Virtual floppy disk overview

Automated Deployment Services (ADS) enables you to create and run a virtual floppy disk image containing MS-DOS-based utilities for hardware or firmware maintenance. With a virtual floppy disk, you can perform various tasks, such as upgrading a device's basic input/output system (BIOS) 

Vfloppy.vfi does not come preconfigured to perform hardware or firmware maintenance tasks. Before you can create your own virtual floppy disk images for use with ADS, you must restore Vfloppy.vfi to a physical floppy disk. You must edit the physical floppy disk by adding any required files and configuring them to support the hardware or firmware maintenance tasks. Restoring Vfloppy.vfi to a floppy disk is the first phase in the virtual floppy disk lifecycle. The virtual floppy disk lifecycle describes the process you must follow to create and use a virtual floppy disk image. The virtual floppy disk lifecycle is illustrated in the following diagram:

The edited physical floppy disk, or system disk 

Vfloppy.vfi includes the following files:

Editing the virtual floppy disk

Along with adding additional files to the system disk to perform certain tasks on a device, you can use Vfreboot.com to send an exit code and up to 4096 bytes of text from Vfreboot.dat to the Controller. Exit codes are sent by Vfreboot.com at the conclusion of the task performed by the virtual floppy disk to indicate the success or failure of the task. The Controller interprets an exit code of 0 (zero), or the absence of an exit code, as a successful completion of the tasks performed by the virtual floppy disk. In addition, if the virtual floppy disk reboots the device without calling Vfreboot.com, the Controller interprets this as a successful completion of the task. The Controller interprets an exit code between 1 and 65535 as a failure, which terminates the task sequence. Exit codes 1 through 99 are reserved for exclusive use by ADS. If you specify a custom exit code, you must use an integer between 100 and 65535. If you want to send custom status text to the Controller service, you can save the status text in Vfreboot.dat.

Using Vfreboot.com and Vfreboot.dat

To use Vfreboot.com in your virtual floppy disk image, you can edit the Autoexec.bat file included in Vfloppy.vfi, or use Vfreboot.com from a script or another executable. In the Autoexec.bat file, you can use various MS-DOS commands to call Vfreboot.com, send an exit code, and send output to the Vfreboot.dat file.

Vfreboot.com sends the contents of a:\vfreboot.dat to the Controller, where the data is logged in the output. You can view the output in the Job Details dialog box in the ADS Management snap-in. The following example shows one way to edit the Autoexec.bat file. In the example below, if Readme.txt cannot be found, Vfreboot.com sends exit code 101, which indicates an error, and an error message to the Controller. If Readme.txt is present, Vfreboot.com sends exit code 0, which indicates success, and the contents of Readme.txt, to the Controller:

rem Sample of vfreboot.com usage.
rem It is used to send the content of
rem readme.txt file to ADS controller.

set READMEFILE=A:\README.TXT
set VFFEEDBACKDATA=A:\VFREBOOT.DAT
set VFREBOOT=A:\VFREBOOT.COM

if exist %READMEFILE% goto :sendReadmeFile

echo Error: Could not find the readme file>%VFFEEDBACKDATA%
Set ExitCode=101
goto :end

:sendReadmeFile

type %READMEFILE%>%VFFEEDBACKDATA%
Set ExitCode=0

:end

%VFREBOOT% %ExitCode%

Vfreboot.com is always the last command executed in the virtual floppy disk. Vfreboot.com reboots the device so that the Controller can regain control of the device and continue the next task in the task sequence. If the Controller receives an error exit code from Vfreboot.com, it terminates the task sequence.

Creating and storing virtual floppy disk images

Because this edited system disk is the source file for a new virtual floppy disk image, you should run antivirus software to ensure that the system disk, test computer, and the server where you plan to store the virtual floppy disk image do not have a virus. If no viruses are detected, run the system disk on the test computer of comparable type and configuration to the devices where you plan to use the virtual floppy disk, to ensure that the virtual floppy disk functions correctly on the device without requiring keyboard, mouse, or display interaction. It is also recommended that you test any task sequences that use virtual floppy disks on one device before wide deployment within your data center.

After you have tested the system disk and have scanned it for viruses, you are ready to create a new a virtual floppy disk image. For instructions on how to create a virtual floppy disk image, see To capture a system disk to a virtual floppy disk image file.

You should store your virtual floppy disk images in the systemdrive\Program Files\Microsoft ADS\tftproot\ directory on the server hosting Network Boot Services (NBS). You can integrate the virtual floppy disk tasks with the other tasks in the task sequences. Within the task sequence, use the /pxe/boot-vf boot instruction command and provide the relative path and file name, with .vfi extension, of the virtual floppy disk image that the Controller should use. For example:

<command>/pxe/boot-vf</command>
<parameters>
<parameter>"my virtual floppy disk images\my_virtual_floppy_disk.vfi"</parameter>
</parameters>

The path and file name of the virtual floppy disk image specified in task sequence, as in the above example, must be relative to the systemdrive\Program Files\Microsoft ADS\tftproot\ directory. If the path and file name contain spaces or variables, quotation marks are required. For more information about using the /pxe/boot-vf boot instruction command, see /pxe/boot-vf. For more information about how devices interact with NBS and the boot instruction commands, see PXE boot instructions overview.