMD64-based Windows PE image. This procedure uses an x86-based image. If your test computers are both x86 and AMD64 based, create a USB flash drive for each architecture.

To replace the boot.wim file with the Windows AS WinPE.wim file

  1. On the technician computer where you created the Windows PE build environment, type this command:

      Copy Code 
    xcopy %SystemDrive%\REMINST\Boot\x86\Images\RelaxWinPE.wim c:\winpe_x86\media\sources\boot.wim
      Copy Code 
    xcopy %SystemDrive%\REMINST\Boot\x64\Images\RelaxWinPE.wim c:\winpe_x64\media\sources\boot.wim

  2. Repeat the previous step to create a USB flash drive for each architecture that you need for your test computers.

    Important
    To inventory x86-based test computers, you must use an x86-based Windows PE image. To inventory AMD64-based test computers, you must use an AMD64-based Windows PE image.

Next Steps

Now that the bootable Windows PE USB flash drive is prepared and NIC drivers are in place, you can add inventory to your server and then include it in your projects and jobs. For more information, see Evaluation Assets.

See Also