Windows Deployment Services (WDS) is feature of Windows Server 2008 that deploys and installs an Operating System as an image. Traditionally this feature was called Remote Access Server (RIS) in previous server operating systems. In this article will show you how to create
WDS step by step.
Adding Windows Deployment Services (WDS) Role
You must have Active Directory Services, DNS, & DHCP roles installed and configured on your network in order to install and configure WDS role.
This first step of creating functional WDS is to add the WDS role. To add the WDS role, follow these steps:
1. Click Start and then click on Server Manager.
2. Right click
Roles and click on
Add Role.
3. Select
Windows Deployment Services role and click next.
4. Read the introduction and make sure all the requirements are met. Click next.
5. Select both
Deployments Server and
Transport Server options and click next.
6. Click
Install and then click
Close once the installations completes.
Configuring Windows Deployment Services (WDS)
After you have installed the WDS role, the next step is to configure the server to respond to the clients. The following guide is step by step instructions of configuring and adding OS image to the WDS.
7. Click Start, click on
Administrative Tools and then click on Windows Deployment Services..
1. Expand the server object and right click child tree server object with yellow mark beside it showing bellow and then click on
Configure.
2. Read the introduction console and click next.
3. Make sure to choose correct Remote Installation location and click next. (Placing your OS image on none-system volume folder is recommended).
4. Choose whether you want WDS to respond to known (pre-staged on the Active Directory) clients or to all clients (known & unknown) and click next.
.
5. Click finish and wait for new console to show up.
6. On the Configuration Complete console, put a check mark on “Add Images to the Windows Deployment Server now” and click on finish.
7. Browse and choose the Operating System source folder ( for Windows Vista, choose the
Resource folder).
8. Type an Image Group name and click next. (An Image Group is a folder to identify the image).
9. Review the OS Image settings and click next.
10. Click on Finish once the loading completes.
Note: the process above will install
Install Image, which will install the OS and
Boot Image, which boots up the Pxe-compatible clients.
For None-PXE compatible clients, you will need to
Create Discover Image in order to boot on the NIC.
Resolving client computers having same computer name after WDS deployment
If the WDS assigns same computer name to all your client computers, run the following command on the Windows Command Prompt.
wdsutil /set-server /prestageusingMac:yes
