djones Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 I'm no expert on this but AFAIK in WDS config there is a section that says something about "...if this server is a DHCP server then check these boxes..." you obviously wouldn't need this part. The DHCP scope on the curric server would need to have the pxe boot options set to the WDS server and IIRC this needs to be a valid hostname not IP address. Edit: This thread may help: WDS on separate server to DHCP - MSFN Forums This may not be a lot of help as I'm not in front of our WDS server at the moment and I sure someone more knowledgeable will be along shortly to clarify! Dave. 1
tatty14 Posted June 18, 2008 Posted June 18, 2008 ok...so ive set everything up...and i can start to setup a capture of an image and i get an error.... capturing image the parameter is incorrect driving me mad...anyone had this or got any ideas to help me out? looked on hte net...nothing out there for help.
Teth Posted August 7, 2008 Posted August 7, 2008 Ok moved from RIS to WDS this summer I had to make new images for all suites anyway so thought I'd run WDS in naitve mode and learn wim images while I was at it. Its all gone well partitioning works far better in windows PE than in XP setup etc. However I've hit a wall with machine nameing. With RIS when installing a machine that was already in AD it would name the machine the same as the existing record in AD as long as the GUID matched and it would stay in the correct OU. If it couldn't find a matching GUID it would generate a new name based on the auto generate rule and place it in a default OU set on the same page of server properties. I set up the equivalent Properties Page in WDS but whether the PC is known or unknown my images are copying over and extracting running mini setup for XP and just popping up and asking for a machine name every time. I'm guessing either WDS needs be told to write the machine name from AD into the image when it transferes it to the PC or soemthing needs added to the sysprep.inf to make it ask AD for its name but I can't find any mention of it no matter what I search for on Google. All the guides etc just gloss over this as if it wasn't an issue for them. I can't be the only person that doesn't want to have to type ina machine name every time. My Vista suite works fine of course. Its just the XP ones.
SYNACK Posted August 7, 2008 Posted August 7, 2008 Ok moved from RIS to WDS this summer I had to make new images for all suites anyway so thought I'd run WDS in naitve mode and learn wim images while I was at it. Its all gone well partitioning works far better in windows PE than in XP setup etc. However I've hit a wall with machine nameing. This could help if you have not already tried it: Automating the Domain Join The domain join process uses the image unattend file to pass data that is collected within Windows PE to the subsequent phases of Setup.exe. If an image is associated with an image unattend file, the domain join and computer name settings will be made directly to this file. However, for this to occur, you must properly the file correctly (see the Sample Unattend Files). Specifically, this means as follows: For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 images. The image unattend file in the $OEM$ structure (Sysprep.inf) must have the setting DoOldStyleDomainJoin=Yes, and it must have (at a minimum) the [Networking] and [userData] sections, even if they are empty. These suggest the same kind of thing: https://forums.microsoft.com/technet/showpost.aspx?postid=1287114&siteid=17&sb=0&d=1&at=7&ft=11&tf=0&pageid=1 http://forums.technet.microsoft.com/en-US/winserversetup/thread/b29c7b6f-13ed-40d5-ba9c-7b40edde51a8/ 1
ChrisH Posted August 7, 2008 Posted August 7, 2008 I am going to be tackling this soon. Thanks for the info everyone it should make it a lot less painful for me . I never liked RIPREP images as they seemed easy to mess up I just use the normal risetup with lots of driver packs and install on first auto logon for awkward stuff as well as lots of custom scripts. I will be hopefully looking forward to a speed increase on deployment now though.
