abillybob Posted April 30, 2014 Posted April 30, 2014 Hey Guys So I've just resurrected a old server and installed Windows Server 2008 R2 and made it a second Domain Controller! YAY! Anyway what I also would like to look into is a piece of software that will allow me to PXE boot from so I can re-image the machines in the School easily, we have nothing like this at the moment not even Norton Ghost so you can imagine the frustration building every computer up from scratch. In my old school we had a system where you could boot from the network, select which computer image you wish to use, click next and it would do everything for you and once the computer had restarted Voila it was re-imaged and sorted with all the drivers and so on. The latter is what I would prefer obviously but I don't know whether a system like that can be implemented for free, I'm guessing not! I am a huge noob at this as I have never set-up anything like this before, I've had a play with Clonezilla in the past but that's about it, so any help you could offer I would be very greatful! Cheers Guys
fiza Posted April 30, 2014 Posted April 30, 2014 MDT with WDS for PXE Boot without a doubt. (its free) Lots of info on Edugeek about using it. sounds like what your old school had. 1
abillybob Posted April 30, 2014 Author Posted April 30, 2014 MDT with WDS for PXE Boot without a doubt. (its free) Lots of info on Edugeek about using it. sounds like what your old school had. Microsoft deployment Toolkit does ring a bell to me, I think it was that what we used in my old school. Could you point me to the right directions so I can learn how to set it up. I can't seem to find a document that tells me how to do it from scratch!? Thankyou
fiza Posted April 30, 2014 Posted April 30, 2014 Good place to start. I took my first steps with MDT/WDS using this guide. Deploying Windows 7 - Part 1: Windows AIK 2.0 Enhancements :: Windows 7 :: Articles & Tutorials :: WindowsNetworking.com 1
ICTDirect_Dave Posted April 30, 2014 Posted April 30, 2014 WDS is great and will do all you want. If you wanted something a little more fun try FOG. We used to use it to preimage all our machines. FOG Server Install (Free Opensource Ghost) - Spiceworks 1
sonofsanta Posted April 30, 2014 Posted April 30, 2014 FOG is excellent, one of the best things we ever implemented.
tmcd35 Posted April 30, 2014 Posted April 30, 2014 (edited) How big is the school, what scale deployments are we talking about? Clonezilla is free and ultra-easy to use for small scale deployments. Store images on a network share, boot from penstick, CD or (with a little work) PXE. WDS is really easy to set up, free with Windows Server and all round the best option - but watch server and network load when using it. Possibly not a great idea on a DC, might want to avoid too much imaging if other users are around. MDT adds a little complication to WDS but does mean everything is automated. I think you can get MDT to the point were just turning a PC on is enough for an image to be deployed! Cream of the crop is System Center Config Manager. Costs a little more (actually free as part of an EES subscription). Takes some setting up (seriously!). But is worth all the hastles as AV, software deployments, machine images, etc all suddenly become a breeze to manage and deploy. Edited April 30, 2014 by tmcd35
sted Posted April 30, 2014 Posted April 30, 2014 MDT adds a little complication to WDS but does mean everything is automated. I think you can get MDT to the point were just turning a PC on is enough for an image to be deployed! if youre prepared to play around yes i managed to set it up in 1 school so if a pc with mac address abcdabcdabcd booted into mdt it called it pc01 installed drivers for that pc installed software specific to that pc (so hp quicklunch as an example) ran the winsat tests to make sure aero was turned on ser the right screen res and logged off the local admin it logs in as when done. BUT unless you are doing a lot at once the extra work to make it that automated was imo more hassle than it was worth
tmcd35 Posted April 30, 2014 Posted April 30, 2014 BUT unless you are doing a lot at once the extra work to make it that automated was imo more hassle than it was worth To be honest, I always found MDT as a whole more hassle than it was worth! I stuck with vanilla WDS until we migrated to SCCM. I think SCCM is based on MDT, but it creates all the automation scripts for you.
abillybob Posted April 30, 2014 Author Posted April 30, 2014 Ok thanks guys for all your comments and help it's mostly appreciated. I have decided to go with Windows Deployment Toolkit and MDT. *Whispers and hangs head in shame* Though I am a bit stuck! I have followed the video on this website Windows Deployment Services - How to Set Up | TechNet to the letter! I get to the point where he tells me to right click "Boot Images" folder and click "Add Boot Image" though I browse to the place he tells me there is no .wim files to select just empty folders! Am I doing something wrong?
tmcd35 Posted April 30, 2014 Posted April 30, 2014 You need a Windows 7/8 install CD. You get the initial .wim files from there. They are then used to create the WinPE .wim files that you boot into using PXE.
