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Problem: You need to deploy many clients.
Solution: Use Windows Deployment Services
What you need: Windows Deployment Services, OS images, an Active Directory domain, DNS, DHCP, and an NTFS partition.
Steps:
Step 1: Install WDS
Step 2: Configure WDS
Step 3: Add boot images
Step 4: Add install images
Step 5: Add drivers to your images
Step 6: Deploy to Clients
Windows Deployment Service (WDS) is Microsoft's replacement for Remote Installation Service. WDS has been around for a while—you could have installed WDS on Windows Server 2003 SP1, and it ships in the box with Server 2008 and later Windows Server OSs. In this article, I'll begin with installing WDS and walk you through configuring WDS, adding images (both .wim and .vhd formats), and I'll cover a topic that makes the top10 "most difficult things to do with Microsoft deployment tools" list every time—driver management. I'll finish up by showing you how to deploy an image to a client both a known and unknown client and what the difference is.
There are two types of WDS servers: transport and domain-based. A WDS transport server was designed for smaller environments that don't have an Active Directory (AD) domain. While transport servers require less infrastructure than domain-based server, they're more difficult to set up and configure. I'm only going to address domain-based WDS. Domain-based WDS requires infrastructure, including an AD domain, DNS, DHCP, and an NTFS partition.
Step 1: Installing WDS
How you install WDS depends on your server's OS. In Windows Server 2003 SP2, you open Control Panel, then Add/Remove Programs, Windows Components, WDS. On a Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2 server, you add it as a role through Server Manager by following these steps:
1. Open Server Manager from the task bar (or the Start menu under Administrative Tools) and click Roles.
2. Click Add Roles to launch the Add Roles Wizard.
3. On the Before You Begin page, click Next.
4. The roles are listed on the Server Roles page. Select the Windows Deployment Services check box and click Next.
5. The Overview of Windows Deployment Services page explains a little about WDS and provides links for configuring and managing WDS. Review the links or just click Next.
6. The Select Role Services page lists two services that need to be installed for a domain-based WDS server. The Deployment Server and Transport Server check boxes should already be selected, so accept the default selections and click Next.
7. On the Confirm Installation Selections page, click Install. You'll see the Installation Progress page, then, when it's finished, the Installation Results page. Once it's successfully installed, click Close and you're done—no reboot required. The newly installed WDS snap-in is found in the Start menu under Administrative Tools, Windows Deployment Services.
Before you can deploy images from your WDS server, you'll need to configure WDS. Open the WDS snap-in then expand the Servers node and you should see your WDS server's name. If your server's name doesn't appear, right-click the Servers node and choose Add Server. The local computer is selected by default, so clicking OK adds the local server to the WDS snap-in. This is also how you can add multiple WDS servers to a single WDS snap-in so they can be remotely managed from a central location. To add a different WDS server instead of the local computer, right-click the Servers node and choose Another computer, then click Browse and navigate to the WDS server you'd like added.
Step 2: Configuring WDS
Now that your server is listed under Servers, notice the yellow yield sign next to your server's Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN). Configure WDS by following these steps:
1. Right-click your server name and choose Configure Server to launch the Windows Deployment Services Configuration Wizard.
2. The Before You Begin page lists the requirements of a domain-based WDS server. Click Next.
3. On the Remote Installation Folder Location page, type a path where you'd like to store your images (this must be an NTFS partition). I recommend putting your images on a drive other than your system or boot drives, and you should have at least 20 GB of storage space. I always accept the default name of the folder (RemoteInstall) and change the drive letter. Click Next.
4. The page displayed next depends on whether the DHCP service is installed on the same server you're installing WDS. Clients find both DHCP and WDS services by broadcast traffic destined for port UDP 67, which introduces two problems: Broadcast traffic is usually prevented from traversing one subnet to another, and DHCP and WDS installed on the same server can't both listen on port UDP 67. This leads you to three scenarios—WDS and DHCP installed on the same server, WDS and DHCP on different servers but the same subnet, and WDS and DHCP on different servers and different subnets.