Teth Posted August 12, 2008 Posted August 12, 2008 Another couple of days have been spent rebuilding machines and while I've got my image itself perfected the deployment of it is still not right my machines are still not being named correctly and rejoining the domain. Everything I have read on edugeekers blogs, wiki's and technet makes sense and as far as I can tell I'm following it but I still continually get %MACHINE% in the computer name box instead of either its original machine name from AD or if its an unknown machine the machine name generated by the mask in the WDS properties. My understanding of this is as follows now. 1) Set up WDS for capture and deploy (Done) 2) Make an ideal XP image with driver repository on C: and sysprep it with minisetup enabled and Re-Seal. 3) Boot from PXE and capture the image to the server. 4) Specify a WDSClientUnattend.xml for the server which will pick the deply image and select the .WIM in the correct image group after partitioning the drive. The partitioning is working and the right image .wim is being pulled down so I'm pretty sure I'm right to here. 5) Place an sysprep.inf in the correct folder to automate the installation of the image. It gets placed on the boot drive once the .wim is extracted ready to control mini setup. It is placed in \\wdsserver\REMINST\Images\Imagegroup\imagefilename\$OEM$\$1\sysprep 6) Boot PC from PXE and it should arrive at a ctrl+alt+del to log on screen after 20mins ish connected to the domain and ready to go. 7)tear out hair because it doesn't. I will post my WDSClientUnattend.xml and my sysprep.inf bellow if anyone can point out anything I'd be very greatful because I'm stumped. WDS just doesn't seem to be replacing the %MACHINE% and %MACHINEDOMAIN% variables and I can't figure out why. Wether a machine is correctly prestaged or not its still %MACHINE% in the computer name box when it runs mini setup. I would expect either "RIS-PC##" or "ICT1-PC07". If I change %MACHINE% in the syprep.inf to * it correctly generates a random name based on our organisation. WDSClientUnattend.xml OnError account domain password OnError Dell 170L 3 ICTSuites dell170l3.wim 0 1 OnError 0 true 1 Primary 30000 2 Extended true 3 Logical true 1 1 NTFS WinXP C true 2 2 U Userdat NTFS sysrep.inf edited to remove the component and drivers blocks cos they are huge and Unrelated. [unattended] unattendedMode=FullUnattended OemSkipEula=Yes InstallFilesPath=C:\ ConfirmHardware=No DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore pempreinstall=yes updateInstalledDrivers=Yes [GuiUnattended] OEMSkipRegional=1 TimeZone=85 OemSkipWelcome=1 [userData] ProductKey=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX FullName=" " OrgName="ORG" ComputerName=%MACHINE% [Display] BitsPerPel=32 Xresolution=1280 YResolution=1024 Vrefresh=60 [TapiLocation] CountryCode=44 Dialing=Tone AreaCode=028 [RegionalSettings] LanguageGroup=1 SystemLocale=00000809 UserLocale=00000809 InputLocale=0809:00000809 [setupMgr] DistFolder=C:\sysprep\i386 DistShare=windist [Networking] InstallDefaultComponents=Yes JoinDomain=%MACHINEDOMAIN% DoOldStyleDomainJoin=Yes [sysprepcleanup]
powdarrmonkey Posted August 12, 2008 Posted August 12, 2008 I'm just in the middle of perfecting my deployments with exactly this method. The variable for the name is %MACHINENAME%, not %MACHINE%.
powdarrmonkey Posted August 12, 2008 Posted August 12, 2008 Remember ground dweller, the monkey can climb.
Gatt Posted August 13, 2008 Posted August 13, 2008 ground dweller can also bring down that which goes up..
Teth Posted August 13, 2008 Posted August 13, 2008 Haha Gotta laugh or you'd cry. That does indeed do the trick.
Gatt Posted August 14, 2008 Posted August 14, 2008 Finally got WDS working with Multicasting and Unattended Vista installations Not tried it on a full classroom yet but will be today or tomorrow hopefully - usually do my imaging over night so as there is no impact on the network.. Have heard that multicasting is actually slower though? but If i need to image 3 ICT Suites at once then i think Multicasting is prob the way to go here (93 PCs)
Gatt Posted August 18, 2008 Posted August 18, 2008 Well multicasting is working a treat.... 30 PCs imaged in an hour!! better than a day per room!!
