0

We have a scenario where it's not possible for us to use Sysprep with Windows 2008. Has anyone had any issues using NewSID to generate new SID's on cloned Windows 2008 images?

Update:

According to Mark Russinovich, the author of NewSID, it doesn't matter if cloned machines have the same SID:

The Machine SID Duplication Myth

Kev
  • 7,777
  • 17
  • 78
  • 108

4 Answers4

4

You don't need NewSID.

See Mark Russinovich's latest blog entry: The Machine SID Duplication Myth.

ThatGraemeGuy
  • 15,314
  • 12
  • 51
  • 78
2

In fact I've done it. Worked fine for me! Had it rename the server and everything. As a matter of practice, I use it on machines before they are added to a domain of course, so you don't have any login issues after the reboot...

Jes
  • 880
  • 2
  • 6
  • 10
1

One thing to be aware of, but probably won't cause a problem: NewSID won't create new SID's for accounts like IUSR_machine (less of a problem for Win2k8 compared to earlier Servers which replied on such accounts).

Richard
  • 5,309
  • 1
  • 22
  • 20
1

I'd be more interested in investigating and resolving the reasons why you can't sysprep, to be honest. I much prefer to use the "official" method for doing these things as i've learned through bitter experience that workarounds can often break (and sometimes badly) months or years down the line.

Maximus Minimus
  • 8,937
  • 1
  • 22
  • 36
  • We use Virtual Iron who just got bought then killed by Oracle. Sysprep'd 2008 VM's fail to start in VI. There's is pretty much no more support for our current VI (4.4) environment and we've been pretty much told not to bother upgrading to 4.5. So we're a bit shagged until we move to Cytrix or Hyper-V...:( – Kev Aug 07 '09 at 16:11
  • So NewSID is really our only option at the moment until we change platform. – Kev Aug 07 '09 at 16:12
  • :( that's a major bummer but I suppose them's the breaks. – Maximus Minimus Aug 07 '09 at 16:22
  • We persevered...turns out that disabling the Administrator account prior to sealing the machine caused all sorts of grief. We now disable this *after* the cloned machine has booted. – Kev Oct 02 '09 at 12:38