Pre /Post installation of virtio drivers on windows

Anonymous
2025-09-28T10:05:38.6133333+00:00

I am migrating a few WK16 and WK19 servers from ESXI to OCP-Virt

Is there an option to automate the virtio viostor and netkvm drivers installation either before migration or after?

Now it's a manual process after the VMs are moved over, I have to attach a driver iso and inject the drivers manually using WinRE

I have tried to preload the drivers on VM pre-migration ESXI, but it didnt seem to be working.
Maybe I am missing the right process.

Windows for business | Windows Server | Devices and deployment | Set up upgrades and drivers
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  1. Joseph Tran 4,095 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-09-28T10:38:42.9466667+00:00

    Right now the problem is that Windows doesn’t see the virtio storage/network drivers at boot, so you end up in WinRE. Just copying them in ESXi won’t work — they need to be properly installed and marked as boot drivers before the move.

    What you need to do right now is

    • Preload inside Windows before migration: Run in the VM:
    pnputil /add-driver D:\viostor\viostor.inf /install
pnputil /add-driver D:\netkvm\netkvm.inf /install

    (or use dism /online /add-driver ...). Then make sure in the registry:

    HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\viostor
Start=0

    That tells Windows to load viostor at boot.

    • At scale: bake the drivers into your golden image, or inject them offline with DISM before migrating.

    => Best way: install and stage both drivers in Windows while it’s still running on ESXi, so when you boot on OCP-Virt the VM sees its disk and NIC right away - no WinRE needed.

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