Creating images with Windows Deployment Services
In my last post I went about installing a Windows Deployment Services server and creating a couple of simplistic boot images, ready to perform automated deployment of Windows clients. Now I’m ready to start doing something useful with my new server - let’s get started!
So the first thing I wanted to do was to create a default image of Windows Vista Business. For some reason, don’t ask me why, I just don’t trust the default installed image that comes from Dell. So, the first step for me was to create a couple of image groups to the WDS server. Okay, I’ll admit it, I don’t know what image groups do - yet - but at the very least it’ll let me keep a logical separation between the Windows Vista and Windows XP images I plan to create.
Creating a Vista default image is the easiest thing in the world. Under the "Install Images" node (or any install group you’ve created), right-click and choose "Add Install Image". Browse your Vista install DVD and find the "install.wim" file (in the "sources" directory). Add this file, click Next, and then choose your edition. You’ll notice that the original Vista DVD has got a number of catalog files - one for each edition. Now I only need Vista Business - this is for a company, remember - but by adding multiple catalog files for an image, rather than multiple images per install, helps keep space down by using Microsoft’s Single Instance Store.
Great! Now I have a Windows Vista image on my Windows Deployment Services server. So let’s try this out - let’s install Vista on my new Dell PC’s, which are sans-optical drive. Hmm, one slight problem - booting my PC from it’s NIC, the only options I get are the WinPE images I initially imported - one for creating an image and one for booting into WinPE with a command prompt. So how do I get to install images on my server? This is easy enough, in theory - I just need to create another boot image.
However here’s where my problems began. The WinPE images I downloaded from the WAIK previously don’t include the WDS Client software I need. So how on earth do we get around this? Well, I did it this way - I’m not sure if it’s the correct way, but it works. I imported the boot image (Boot Images -> Add Boot Image) from the Vista DVD - in the same location as the Vista install image, called, conveniently, "boot.wim". Once that’s imported, we can then proceed to create a nice shiny install-image boot option by right-clicking the newly-added Vista boot image and choosing "Create Discover Boot Image". This will create a new .wim file, saved to the file system; why Microsoft couldn’t let you create it directly into Windows Deployment Services I don’t know. So, once your image is created, you need to re-import it into WDS as a boot image - however, I decided to replace the Vista boot image. In hindsight this wasn’t a great idea as you can use the "Disable" function to hide it from clients and I can already think of a couple of scenarios where it would be useful to have the original Vista boot client availabe. Anyways, ho hum.
Finally, we have a Windows Deployment Services server up and running, ready to both import and serve images. Booting my new PC from its NIC confirmed my new boot option; selecting this enabled me to choose my language, log on to my domain and then choose which image I want to deploy. As Windows Vista Business is the only image I’ve deployed so far, it’s the only choice I have on this screen. But, overall, success! I can now go on to build my standard image with all the software I need and use SysPrep to capture the image. Unfortunately, these images are going to take some time to configure…
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Windows Vista. Find similar posts by selecting any of the following tags: . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
on Friday April 13 2007 at 10:56 am Robin wrote:
Nice article. I have done all that, and I can PXE boot the image i created. But when i get to chose image, it says that it’s no available images. I use the install.wim from the Vista DVD as an install image but it still doesnt work. Do you have any solution? Best regards
on Saturday April 14 2007 at 10:52 am Rob wrote:
Hi Robin,
Hmm. I’m no real expert on this - the articles are simply a walkthrough of what I’ve been doing - but I’d guess it could be something like permissions? You could try checking that:
- the image is enabled in WDS
- your WDS server is set to service all hosts (although it may well be that, if this wasn’t the case, you wouldn’t even get through the PXE boot section)
- the user account you are using to connect to WDS from the client machine has at least permissions to read from the WDS server (I tend to type my username in <domain>\<username> format to be sure)
- try connecting as a domain admin rather than using a standard user account to see if this resolves the problem
Like I said, I’m no expert, but I hope this points you in the right direction! A good place to look would be on MS’s Technet site; failing that the MS newsgroups are always a good source of information with plenty of MVPs online to help you out.
