My Network Boot Setup - WDS and Syslinux - Inst Windows in mins + boot CDs over LAN

[FoolishTech]

I am still seeing a lot of techs out there doing things the hard way, IMHO. So I've decided to create a section on my website detailing my setup. Note this is a work in progress and is currently text instruction only, though I may add screen shots and Youtube vids in the future.

The new section is found here.

This setup may benefit you wish to:

• Boot any of your diagnostic CDs over the network, no more fumbling with finding the right disk or having enough copies to go around
• Install Windows (any version) on a system in mere minutes, complete with all Windows updates and your preferred apps already pre-installed (e.g. Adobe Reader, Flash, etc.)

The only requirements are that you have a server capable of running WDS ... or at least any spare machine you can slap your technet copy of Windows Server on - I know you have it! A Gigabit LAN is recommended but not required.

So check out my guide, give it a whirl. I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions you have to offer for improving it, or any questions you might have (note I am not an expert in this setup, but I did it, and it works beautifully!) I'm certain that if you have this setup too, you will NEVER go back to doing things the old fashioned way.

 

[TheTech]

Can't wait to give that a go, awesome job, thanks for sharing

 

[cyde_ePhex]

Thank you Nick for sharing your setup. I can't wait to get my setup going.

 

[jbartlett323]

ok, 3 hours later.... Just got syslinux going...

I understand this is a work in progress, but you need to follow your own steps and give just a tad more detail...

The install for WDS has DHCP options that need to be set certain ways depending on you setup. The Microsoft WDS info aint real good either, so no fault of yours, but easily fixed.

The install for Syslinux has a real issue: Rename file to pxelinux.com not pxelinux.0, per your cmd command.

Otherwise not bad, only had to reboot my server 3 times and uninstall WDS once! Will give more feedback as use progresses!

Thanks for putting it up though! always wondered about a practical use of PXE aside from thinclients!

 

[JD1248]

Good stuff Nick, thanks for the guide. Putting it on the to-do list.

JD

 

[FoolishTech]

The install for WDS has DHCP options that need to be set certain ways depending on you setup. The Microsoft WDS info aint real good either, so no fault of yours, but easily fixed.

The install for Syslinux has a real issue: Rename file to pxelinux.com not pxelinux.0, per your cmd command.

Sorry for the confusion, yes I left out the renaming pxelinux step, fixed!

For DHCP, I do see there are considerations if your server is not handing out DHCP, to be honest mine is not as it is done at the router level (my server only does DNS) but I left everything default and it works just fine. This is on SBS 2011 Essentials, though so your mileage may vary depending on your server flavor.

I admit I'm not an expert in the subject and the process was a big learning experience for me, but once everything is working this setup IMHO was too valuable not to share!

 

[cyabro]

Please share how to get drivers in there!

Got my server 2008r2 all going, also after a few hiccups, but nothing major.
As my server is doing dns as well I had to change the udpportpriorty (or something like that) for wds in the registry to 0 otherwise I got tftp timeouts on the clients.

 

[Martyn]

This looks good, I just need to find something to run my server software on

 

[FoolishTech]

Please share how to get drivers in there!

Got my server 2008r2 all going, also after a few hiccups, but nothing major.
As my server is doing dns as well I had to change the udpportpriorty (or something like that) for wds in the registry to 0 otherwise I got tftp timeouts on the clients.

Yes I had to do the UdpPortPriority change as well, I added that to a new Troubleshooting section last night.

Adding drivers to the boot.wim (for recognizing NICs and storage controllers at boot time) can be a real pain but I'll try to get a guide for that soon. Luckily it's rare you'll have to do this as the Windows 7 boot.wim has tons already there.

Adding drivers to an installation via Sysprep (for automatic install on an imaged system) is pretty easy. I'll start working on that guide right now, using Windows XP as an example since that is the one you'll really want to do it on the most as it needs more drivers than later versions of Windows.

 

[jbartlett323]

Sorry for the confusion, yes I left out the renaming pxelinux step, fixed!

For DHCP, I do see there are considerations if your server is not handing out DHCP, to be honest mine is not as it is done at the router level (my server only does DNS) but I left everything default and it works just fine. This is on SBS 2011 Essentials, though so your mileage may vary depending on your server flavor.

I admit I'm not an expert in the subject and the process was a big learning experience for me, but once everything is working this setup IMHO was too valuable not to share!

Mine is handeling DHCP, and when I left all defaults, the wizard enabled the setting for "option 60" but not "do not listen on port 67". This caused the service to fail to start until i went in and changed that setting, which then required a full server reboot for DHCP to catch up (tried restart DHCP service, no luck..). My server is Server 08 R2 standard, so maybe thats a bit of difference!