themightymrp Posted April 30, 2014 Posted April 30, 2014 MDT and WDS is the way we do it. Free option, easy to setup. I boot to PXE via the WDS section. Choose a task sequence to do a full install of a machine with all software etc. Then I sysprep and capture it to deploy out as a complete image. I also have ghost as a backup solution which can be launched from one of my MDT task sequences
fiza Posted April 30, 2014 Posted April 30, 2014 Check these videos out too. MDT 2010: Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Video Walkthrough | Scriptimus Ex Machina
computer_expert Posted April 30, 2014 Posted April 30, 2014 I have followed the video on this website Windows Deployment Services - How to Set Up | TechNet to the letter! I get to the point where he tells me to right click "Boot Images" folder and click "Add Boot Image" though I browse to the place he tells me there is no .wim files to select just empty folders! Am I doing something wrong? In the MDT console, right click the deployment share > update deployment share. Follow the wizard and after the wizard has finished, the boot image should be in the boot folder in the deployment share.
abillybob Posted April 30, 2014 Author Posted April 30, 2014 (edited) You need a Windows 7/8 install CD. You get the initial .wim files from there. They are then used to create the WinPE .wim files that you boot into using PXE. Ok two questions, 1. Do I need both from both discs as in one from the 32bit disc and another from the 64bit disc? 2. Once I have those files and I have copied them into the appropriate folders what next? Thankyou once again for all your help! In the MDT console, right click the deployment share > update deployment share. Follow the wizard and after the wizard has finished, the boot image should be in the boot folder in the deployment share. I don't see this as an option? Do I need another application as you said MDT Console, I am in the WDS Console, I haven't got anything like an MDT console? Edited April 30, 2014 by abillybob
tmcd35 Posted April 30, 2014 Posted April 30, 2014 Since you're going down the MDT route, take a look at @computer_experts post above as it may have more relavence. I'm going from memory. It's been a while since I set up WDS. Whether or not you need both depends on what your clients are and what you want to install to them. As to what next, I think you right click on the images once they've been imported into WDS and there's a menu option for creating the relevent boot image. Thinking about it now, there might be .wim images in the WAIK download that are needed as well.
fiza Posted April 30, 2014 Posted April 30, 2014 @abillybob - work through that guide I linked to in my first post. It really is worth going through it. I learnt so much from it.
abillybob Posted April 30, 2014 Author Posted April 30, 2014 I'm so confused right now -.-! Ugh @abillybob - work through that guide I linked to in my first post. It really is worth going through it. I learnt so much from it. Ok mate will give that a watch tomorrow I'm leaving soon so don't have the time! Cheers for all your help.
computer_expert Posted April 30, 2014 Posted April 30, 2014 (edited) I don't see this as an option? Do I need another application as you said MDT Console, I am in the WDS Console, I haven't got anything like an MDT console? Sorry, I assumed you were going down the MDT route...Looking at my MDT server, the MDT console is actually called 'Deployment Workbench'. As for the question about 32/64bit it's best to have both. Also, the link posted by @fiza was what I used to help me set my MDT server up - looks scary but is an excellent guide! Edited April 30, 2014 by computer_expert
abillybob Posted May 1, 2014 Author Posted May 1, 2014 Ok, so I have set it up best I can with the tutorial videos and a bit of my own research and I have got to here [ATTACH=CONFIG]24140[/ATTACH] I have configured and set up the server, I have imported two Windows 7 Boot Images one being 64bit and the other 32bit, I then created a Capture Image from those boot images to enable me to capture a computer image on the client and save that image to the server for re-deployment on clone computers. I have also imported two of the standard Windows 7 install.wim files in the Install Images folder. At this point I thought I was done and it was all setup but when I try to boot from a client PC over the network it won't find the server and just boots into Windows as normal! Am I missing something here, I'm sure I've done everything right, I should also proberbly mention DHCP isn't running on this server and I read somewhere you have to set it up on DHCP but I have no idea where to start??
fiza Posted May 1, 2014 Posted May 1, 2014 Ok, so I have set it up best I can with the tutorial videos and a bit of my own research and I have got to here [ATTACH=CONFIG]24140[/ATTACH] QUOTE] Invalid attachment - cant see anything.
fiza Posted May 1, 2014 Posted May 1, 2014 @abillybob - have you set the PC to boot into PXE? Have you set your WDS server to respond to PXE requests?
sted Posted May 1, 2014 Posted May 1, 2014 yuo only need to fiddle with dhcp setting if the wds server is the same box as dhcp otherwise it should just work but check see if option 60/67 have anything against them. Also check the pxe repsonse tab in wds (server name on right properties) as iirc default is dont respond it needs to be respond to all client computers (known and unknown) (at least to test but tbh its a pain having to allow certain guids to boot). the dhcp page should have 0 ticks on it unless you are on the dncp server ps atachment dosent work
fiza Posted May 1, 2014 Posted May 1, 2014 If you are using MDT you don't need to put anything in the Install images folder. Have you set up a task sequence to deploy an image?
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