New RIS Server

[garethEds]

I'm re-building our RIS server and don't really want it to run WDS. I prefer using the way RIS deploys rather than individual machine images (is that what WDS does?)

 

What worries me is security updates. Sp2 for WIndows 2003 updates RIS to WDS.

 

If this is not an internet facing server and is protected by the LEA firewalls and anti-virus do I really need to update the Service Pack?

 

Gareth

[DrCheese]

SP2 does update 2003's RIS to WDS, but it runs in Mixed mode (i.e deploys images using the older RIS and the newer WDS mode if you wish)

 

2008 on the other hand does not offer you a choice between RIS/WDS (Runs in Native mode).

[Guest Guest]

Yeah RIS is fine on SP2, running it here. i also agree WDSs image handling is a massive step back into the 1990s.

[sbhstech]

We're in the process of doing the same (upgrading RIS). It took us a while, but we've settled on running everything in Mixed Mode (only used Legacy features).

 

We've seen no advantage to moving to Vista/7 for the desktops, and we'd have to buy 80% new machines, even though the majority of our users do little more than word process and surf. So we'll have the same fight with WDS for images of 7 and using the new deployment methodology when we're forced to by other software.

[powdarrmonkey]

I'm re-building our RIS server and don't really want it to run WDS. I prefer using the way RIS deploys rather than individual machine images (is that what WDS does?)

 

I'm not sure what you mean by 'individual machine images'? There's really very little practical difference between the two, if you just use WDS like a RIS server anyway (start using Vista and it gets a bit more clever) but it does do useful things like name the machine for you, add files post-image, etc.

 

Anyway, to answer your question, 2k3SP2 puts it in Mixed mode by default, which you can use just the same as you did before if you want, or take advantage of WDS if you'd rather (bit like mixed mode domain forests).