Installing Scale Tools on Windows Server Core from Command Line

[scottalanmiller]

If you run Windows Servers without a GUI you have to deal with getting drivers installed that are not included in the base install. On Scale we need things like storage and network drivers installed before we are able to get our server online in order to use other tools.

On a standard Windows install on Scale, without any extra disks being added, our Scale Tools ISO image is going to be default mounted as the E drive. So from a command line we need to cd into the e drive and run the Scale Tools installer utility which, for AMD64 machines, is called scale-virtio-win-x64.msi

cd e:\
./scale-virtio-win-x64.msi

This will pop up a graphical tool for installing:

Once you have done this, your Ethernet NIC(s) should be working and if you have DHCP enabled you will likely see things "just working".

[dafyre]

I'm unfamiliar with the Server Core setup... but can't you install these drivers as part of the Windows installation process?

[scottalanmiller]

@dafyre said in Installing Scale Tools on Windows Server Core from Command Line:

I'm unfamiliar with the Server Core setup... but can't you install these drivers as part of the Windows installation process?

Storage yes, but I'm unaware of a simple way during a stock install to include other drivers. The storage ones are requested, and necessary, during the install. Otherwise the installation location does not show up (unless you don't use VirtIO block devices.) You can definitely add the tools into an image, and there is probably a way to include Ethernet devices ahead of time, but I'm not used to the installation process to know where it happens.

[dafyre]

@scottalanmiller said in Installing Scale Tools on Windows Server Core from Command Line:

@dafyre said in Installing Scale Tools on Windows Server Core from Command Line:

I'm unfamiliar with the Server Core setup... but can't you install these drivers as part of the Windows installation process?

Storage yes, but I'm unaware of a simple way during a stock install to include other drivers. The storage ones are requested, and necessary, during the install. Otherwise the installation location does not show up (unless you don't use VirtIO block devices.) You can definitely add the tools into an image, and there is probably a way to include Ethernet devices ahead of time, but I'm not used to the installation process to know where it happens.

I just select all 3 of the INF files and go... It's always installed everything for me, lol... Just point it at the folder for the right OS and 32 or 64 bit... (Note: This is the way I did it in Scale v4.3... I've not had a chance to use their newer stuff yet.

[scottalanmiller]

@dafyre said in Installing Scale Tools on Windows Server Core from Command Line:

@scottalanmiller said in Installing Scale Tools on Windows Server Core from Command Line:

@dafyre said in Installing Scale Tools on Windows Server Core from Command Line:

I'm unfamiliar with the Server Core setup... but can't you install these drivers as part of the Windows installation process?

Storage yes, but I'm unaware of a simple way during a stock install to include other drivers. The storage ones are requested, and necessary, during the install. Otherwise the installation location does not show up (unless you don't use VirtIO block devices.) You can definitely add the tools into an image, and there is probably a way to include Ethernet devices ahead of time, but I'm not used to the installation process to know where it happens.

I just select all 3 of the INF files and go... It's always installed everything for me, lol... Just point it at the folder for the right OS and 32 or 64 bit... (Note: This is the way I did it in Scale v4.3... I've not had a chance to use their newer stuff yet.

At what stage are you selecting them?

[dafyre]

@scottalanmiller said in Installing Scale Tools on Windows Server Core from Command Line:

@dafyre said in Installing Scale Tools on Windows Server Core from Command Line:

@scottalanmiller said in Installing Scale Tools on Windows Server Core from Command Line:

@dafyre said in Installing Scale Tools on Windows Server Core from Command Line:

I'm unfamiliar with the Server Core setup... but can't you install these drivers as part of the Windows installation process?

Storage yes, but I'm unaware of a simple way during a stock install to include other drivers. The storage ones are requested, and necessary, during the install. Otherwise the installation location does not show up (unless you don't use VirtIO block devices.) You can definitely add the tools into an image, and there is probably a way to include Ethernet devices ahead of time, but I'm not used to the installation process to know where it happens.

I just select all 3 of the INF files and go... It's always installed everything for me, lol... Just point it at the folder for the right OS and 32 or 64 bit... (Note: This is the way I did it in Scale v4.3... I've not had a chance to use their newer stuff yet.

At what stage are you selecting them?

During the install process... the same place where you go when you're picking the storage drivers.

[scottalanmiller]

@dafyre said in Installing Scale Tools on Windows Server Core from Command Line:

@scottalanmiller said in Installing Scale Tools on Windows Server Core from Command Line:

@dafyre said in Installing Scale Tools on Windows Server Core from Command Line:

@scottalanmiller said in Installing Scale Tools on Windows Server Core from Command Line:

@dafyre said in Installing Scale Tools on Windows Server Core from Command Line:

I'm unfamiliar with the Server Core setup... but can't you install these drivers as part of the Windows installation process?

Storage yes, but I'm unaware of a simple way during a stock install to include other drivers. The storage ones are requested, and necessary, during the install. Otherwise the installation location does not show up (unless you don't use VirtIO block devices.) You can definitely add the tools into an image, and there is probably a way to include Ethernet devices ahead of time, but I'm not used to the installation process to know where it happens.

I just select all 3 of the INF files and go... It's always installed everything for me, lol... Just point it at the folder for the right OS and 32 or 64 bit... (Note: This is the way I did it in Scale v4.3... I've not had a chance to use their newer stuff yet.

At what stage are you selecting them?

During the install process... the same place where you go when you're picking the storage drivers.

I rarely do modifications at that stage. Still, handy to have a simple option because a lot of people will get the install done and find that there is no networking and need to know what to do at that point.