Dirty Little Secret about WinPE
Let me share a little story about a dirty little secret I have recently stumbled across.It just goes to confirm what Vlad is trying to convince you to do and why he is blowing up his Dallas NOC.
I just built a new server for one of my client’s in the bay area and I will be installing it right after SMB Nation. Always liking to be prepared I decided to do a trial run at the migration of the old server to the new server. Actually more of a image and restore than a migration. I was not overly concerned about the process, I have done it on other systems. I just wanted a dry run to have the steps fresh in my mind, it has been a couple of months since I did one. I had an image from my last trip out to the Bay Area, so I created some arrays on the new server and partitioned them. I booted up my StorageCraft ShadowProtect CD and low and behold, there were no drives showing up from either array. I hit the load driver link, it said it loaded successfully, but still no drives. I have seen this before, no problem, I will just use legacy mode. Well same problem, the driver loads but no drives show up.
I contact StorageCraft thinking I have found a bug they should no about. That’s when I am told that it is a know issue with WinPE, well it seems it is known to the imaging vendors, but not to us mere mortals. Seems Microsoft is also well aware of it, but no one seems to be doing anything about it. When MS does their WHQL testing they only test for Windows installation, not WinPE. There is a guy named Bart who has instructions on how to build a different version of PE, he says it is legal, MS says it isn’t and has tried to stop him, I don’t know the current status of the legal battle. I do know that if you follow Bart’s instructions you can build a PE that boot’s with new drivers, so if Bart can do it why can’t MS?Anyways had I have just blindly followed my plan, sand shipped the server and waited until I got there to do the image, I would have been one very unhappy HA, I would have one very unhappy client while I spent days trying to get him back online. As it is now I had time to rethink my process ands try another option. Remember in Jeff’s DR presentation last year in NOLA, where he says it is not enough to have a DR Plan, you need many options? Well this is just another example of that comment. The best DR plan is a clam mind and a bunch of options you are familiar with, because you have tried them under non-stressed conditions.
What is my new plan you ask, well it is something I have done before, stick a mass storage card I know will work with the software I want to use, in the old server before I do the image. In this case it will be the RocketRaid 2320 because I have already proven it will show up when booted to StorageCraft’s WinPE and using the load driver option in ShadowProtect.I tried to save the client a few bucks and use the Intel Embedded Raid, I should have listened to my own advice, always use a plug in card, it makes your arrays portable.
September 23rd, 2007 at 9:46 pm
Bart’s alive and well and has quite a community behind it; if you want to plug in arbitrary software, you’d prolly have an easier time on Bart than WinPE. I’ve used it for years; here’s a slide show…
http://cquirke.spaces.live.com/photos/cns!C7DAB1E724AB8C23!197/
It’s possible, but not particularly easy (i.e. not as easy as plugging in most applications), to embed drivers in Bart. OTOH, it’s easier to maintain a fully-patched OS code set in WinPE than Bart, so if you want your mOS to be safe on the Internet (I prefer to stay offline in such cases) then WinPE may be better there; unlike Bart, it also has firewall active, AFAIK.
On Windows-based maintenance OS development, see also:
http://boot-land.net
September 23rd, 2007 at 10:04 pm
Hey Andy, I’d just like to clarify something. It wasn’t a “known issue” that your particulare HBA miniport driver would fail to load on Microsoft WinPE with the F6 or Load Drivers options. What we did know, and have known, is that occasionally we run into storage controller drivers which, for one reason or another, will fail to load with F6 under WinPE when the same diskette will succeed to load under F6 at Windows Install time. Most often this is caused by incorrect statements in the .INF files. As I mentioned to you earlier, it would be a big help for system builders (and anyone who licenses Microsoft’s OPK or WinPE builder kits) if Microsoft added successful usage under WinPE as a requirement for WHQL certification.
September 23rd, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Whoops, sorry, I got the wrong guy. Anyway, the response is still relevant.
September 24th, 2007 at 5:40 am
Hi cquike,
Yes it was rrealitivly easy to buld the bartpe disk and as I said it worked to allow the drives to show up. Unfortunatley that was only half the battel. The HIR tool still would not complete, so I got the images transfered, but no way to boot the sytem afterwards.
And yes this entire process is done offline, I have to agree with you there, I don’t like being connected to the cruel world until the system is stable and patched.
September 24th, 2007 at 5:44 am
Hi Nate,
Yes that is exactly was I was trying to get across, the WinPE process needs to be part of the WHQL testing. Sure Intel/LSI wrote a sloppy driver disk in this case, but it passed WHQL, that is what needs fixing. Too many backup and/or dr solutions (such as yours) are depepnding on WinPE nowadays, MS is going to have to start treating it like a real product now that they have convinced so many ISV’s to use it.
September 25th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
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September 28th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
@HandyAndy
I couldn’t agree more. It’d be a big relief to me if they added WinPE support as a requirement for WHQL certification because then I wouldn’t have to waste my time diagnosing issues with other companies’ drivers and install files.
October 7th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
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