Configuring system settings with the ASU

Before installing the operating system, you can configure system settings for the target system by using the Advanced Settings Utility (ASU). This section describes the steps for a basic BIOS configuration.

About this task

The following example describes how create a task to perform a basic BIOS configuration by using ASU on Windows PE 2.1 x86. The task created in this example boots the target system and then invokes the ASU utility to perform a sample BIOS setting configuration change. You can modify the default default_settings.ini file supplied by the Toolkit to make other BIOS setting changes as well. This file is located in the sgdeploy\sgtkwinpe\asufiles directory.

Procedure

  1. Open a command prompt, change directory to \sgshare\sgdeploy\SGTKWinPE.
  2. Create the ASU installation image by running SGTKWinPE.cmd, using the ASU_Config_Only_x86.ini file provided by the Toolkit as shown:
    SGTKWinPE.cmd ScenarioINIs\Local\ASU_Config_Only_x86.ini
    The ISO image is created in ..\WinPE_ScenarioOutput\ Local_ASU_Config_Only_x86\WinPE_x86.iso, and your media creation software is started to create bootable media from the image.
  3. Boot the target system from the created media, and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the deployment.
    Note:
    • BIOS settings can vary significantly between models. Therefore, use only ASU installation images created from identical models.
    • Some systems can display a password value of <hidden>. You cannot replicate these systems, even if you replace the value of <hidden> with the valid password. To change these values, you must use the Set command rather than the Replicate command used by the script provided.

      Refer to the ASU User's Guide for more information.

Example

Sample setting files
Besides the default_settings.ini file, other sample setting files are provided in the sgdeploy\sgtkwinpe\asufiles:
  • bootorder_settings.ini: Set boot order in uEFI.
  • nodes.ini: Show how many nodes in a legacy multinode system or in an IMM-based system multinode partition.
  • save_config.ini: Save the configuration of the IMM system. You can apply the configuration to another system remotely via the asu replicate config command.
  • show_groups.ini: View all available setting groups support on an IMM based system.
  • show_values.ini: View values of all settings.
  • staticip_settings.ini: Set the static IP of IMM. You can change the IP information in this file to meet their demand .
  • baud_rate.ini: Set the baud rate of the serial port in uEFI. You can change the value of the baud rate in this file to meet demand.

For the static IP configuration, change the IP information in the staticip_settings.ini file, and then use the scenario ini file Asu_Config_Only_x64_StaticIP.ini to create the ISO as follows: SGTKWinPE.cmd ScenarioINIs\Local\ASU_Config_Only_x64_StaticIP.ini

For the boot order setting, change the boot order information in the bootorder_settings.ini file, and then use the scenario .ini file Asu_Config_Only_x64_BootOrder.ini to create the ISO as follows: SGTKWinPE.cmd ScenarioINIs\Local\ASU_Config_Only_x64_BootOrder.ini

For other ASU configurations, change the value of the item TK_ASU_File in the scenario .ini file so that it points to the corresponding sample setting file, and then use the modified scenario .ini file to create the ISO.

What to do next

After configuring a system settings task, you can create a task to install one of the supported Windows operating systems. For more information about creating Windows installation packages, see About customizing Windows installation scenarios.