| Executive Summary: Windows Deployment Service (WDS) replaces Remote Installation Services (RIS) and is much more streamlined and easier to use. With help from this guide, you can get WDS up and running on Windows Server 2008 in less than an hour and start rolling out operating systems over the network. |
Windows Deployment Services (WDS) is Microsoft’s newest image deployment product,
designed to deploy Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. (WDS also supports
Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, but you’ll need to do a fair amount
of tweaking.) You could call WDS the new Remote Installation Service (RIS). But
wait—even if you took a look at RIS and went directly back to other imaging technologies,
take a good look at WDS—it’s worth it. WDS is more streamlined and
easier to use than RIS ever dreamed of being. This article is a step-by-step guide for you to get WDS up
and running in your environment in less than an hour.
Installing and Configuring WDS
First let’s look at how WDS works. Clients receive IP information from a DHCP server during the boot
sequence. Next, the WDS client finds the WDS server via broadcasting or DHCP, then connects to the
WDS server and boots a special boot image called a Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE).
Finally an OS image stored on the WDS server is installed on the client.
The WDS role ships with Server 2008 and requires three additional roles: DNS to find domain controllers
(DCs); Active Directory (AD), either 2003 or 2008, for authentication; and DHCP for IP address information
and options such as the IP address of the WDS
server. The server on which you install WDS must be an
AD member. All four roles (AD, DNS, DHCP, and WDS)
can be installed on the same server, or you can separate
the roles.
To install WDS on Server 2008, open Server Manager,
highlight Roles, then click Add Roles (top right corner).
The Add Roles Wizard launches and displays the Before
You Begin page. Click Next. From the list of roles displayed,
scroll down and select Windows Deployment
Services. Click Next three times, accepting the defaults
on each page (Overview of WDS, Select Role Services,
Confirm Installation Selections). Click the Install button.
When the installation is complete, click Close and you’re
ready to configure your new WDS server—no reboot
needed.
Configure WDS by opening the WDS snap-in found
under Start, Administrative Tools, Windows Deployment
Services, or in Server Manager. (Although you
might need to close and reopen Server Manager to see
the new snap-in.) Expand Servers; there should be a
yellow yield sign next to your server’s name. Right-click
your server name and choose Configure Server. The
Welcome Page lists WDS’s requirements; click Next. On the Remote Installation Folder Location
page, choose the drive on which you want
to store your images and click Next. The
drive you store the images on should be
dedicated to image storage because of the
amount of space that will be needed. The
next page to be displayed is determined
by whether DHCP is installed on the WDS
server or not. If (and only if) DHCP is
installed on the same server as WDS, you’ll
get the DHCP Option 60 page. To learn more
about DHCP Option 60 and the relationship
between DHCP and WDS, see the webexclusive
sidebar “Configuring DHCP and
WDS,” at InstantDoc ID 100875.
The next page, PXE Server Initial Setting,
lets you set whether you want the WDS
server to respond to Preboot Execution
Environment (PXE) client requests, and if
so, how. You’ll see four options:
1. Do not respond to any client computer.
This turns off WDS responses.
2. Respond only to known client computers.
WDS will respond to clients that
have been pre-staged in AD. Pre-staging is
done in Active Directory Users and Computers
just as it was done in RIS.
3. Respond to all (known and
unknown) client computers. By itself, this
option would cause WDS to respond to
all PXE requests; if you select this option
and also select option 4, your setup is a bit
more secure.
4. For unknown clients, notify administrator
and respond after approval. This
option allows pre-staged machines to
receive a response from the WDS server,
but unknown clients would remain on
the PXE boot screen until an administrator
has approved the request within the
WDS snap-in. To approve a request from
an unknown client, you would open the
WDS snap-in, expand Servers, and highlight
Pending Devices. In the results pane,
you’ll see a pending request. Right-click
the pending request and choose either
Approve, Reject, or Approve and Name.
The first two choices are straightforward;
the third option approves the request and
names the computer object that will be
created in Active Directory Users and Computers.
Select the appropriate option, and click
Finish. On the Configuration Complete page, clear the Add images
to the Windows Deployment
Server now check box
(because you have no image
to add yet) and click Finish.
Adding an Image
There are two types of Windows
Imaging Format (.wim)
images you can add to WDS
servers: boot and OS images.
First I’ll show you how to add
a boot image. After we create
an OS image, I’ll explain how to add that image to the WDS server.
Before you can add a boot image, you
need to create one using the Windows Automated
Installation Kit (WAIK) 1.1. The WAIK
is a free download from Microsoft that you
install on the WDS server. After installation,
click Start, All Programs, Microsoft Windows
AIK, Windows PE Tools Command Prompt.
(If you try to run this command in a normal
command prompt, you’ll get the error message
Imagex is not recognized as an internal
or external command, operable program or
batch file.) If you’re installing a 32-bit OS,
you’ll need a 32-bit boot image; for a 64-bit
OS, a 64-bit boot image. To create a 32-bit
boot image from the PE Tools Command
Prompt, type:
copype x86 c:\winpe_32
To create a 64-bit boot image, type
copype x64 c:\winpe_64
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