Tales from the Datacenter

WIM2VHD

In looking for an easy way to deploy operating systems to virtual servers, I started digging around for a way to import a WIM (like what comes on the 2008 installation DVD) into SCVMM’s library.  Instead, I found something that might be a bit better (or at least more versatile): the WIM to VHD Converter.

The Windows(R) Image to Virtual Hard Disk (WIM2VHD) command-line tool allows you to create sysprepped VHD images from any Windows 7 installation source. VHDs created by WIM2VHD will boot directly to the Out Of Box Experience, ready for your first-use customizations. You can also automate the OOBE by supplying your own unattend.xml file, making the possibilities limitless.

It took about ten minutes for WIM2VHD to deploy my WIM source to a usable VHD, which I then copied into the VMM library.  About an hour later (stupid refresh interval), the newly created VHD was available.  When I deployed a new virtual machine with that VHD, it was as if I had just installed Server 2008 with the DVD.  Awesome.