The Windows Build Pipeline

A Windows Server 2025 build that survives four reboots and tidies up after itself, done with classic Aria Automation and vRO. Three parts: the architecture, the state machine, and the validation report that turns a build into a product. Customer specifics are generalised; the lessons are not. Start with part 1.

A build report: scorecard, software cards, network table, provisioning Gantt with a shaded reboot

Windows Server 2025 via Aria Automation, part 3: validation as a product, and the details that hurt

A self-contained HTML build report, down to a Gantt chart that spots the reboots. Plus the Session 0 traps, like mangled vmtoolsd arguments and ejecting an ISO with no Explorer, that cost real hours.

Boot → check kill switch → skip flagged steps → run next step → reboot if required → repeat

Windows Server 2025 via Aria Automation, part 2: a state machine that survives four reboots

One script runs at every startup until the build is done. Flag files make each step run once, a state file keeps true timings across reboots, and at the end it cleans up, reports and deletes itself.

Windows Server 2025 via Aria Automation, part 1: the pipeline

One catalog request, one fully built, domain-joined Windows Server 2025 with its agents, a validation report, and no trace of the tooling that built it. The three-layer design, and why each seam is where it is.