Installing and Configuring Windows Deployment Services — WDS

WDS enables an end user without any technical expertise to start a computer with no operating system and simply select a Windows image to install from a menu. To achieve this, the computer relies on a pre-startup execution environment (PXE) startup process. PXE is a technology that uses Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to locate a specially configured network server during a computer’s startup phase. Therefore, you should have installed DHCP prior to installing WDS.

Introducing Windows Deployment Services:

WDS is a server-based technology for deploying Windows over a network.

PXE enables you to start a computer from a network card and to have that network card immediately begin broadcasting DHCP-based queries as the computer starts. When the DHCP server gives the network card an address, it can also refer the PXE client to a WDS server, which then makes an operating system available to the client over the network.

Installing WDS:

Server Manager — Add Roles and Features — WDS

The simplest way of installing the WDS role is to use the Add Roles Wizard. To launch this wizard from Server Manager, right-click the Roles node and then select Add Roles. If the Before You Begin page appears, click Next. When the Select Server Roles page appears, select the Windows Deployment Services option and click Next.

The Overview Of Windows Deployment Services page appears next; it provides a brief overview of what WDS is about and includes links to additional information on installing, configuring, and managing the role.

Clicking Next brings up the Select Role Services page. This is where you can specify whether your WDS server will function as a deployment server or as a transport server. If you choose the Deployment Server option, you must also select Transport Server because the former role depends upon the latter for its operation.

To finish the wizard, click Next, review the changes that will be made on your server, and then click Install to begin the installation.

Configuring WDS:

Follow the following procedures:

• Server Manager — Tools — WDS
• From the Server list, choose the server. Right-click and select Configure Server.
• Select Integrated with Active Directory.
• Specify the path where the boot and installation images will be stored.
• For now, we configured the server to respond to any request, from known and unknown clients.

Images addition:

• First go to Install Images under the WDS server: install.wim
• Then go to Boot Images under WDS server and add image: boot.wim

Deploy windows with WDS:

• Ready to test it: create an empty VM in the same network to show you how to deploy windows with WDS.

Note: this note is summarized from MCTS Self-Paced Training KIT Exam 70–642 and thesolving.com