Follow the procedures from my previous blog, Clone a Windows 2003 Server with Citrix Presentation Server 4.X
Windows Server 2008 has Sysprep built right into the OS, found at c:WindowsSystem32SysprepSysprep.exe. You can run Sysprep either from command line or from the GUI.
From command line : sysprep /OOBE /Generalize /shutdown
From GUI (Remember Generalize or else WDS won’t see the system disk)
an important thing you forgot to mention is that sysprep can only be run this way 3 times. this has serious implications for vista/2008 template management (hint: the “old” way described in the official xenserver docs doesn’t work).
“There is no limit to the number of times Sysprep can run on a computer. However, the clock for Windows Product Activation begins its countdown the first time Windows starts. You can use the sysprep /generalize command to reset Windows Product Activation a maximum of three times. After the third time you run the sysprep /generalize command, the clock can no longer be reset.”
“When you run the sysprep /generalize command, the activation clock will automatically reset. You can bypass resetting the activation clock by using the SkipRearm setting in the Microsoft-Windows-Security-Licensing-SLC component. This enables you to run Sysprep multiple times without resetting the activation clock. For more information about this setting, see the Unattended Windows Setup Reference.”
“If you anticipate running Sysprep multiple times on a single computer, you must use the SkipRearm setting in the Microsoft-Windows-Security-Licensing-SLC component to postpone resetting the activation clock. Because you can reset the activation clock only three times, if you run Sysprep multiple times on a computer, you might run out of activation clock resets. Microsoft recommends that you use the SkipRearm setting if you plan on running Sysprep multiple times on a computer.”
source: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766514%28WS.10%29.aspx