Anybody moved to WDS and ImageX yet?

[Quackers]

Anybody using ImageX on Windows Deployment Services yet and said goodbye to RIS? Been playing With Windows XP Deployment this way today and i like it so far. With Vista round the corner i thought i had better prep up and learn the new way and was pleased to find you can do XP the same way too!

[john]

I have not yet, but after the TechNet roadshow I will be doing. It looks a much simpler way of doing it (really the best stuff is when you have vista with it) but I can see the advantages of it all, but you need to be using vista as it still has all the issues that you have with XP and RIS such as HALs, very minimal machine changes cause images to crash etc etc so it doesn't solve those kinds of things, where as deploying Vista with it isn't doesn't have those issues.

[eejit]

It is very nice, but no "broadcast" way of deploying unfortunately, so it still doesn't completely take over from ghost.

 

They actually want us to walk to the machines to start the process 8O

[Midget]

Hmm I'll have a look at this when I upgrade to SP2. At least I can keep my old RIS images until i create new ones.

[john]

...They actually want us to walk to the machines to start the process 8O

Hey for some of us its the only exercise we get walking round all the machiens pressing F12 and entering our credentials

[tosca925]

On a scale of one to ten, how easy have you found the move from RIS to this?

[Gatt]

Only applied SP 2 to one non-critical Server - will try the current RIS server tomorrow along with the DC and File Server

[tosca925]

Just logged in and done a few of our file servers and print server, seem ok but the test will be tomorrow.

[sidewinder]

So is it easier than RIS?

I have only just got around to getting it set up, but shall I just wait till Ive applied SP2 and use WDS instead?

[eejit]

you need to have a look at the 'parent' software - Business Desktop Deployment of which WDS is just a part. You can have a driver and package depository in that which makes it very powerful.

[Kyle]

Will WDS make it easier to work with ThinCLient booting?

[bishopsgarthstockton]

erm i dont know anything about wds and ximage, but im well keen to see what its all about. does anyone have or know where i can get information/documentation, on this?

 

thanks

[john]

The techent website has loads on it, easiest way of finding out is searching for Vista Deployment in its context as thats what its main use is.

[Quackers]

On a scale of one to ten, how easy have you found the move from RIS to this?

 

Thats a hard question, its not easy in the sense that you have to forget how you do things in RIS and learn a new way. But once you get to grips with the new way its good.

[Gatt]

Installed SP2 onto my RIS server and WDS got installed but now gotta sus out how the hell to get RIS/WDS working - d/ling the needed WAIK at over a Gig!

[contink]

Without wishing to appear completely idiotic, is there anyone who can point to a few links on ximage, etc...

 

I wasn't even aware that an alternative to RIS was coming out and even with the keywords in this thread I'm still having problems finding much info'.

 

So far though found this:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=c7d4bc6d-15f3-4284-9123-679830d629f2&displaylang=en

 

 

So, the big question I guess is where to start... any pointers?

[Dos_Box]

You need Vista to do it.

[Uraken]

i downloaded aik via the deployment work bench but came to a grinding halt now.

[contink]

You need Vista to do it.

Ah... ok... that explains why I've not seen anything to do with it all for WinXP then..

 

Bit confusing though as there's mention of it working with XP too... perhaps someone can provide a quick and dirty wiki entry on the subject to clarify.

[eejit]

No, you can use XP with BDD 2007 and the WDS component. Certainly some parts are not compatible - but you can definitely use WDS and ImageX with XP.

[Quackers]

I've got WDS working with XP, i can capture and deploy an XP image to the same PC, with CD Key and domain join etc all automated after like i had in RIS, BUT if i try to put the image on another identical laptop i get the corrupt or missing hal.dll message after the image has been applyed. Anybody else have this? Its bugging me.

[john]

The new tools still suffer the same hal problems as we had with RIS, just because were using new tools doesn't stop that problem. The hal issue is a Windows XP problem not a RIS problem, so you probably have got one of the usual annoying hal issues.

[tosca925]

Installed WDS as part of the SP2 update. After that RIS stopped working, we run the WDS wizard and set WDS to mixed mode. It seemed to work then but never tested it. Come to re-image a pc this morning and it did not work. After a bit of searching on google we found out a fix. On the settings of WDS we had to point the 32bit boot file to the start rom in the RIS folder. Works a treat now.

[Gatt]

Had similar problem as Tosca when I updated to SP2,

Can now RIS fine, and managed to convert a few images to WDS

Still a few "quirks" to work out - like why the HDD doesn't auto format when installing an image.

 

Had a try of creating an image via an Image Capture but need to look at how to get it fully automated - something to do with Sysprep i think

 

WDS is great, but i find that at the moment it is severly lacking in a comprehensive HOWTO document - the doumentaion is available but very fragmented over several websites.

 

If i get time i may try and work on a basic walkthru for it.

[tosca925]

If i get time i may try and work on a basic walkthru for it.

 

I;m glad i was not on my own Gatt, the walkthrough guide would be excellent.