Windows Deployment Services

 

When I was playing about with Server 2008, one of the things I came across was WDS - Windows Deployment Service - it comes with Server 2008. However my big fat Server 2008 book published by Microsoft ( very cheap from Amazon ) devotes a total of 2 lines out of 1428 pages to tell you about WDS. So it was back to the internet !

The result is this web page - WDS is a server side service for enabling the installations of Windows operating systems onto remote computers. First of all some background - as far as I can see, Microsoft either had or have loads of different mechanisms for remote OS installations - the ones I came across when searching for stuff on WDS included -

 

SMS and SCCM can do a lot more than just remote installs of OS`s, they provide a full management service for thousands of remote computers, including -

 

SMS was, and SCCM is, a separate Microsoft product.

However it isn`t just as simple as this, as some websites suggest that SCCM requires that WDS is installed on the server, as a prerequisite for SCCM. However many other websites don`t. So I am not sure about this one. One webpage in Microsoft Technet suggests that WDS is a prerequisite for SCCM if SCCM is required to do operating system deployment using multicast.

Another Technet page suggests that WDS is a prerequisite for SCCM if SCCM is required to do PXE initiated operating system deployments.

So it perhaps depends on what type of operating system deployment you want to use SCCM for, as to whether WDS is a prerequisite for SCCM.

But anyway, there is a bit of tie-up between SCCM and WDS.

 

WDS in general

WDS first appeared when it was bundled with Server 2003 sp2, it is now bundled with Server 2008.

As described above, WDS was a replacement for RIS, and provides features and functionality such as -

 

WDS has a number of prerequisites before it can be used -

 

WDS needs access through firewalls for -

The DHCP server has to be configured for option 60 - this allows for PXE support.

There seems to be a bit of a confusion factor built in to WDS concerning whether WDS should listen on port 67 -

 

At least I think that is how it is supposed to be set !

 

WDS on Server 2003

As stated above, WDS replaced RIS when Server 2003 sp2 was released. Because of that, WDS was often set up on top of existing RIS installations, and it was actually dependent on RIS. To install WDS, RIS had to be installed.

WDS on Server 2003 sp2 could be configured to run in three different modes, and these modes depended on the way RIS was set up.

 

This information is quite well provided on the Microsoft Technet website. I don`t have access to Server 2003, so haven`t done it.

 

WDS on Server 2008

On Server 2008, WDS is available as a "Role", and needs to have DNS, DHCP, an NTFS volume for image storage, and Active Directory already set up.

It is quite easy to install, on my server I diligently created a separate NTFS volume, mapped it to "E", and set up a folder structure to hold the different kinds of images. However the installation completely ignored my folder structure, and set up its own structure, in a top level folder called "Images".

If you choose the easy option and have Microsoft DHCP server on the same box as the WDS server, then the WDS installation does the configuration for port 67 and option 60 for you.

On Server 2008, RIS doesn`t exist as a separate service, or as a "Role" or as a "Feature", so doesn`t come into the equation. However WDS has an interdependency on "Transport Server" which is installed by default along with WDS - you can choose not to install "Transport Server", but why make life difficult for yourself later on.

 

Acquiring images

To use WDS, you need two kinds of images -

 

These are imported into WDS using the MMC snap-in for WDS, from wherever they are. The MMC snap-in makes it quite easy, just accept the defaults and it works.

The DVD`s for Windows 7, Vista, and Server 2008 contain a folder called "Sources", in there are the two image files "boot.wim" and "install.wim" - you can import them directly from the DVD`s.

Once they have been imported, they are listed in the MMC snap-in, and they exist as files or a set of files in the folder structure that the installation of WDS set up. So in my case, the boot image is located in 


     E:/Images/Boot/x86/Images/

and it is a set of 5 files.

Full of enthusiasm, I then imported a boot image from another DVD - and then I discovered that it also is called boot.wim, and so ended up with the same name in the MMC, and the same files in the folder, except that WDS has added "-(2)" to the name, and I don`t know which is which. So when I did it a third time, I copied the boot.wim to another folder, renamed it, then imported it from there, and also changed the names in the MMC snap-in. So now the third boot image files are uniquely named.

Having done all that, I have subsequently seen reference to the information that you only need one boot image anyway - use the boot.wim from the server 2008 DVD and it will do everything you need for Windows 7 and Vista installations.

As alreay said, the install image files are also available on the DVD`s, and can be used to deploy standard builds of the various operating systems.

But if you want to take an image of a computer to create a new install image, then WDS does allow you to do this. The first thing you need is a different type of boot image. The standard boot image contains the Windows PE code to do a build. To upload an image onto the server, you need a capture boot image which contains different code. This can be created using the MMC snap-in for WDS, however it isn`t quite as straightforward as importing a standard boot image.

You start in the MMC by highlighting an existing standard boot image - right click on it, and select "Create Capture Boot Image" - then follow the instructions. This process doesn`t import the new boot image into WDS - it actually produces a new .wim file, which it places into a location which you specify, external to the WDS "Images" root folder.

Having produced that file, you then have to import it into WDS, in the same way as a normal boot image.

If you want to use WDS to deploy legacy operating systems on older hardware that isn`t PXE enabled, then WDS covers that as well.

Follow the same steps as immediately above, but this time select the option to "Create Discover Boot Image". The process isn`t exactly the same - you have to specify which WDS server you want the remote computer to connect to. But the result is similar - you end up with a discover boot image in the folder you specified.

That was the easy bit - now you have to download a tool called Microsoft AIK - Microsoft Automated Installation Kit. It didn`t used to be, but it is now a free download, but it is huge - 992 Mb. It contains a substantial collection of different tools connected with remote deployments.

Having installed that, you then have to do various forms of manipulation to your discover boot image, in order to produce an iso image of the discover boot image, which you can burn onto a cd. I haven`t done any of this, so don`t know anymore about it.

 

Ending with a whimper, rather than a bang

That`s as far as I have got with WDS - I don`t have enough suitable computers to go much further, and anyway, I really only wanted to find out a bit more about what it is. However from what I`ve seen so far, it could be okay. Based on my experience within the IT support sector, I reckon that computers that are built - either from a CD/DVD or across the network - work far better than computers that have been imaged using a HDD sector based imaging tool. And because they work better, they generate less support calls. Which is good for everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

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