Windows Server 2008 WDS Deployment Client System

WDS (Windows Deployment Servic), the Windows deployment service, is Microsoft's latest image deployment tool, which has replaced the previous Remote Installation Services (RIS), mainly for the deployment of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 (of course WDS It also supports the deployment of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, do not make certain adjustments). This is a more efficient and convenient image deployment tool, and with WDS we can quickly deploy client systems over the network. This article will use the Windows Server 2008 platform as an example to demonstrate how to quickly deploy a client system using WDS.

1, WDS working principle brief

Before the actual demonstration, it is necessary to talk about the working principle of WDS. The working principle of WDS is very simple. After deploying the WDS server and its client in the LAN, it will work. First, the client obtains IP configuration information through the DHCP server during the startup process. The WDS client then looks up the WDS server via broadcast or DHCP. The client then connects to the WDS server and launches a specific boot image, which is WinPE (Windows Preinstallation Environmen). Finally, the client can begin to install the operating system image on the WDS server.

2. Installation of WDS

WDS components are released with Windows Server 2008 and require 3 additional components. The three additional components are: DNS (used to find the domain controller DC), Active Directory (AD, 2003 or 2008 version for authentication), DHCP (for the client to obtain the IP address and WDS server) IP address). In addition, it should be noted that the installation of the WDS server must be an AD member. We can install all four components (AD, DNS, DHCP, WDS) on one server, and of course we can deploy them separately into different servers.

Start the installation of WDS below. Log in to the DC as the AD administrator, open the Server Manager, and activate the Roles item to add the role. Click “Add Roles> to launch the Add Roles Wizard and display the Before You Begin page. Click “Next” In the list of displayed components, drag down to find and select the “Windows Deployment Servers” item. Next, click “Next” three times to receive the default settings for each page (Overview of WDS, Select Role Services, Confirm Installation Selections). Finally, click “Install” to install the components. Click ““Close” after the installation is complete. It should be noted that after the WDS installation is completed, the server does not need to be restarted. (Figure 1)

Figure 1 WDS installation

3, WDS configuration

Click “Start”→“Administrative Tools”→ “Windows Deplyment Services”Open the WDS Configuration Console. Expand “Server”, you can see the current server, but there is a yellow exclamation mark next to the server name, because the WDS server is not configured. Right-click on the server name and select “Configure Server” to configure WDS. The WDS configuration requirements are listed in the welcome screen. Click “Next", under the "Remote Installation Folder Location" page, select the drive where the image is stored and click Next. Because of the amount of space required, the drive that stores the image is applied to the image store. The subsequent display page determines whether DHCP is installed on the WDS server. If you want to install WDS and DHCP on the same server at the same time, the DHCP Option 60 page will pop up asking you to configure DHCP, allowing you to select the port that the server listens on. If you have a dedicated DHCP server in your environment, this step will be ignored.

Click "Next" to enter the PXE Server Initial Setting page, which is used for page setup whether you want the WDS server to respond to the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) client request, and the implementation method under the corresponding settings. . There are 4 options on this page, so it is necessary to elaborate here.

Option 1. Do not respond to any client computers. Checking this option will turn off the WDS response.

Option 2. Respond only to known client computers. Checking this option, WDS will respond to the pre-login client in AD and complete the pre-login in Active Directory Users and Computers, which is similar to the RIS process.

Option 3. Respond to all (known and unknown) client computers. Checking this option will enable WDS to respond to all PXE requests. In addition, if this option is checked, item 4 will also be in an optional state. If you check item 3 while checking item 3, it will improve security.

Option 4. For unknown customers, notify the administrator and respond after approval. This option allows the pre-login machine to receive responses from the WDS server; however, for unknown clients, the PXE boot screen exits only after the administrator has approved it in the WDS snap-in. (Figure 2)

Figure 2 WDS configuration

Additional note, if you want to approve an unknown client, you can do this: Open the WDS snap-in, expand

Servers , choose Pending Devices. In the results panel, you will see a list of pending requests. Right-click the pending request and select Approve, ReJect, or Approve and Name. The first two options are simple; the third option approves the name of the computer object that will be created in Active Directory Users and Computers. Select the appropriate option and click Finish. On the Configuration Complete page, uncheck the Add images to the Windows Deploy—

ment Server now checkbox (because there is no image for adding) and click “Complete”

4, add image

(1).Add boot image

Note, we can add two types of Windows Imaging Format (.wim) to WDS server. ) Image, the boot image and the operating system image. First, let's look at how to add a boot image. Before adding a boot image, you need to create an image using the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WALK) 1.1.

Create a boot image

You can download WAtK for free from the Microsoft website and install it on a WDS server. After installation, click “Start”→“All Programs”→“Microsoft Windows AIK”→“Windows PE Tools Command Prompt”Open WPE Command Line Tool. Here, we can make a 32-bit or 64-image image as needed. If you need to make a 32-bit operating system, we need to make a 32-bit boot image. Of course, to install a 64-bit system we need to make a 64-bit boot image.

Create a 32-bit boot image and execute the command in Windows PE Tools Command Prompt

copype x86 c:winpe_32

Create a 64-bit boot image and execute the command

copype x64 c:winpe_64

Figure 3 Add Image

Add Boot Image