[wds] Tips for beginners

[garethEds]

I'm working on our WDS setup and have come from a RIS background. The server broke so I have had to rebuild it on another one. I cannot start up the original one at the moment.

 

With RIS you could do a custom install that then let you enter a machine name upon installation. We had it so that it joined the domain and added itself to the a 'Managed Workstations' OU container. I liked the fact that you could name machines as it was similar to what we used to do with CC3 and the workstation build.

 

Moving forward I want to use images as we do not now have that many different hardware types across the school. My issue (after creating the image) is whether it is possible to insert the name just before I deploy the image (like RIS) or do I have to prestage things with the GUID in the AD?

 

Any advice on this would be welcome. I'm ploughing through the guides found on here and they are excellent but nothing mentions this.

 

Many thanks

 

Gareth

[Chuckster]

I'm working on our WDS setup and have come from a RIS background. The server broke so I have had to rebuild it on another one. I cannot start up the original one at the moment.

 

With RIS you could do a custom install that then let you enter a machine name upon installation. We had it so that it joined the domain and added itself to the a 'Managed Workstations' OU container. I liked the fact that you could name machines as it was similar to what we used to do with CC3 and the workstation build.

 

Moving forward I want to use images as we do not now have that many different hardware types across the school. My issue (after creating the image) is whether it is possible to insert the name just before I deploy the image (like RIS) or do I have to prestage things with the GUID in the AD?

 

Any advice on this would be welcome. I'm ploughing through the guides found on here and they are excellent but nothing mentions this.

 

Many thanks

 

Gareth

 

 

Gareth, did you ever find out if the highlighted bit in bold is possible? Thanks

 

Or can anyone confirm if it is and if so, how?

[Reaper]

For our naming, I put %machinename% into Computer Name section of the SysPrep file and it prompts me for a name upon each install. Bit of a pain but didn't know how to re-image a machine remotely and have it pick up a name.

[cookie_monster]

I did an upgrade this week, and it's fine. One caveat: if you have legacy images that show up as RISETUP (not RIPREP), you must convert them first or you won't be able to later. Do it by pulling them down to a machine and then immediately capturing them again as boot images. This caused us problems with some Ghost auto-images.

 

 

 

I'm about to move a 2003 WDS mixed mode server to another box (possibly a VM if that's recommended) I currently just deploy a 'flat' install that shows up as a RiSetup image, what will I need to do to these if I move them to a Windows 2008 WDS server?

 

Thanks.

[powdarrmonkey]

Deploy your image to a machine somewhere (but don't boot it), and capture it back to your WDS server.

[DrCheese]

Yeah, I'd really love to be able to name XP computers before the image download like we could on the old skool RIS. It really sucks having to rename PCs (by hand) after the fact, or during the minisetup stage.

[cookie_monster]

Deploy your image to a machine somewhere (but don't boot it), and capture it back to your WDS server.

 

 

So I deploy the image without booting then use RIPrep to capture that as a disk image. Would I be able to add new drivers to the captured image?

 

Thanks.

[powdarrmonkey]

So I deploy the image without booting then use RIPrep to capture that as a disk image. Would I be able to add new drivers to the captured image?

 

Thanks.

 

Sortof. Once you have a WIM-format image, you can mount it and do some registry and file hocus-pocus to have Windows find them during sysprep. I don't have my notes to hand, if you need them I'll dig them out after the holiday (when I'm actually taking some leave for once! )

[cookie_monster]

Sortof. Once you have a WIM-format image, you can mount it and do some registry and file hocus-pocus to have Windows find them during sysprep. I don't have my notes to hand, if you need them I'll dig them out after the holiday (when I'm actually taking some leave for once! )

 

 

I'll let you know after the hols then i'm taking xmas off this year as well have a good one.

 

Cheers.

[ianniow]

At long last.

Been trying to pxe boot x64 from x32 wds server but just would not see the x64 images. Then came across this article how-to-boot-64-bit-boot-image-from-wds-pxe-when-only-32-bit-will-show

Now all is fine

[mrbios]

Just thought i'd plonk this in here:

 

In the past i've always had issues with some network cards, in particular Marvel yukon, it'd suck down the boot.wim REAAAAAALY slowly, an by slowly i mean a good 24hours, and that's if it made it all the way through, today i found the solution:

bcdedit /store c:\RemoteInstall\boot\x86\default.bcd {68d9e51c-a129-4ee1-9725-2ab00a957daf} ramdisktftpwindowsize 2

bcdedit /store c:\RemoteInstall\boot\x86\default.bcd {68d9e51c-a129-4ee1-9725-2ab00a957daf} ramdisktftpblocksize 2048

 

Obviously substitute the location for your own, that had been annoying me for AGES! Chuffed to bits that it's fixed it. you can make it bigger or smaller if you like but those settings were the ideal for me.

[mrbios]

I can't seem to edit my post but i've now found that:

bcdedit /store c:\RemoteInstall\boot\x86\default.bcd {68d9e51c-a129-4ee1-9725-2ab00a957daf} ramdisktftpwindowsize 8

bcdedit /store c:\RemoteInstall\boot\x86\default.bcd {68d9e51c-a129-4ee1-9725-2ab00a957daf} ramdisktftpblocksize 512

 

Seems to work better, only time i ever seem to need to tweak is when i'm using SiS chipset NICs, damn things.

[rfonti]

Hi All,

 

How have people been going with WDS and Windows 7?

 

I am looking into alternatives as we have moved from XP to 7 and have found that our old school ghosting is no longer suitable.

 

Thanks,

Ryan

[garethEds]

Hi All,

 

How have people been going with WDS and Windows 7?

 

I am looking into alternatives as we have moved from XP to 7 and have found that our old school ghosting is no longer suitable.

 

Personally I'd go with MDT. Read this thread:

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/o-s-deployment/76099-mdt-resources.html

 

Thanks,

Ryan

 

Hi Ryan,

 

All works well but we use MDT2010 with WDS on the server as well. Get some books in - they are great and also read through this thread. A lot of good tips there.

 

Gareth