Bootable Windows Server 2016 USB Drive

I have 8 HP ProLiant DL380 servers that are mounted in a data center. I have to deploy Windows Server 2016 Datacenter operating system on all of them using a particular customer's (modified) ISO.

Unfortunately, the only way I can access this installation ISO is inside the DC security zone, which means I will have to create a bootable USB drive on-premise to install the farm. Another problem is that according to customer's SLA using any additional software for creating bootable drives is prohibited. Is there any way of creating a Windows Server 2016 bootable USB using only native Windows 2016 Server tools?

Thanks in advance!

Yes. This can be done using native Windows commands like diskpart, bootsect and copy (xcopy).

Here are the guides that cover the topic exactly: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/blog/how-to-create-bootable-windows-server-2016-usb-thumb-drive-for-installing-os

http://itproguru.com/expert/2016/05/create-bootable-windows-server-2016-usb-thumb-drive-for-installing-os/

Hope this helps.

That should be possible.

• Mount ISO image, say drive letter is x:
• Mount USB Drive, letter y:
• Run elevated cmd
• Run diskpart wipe the drive and create an active partition:
• Caution, this will wipe your disk! list disk, select disk <nr. of pendrive>, clean, select partition 1, active, exit
• Copy bootsector -> x:, cd boot, bootsect /nt60 y:
• Copy everything from ISO to thumb drive xcopy x:\*.* y:\ /E /H /F
• Done.

Handle with care and double check those commands! This works for Server 2012 and should work for 2016, too.