Windows 2008
Build
Best practice for VMs (take with a pinch of salt)
Disable ASLR
Address space layout randomisation is a feature which involves randomly arranging the positions of key data areas, in order to mitigate memory snapshot image vulnerabilities (which is generally not a problem). This can reduce reduce VMware's page sharing between VM's, increasing overall physical memory usage.
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\"MoveImages"=dword:00000000
Procedures
Sysprep
- Start sysprep from
C:\Windows\System32\sysprep\sysprep.exe - Leave action as Enter System Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE) and tick the poorly spelt Generalize tick-box, then hit OK
- Sysprep will run and reboot the OS
- You'll need to provide a new password, and any hostname and IP details will need updating
Troubleshooting
Default Gateway Loss
Known bug in Windows 2008 SP2 causes the default gateway of a machine to disappear on reboot. Resolved by resetting the IP stack and re-entering the IP config
- Record IP details
ipconfig/all > C:\ipconfig.txt
- Reset the IP stack
netsh int ip reset
- Restart server
- Re-enter IP config
- Reboot to confirm its held
There's a bugfix available from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973243
Scheduled Tasks
Error 2147943712 You're trying to save a task that wants to save credentials (maybe because you want the task to run even when the user is logged off), but credential saving has been disabled by a GPO.