Using WDS with Windows Server 2008

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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