petroz Posted August 30, 2008 Posted August 30, 2008 Just finished a massive deployment of WindowsXP to Mac's and PC's, via WDS and WinPE for the PC's and ntfsclone and Jamf for the Mac's. WDS works alright for XP, but I ran into a few quirks that might save you all a buttload of time:: using imagex /capture to a mapped drive never produced a valid image.. external hdd is faster and more reliable, using /compress fast & /compress maximum in imagex is a crap shoot and rarely captures a valid image... try /compress none, if you need to /append... dont do it to any image installed in WDS, watch out for those pesky "hidden" partitions as WDS does not see them, IP helpers are your friend when deploying across site2site VPN's, make sure your boot.wim does not have a pid.txt in it, dont let WDS do auto-binding.. try netdom, imagex /mountrw is a helpfull little option when you have to make changes... be sure to /unmount /commit if you plan to save your changes, and last but not least pray to whatever you believe in for patience...... I am working on some step by steps for WDS and XP and will post links When I am done.
petroz Posted August 30, 2008 Posted August 30, 2008 My understanding of this is as follows now. 1) Set up WDS for capture and deploy (Done) 2) Make an ideal XP image with driver repository on C: and sysprep it with minisetup enabled and Re-Seal. 3) Boot from PXE and capture the image to the server. 4) Specify a WDSClientUnattend.xml for the server which will pick the deply image and select the .WIM in the correct image group after partitioning the drive. The partitioning is working and the right image .wim is being pulled down so I'm pretty sure I'm right to here. 5) Place an sysprep.inf in the correct folder to automate the installation of the image. It gets placed on the boot drive once the .wim is extracted ready to control mini setup. It is placed in \\wdsserver\REMINST\Images\Imagegroup\imagefilename\$OEM$\$1\sysprep 6) Boot PC from PXE and it should arrive at a ctrl+alt+del to log on screen after 20mins ish connected to the domain and ready to go. 7)tear out hair because it doesn't. I did not find it necessary to have a driver repository when using WDS and WIM's. Think of wim images as ghost images, they retain all drivers. Also never had to place my sysprep anywhere other than the root of the WIM image. You can drasticlly simplify your process by adding a couple of batch files that use tools like netdom(binding), reg add/delete, curl (for renaming via DB's) and last but not least Great Work on the Unattended.XML!!!
plexer Posted September 3, 2008 Posted September 3, 2008 Can someone do an idiots guide to getting WDS setup for imaging and deploying XP machines? Ben
ChrisH Posted October 2, 2008 Posted October 2, 2008 Ok I need to inject some Network card drivers into the boot.wim so I assume I should be using the Vista Drivers?
ChrisH Posted October 3, 2008 Posted October 3, 2008 Ok I have been injecting alsorts of drivers to no avail. Has anyone done any Compaq 6820s Laptops?
ChrisH Posted October 3, 2008 Posted October 3, 2008 Thats ok just all ignore me see if I care!!!!! I finally got the network going as it wasnt doing it automatically :mad::mad: I had to type in startnet.cmd .
ChrisH Posted October 8, 2008 Posted October 8, 2008 It can access all those services on another server.
Reaper Posted October 30, 2008 Posted October 30, 2008 I've just started trying to implement this and have spent a day or so pouring over various step by steps etc. We are running WDS on a Server 2003 box and I can PXE boot to it from one PC without a problem, but there is another PC which completely ignores it. From what I can see the settings are correct for both. Another question, is there a way to get the automated name generation to do incremental letters rather than numbers?
browolf Posted November 7, 2008 Posted November 7, 2008 WDS, that deploys XP to x102', p320s, other newer fujitsu's works perfectly. trying to deploy to X101 and it bombs out of litetouch.wsf / wpeinit discovered the /debug:true mode on it the log is Successfully changed C: to M: No task sequence is in progress Successfully cleaned up existing C:\Minint directory Starting minimized command prompt ZTI ERROR - Unhandled error returned by Litetouch: (-2147023441) ZTI ERROR - Unhandled error returned by Litetouch: (-2147023441) any ideas?
browolf Posted November 12, 2008 Posted November 12, 2008 we're figuring that the x101s dont have enough memory. next problem is, something is set wrong somewhere as it only does refresh type deployments, if i try and do a "new computer", it doesnt join it to the domain. tried to get a DP Type page in the wizard but it seems to be ignoring SkipDeploymentType=NO.
DrPerceptron Posted January 8, 2009 Posted January 8, 2009 Does anyone store their WDS Images on a mapped network drive? If they do, does it have any major problems (other than the obvious one(s))?
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