One other thing i noticed, you need to CHECK Do not Joint to a Domain, you have it as uncheck. Uncheck is default, and i dont want it to join, so checked it is!

Anyway, still a really good write up, and i appreciate it greatly! Had some time to test stuff last night, and I like it!

 

[KompuKare]

This looks good, I just need to find something to run my server software on

Well the HP Microserver N40L offer is still running. £110 cashback now, so the price is £140 or less.
http://www8.hp.com/uk/en/pdf/PA0074_Microserver_June_2012_tcm_183_1247428.pdf

Has to be part number 658553-421 (UK stock) and not any others (seems some retailers get their stock elsewhere).

I had one of the earlier model, N36L, but sold it due it not getting much use. Obviously not a pro server, but good for a NAS / fileserver.

 

[Martyn]

Well the HP Microserver N40L offer is still running. £110 cashback now, so the price is £140 or less.
http://www8.hp.com/uk/en/pdf/PA0074_Microserver_June_2012_tcm_183_1247428.pdf

Has to be part number 658553-421 (UK stock) and not any others (seems some retailers get their stock elsewhere).

I had one of the earlier model, N36L, but sold it due it not getting much use. Obviously not a pro server, but good for a NAS / fileserver.

Thanks for that +1 rep for you

 

[FoolishTech]

One other thing i noticed, you need to CHECK Do not Joint to a Domain, you have it as uncheck. Uncheck is default, and i dont want it to join, so checked it is!

LOL THANKS! I'm sure I've made other mistakes too, reviewing it now as well as adding more meat to the setup of Windows / Sysprep and modified images.

 

[TLE]

Yeah cool post, I have been meaning to set up WDS for some time. I have done the Syslinux part yet. My SBS handles DHCP and DNS and left everything as the default and it all worked first time. Infact I just installed Windows 8 as dual boot onto my netbook using it.

Martyn, I have and HP Microserver, although mine is the previous model and I upgraded it to 8GB of memory. I have it running SBS 2011 and make use of most of it's features. There not super quick, but they do the job.

I have quite a few .wim files from other manufacturers such as Dell. Is it possible to add these to WDS?

I'm also wondering if it would be possible to add ERD commander.

 

[FoolishTech]

I have quite a few .wim files from other manufacturers such as Dell. Is it possible to add these to WDS?

I'm also wondering if it would be possible to add ERD commander.

Yes on ERD, you just add the ISO to syslinux. While I don't have ERD Commander specifically, I use the MS DaRT ISOs on my network boot setup with success.

As for Dell WIMs, etc. Yes you can easily import a new WIM into WDS, just go to the Install Images section, right click, and add install image and point it to the WIM - however I'm uncertain of the benefit so I haven't tried it.

Granted Dell disks don't ever prompt for a product key, I *think* that it will do this if using WDS. I might be mistaken, though, so you may try it with success (I just haven't bothered to try it...)

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I followed the tutorial and got WDS up and running fairly easily. I don't have a "real" server, but I do have a trial copy of SBS 2011 Essentials which I used to create a VM in VMware. Initial setup was 2 core/2 GB of RAM, but after setup I dropped it to one core/ 1 GB of RAM and saw no decrease in performance. Although the only thing the VM was doing was WDS and only to one machine for testing so YMMV.

 

[TLE]

Ok I am having issues with trying to configure WDS for SysLinux.

Server 2008 and below:
Open the Windows Deployment Services Console
Right-click on your Server and select Properties
Click the Boot tab
Change the default boot program for each archetecture to:
\Boot\x86\pxelinux.com AND
\Boot\x64\pxelinux.com Respectively.

When I click the Boot tab, the text boxes are grey out and do not support text input, and when I click select, only my windows boot images are offered.

Have I gone wrong somewhere or misconfigured somthing. All the commands completed successfully.

 

[FoolishTech]

What version of server are you using specifically?

That's what is supposed to happen in Server 2008 R2 and up, which is all I've ever tried it on.

If you try the instructions for 2008 R2 and up running the wdsutil command line, does that return something like 'command completed successfully' ?? or is wdsutil not a recognized command?

 

[TLE]

This is SBS2011 Standard which uses 2008R2.

I see why now, I missed the line showing it was 2008 and below..Doh!

 

[TLE]

Next create two new directories in your WDS share:
\\<server>\REMINST\Boot\x86\Linux
\\<server>\REMINST\Boot\x86\pxelinux.cfg

2.Modify the DEFAULT file located in \\<server>\REMINST\Boot\x86\pxelinux.cfg directory (and same in \x64) to include the menu entries for your boot images.

The following bit's of information seem to conflict, one indicates the folders are only created in x86, and the other indicates that they exist in both x86 and x64.

If the default file exists in both, how do select which menu to use?