Hope this helps,
Rob
on Thursday April 19 2007 at 1:08 pm John wrote:
I installed a Windows 2003 Server then patched it with SP 2. (didn’t have RIS)
I had RIS on a different server working correctly but didn’t want to mess with it. On my new server with WDS, how do I add an install image for windows xp???
Thanks!
on Friday April 20 2007 at 1:58 am Rob wrote:
Er… if you have a server running RIS, you need to upgrade that server to SP2 level to get it running WDS. You can’t just upgrade one server in your domain and then expect everything else to get upgraded too…
I’m sorry but I really don’t understand your question…
on Sunday April 22 2007 at 10:35 am kyo wrote:
Wow, you’ve got some nice information there. I’ve been playing with WDS but I’m pretty confused cause I’m only using it to deploy winXPSP2.
How are we going to create install/boot images for windowsXP?
Thanks,
-q-
on Sunday April 22 2007 at 5:42 pm Rob wrote:
Hi Kyo,
That’s a really good question and something I haven’t looked at yet. The way I got around it was by taking the Vista boot image, which had WDS functionality built in and using that to create a discover image. I found that the WinPE images provided with the Windows AIK didn’t supply the functionality to boot from a WDS server, just the ability to create images from clients.
I do remember reading something about modifying the WinPE images to enable this but I’m afraid it’s not something I looked at.
I’m sorry I can’t be much more help at the moment but if I find out anything further I’ll be sure to let you know.
Rob
on Sunday April 22 2007 at 10:09 pm Larry wrote:
Having a little trouble getting wds working on my network. I am using a dd-WRT routers as my DHCP server and I may need to know what bootfile I need to point to on my WDS server to list it in the dnsmasq portion of my router. Any help would be appreciated. (Really don’t want to use the WDS servers as my DHCP server.)
on Thursday May 10 2007 at 10:38 am Jody wrote:
Great article Rob, thanks for the advice WDS rolling out Vista like a dream. now to create customised images … let the fun begin.
on Sunday May 27 2007 at 10:56 am Soroush wrote:
Rob! You’re star!
I’m planing to roll out about 200 Win XP SP2, and will really appreciate if you can write the steps. My company is not ready for Vista yet, as most of our corporate programs don’t work on it.
All machines are with same hardware config.
Thanks
on Thursday May 31 2007 at 4:49 pm Charlie wrote:
I’ve managed to capture XP SP2 image simply running the “sysprep -minint -reseal” and then booting to the Image Capture. I noticed a very strange thing. After I made the new XP SP2 image available in WDS and intalled it on a computer. I then added some software and run the sysprep again (as before) and booted to the Image Capture. I noticed that the “Select volume to capture” -dropdown list is empty. I couldn’t select a volume to capture. After many days of testing I noticed that if I installed a computer from a CD or from RIS, I could capture an image again (the C: volume appeared in the dorpdown list). Has anyone else noticed this? Is it a bug or am I just doing something wrong here?
on Monday June 4 2007 at 6:52 pm Jez (MS) wrote:
Hi all,
You actually don’t need to create a discover image in order to deploy from your WDS server. If you add the boot.wim from the sources directory on Vista media, it will automatically connect back to the WDS server and let you deploy your install images when you boot into it.
Hope this helps,
Jez
on Friday June 8 2007 at 12:03 am David Schuetz wrote:
Thanks for the great info! Thanks to you our WDS is up and running with a lot less headaches than if we had relied entirely on MS documentation. I wish all the tutorial docs were as clear (and amusing) as your blog. So, anyways I am wondering if you have had any success with creating an unattend file for vista that actually works. I have had MS helping me with my unattend.xml file and they made things worse rather than better; at least mine doesn’t cause fatal errors during sysprep. We are just basically trying to get it to set the timezone, product key, and join the domain, as well as skipping all the other prompts you get during a regular install.
Thanks much!
David S
on Wednesday June 13 2007 at 6:07 am Rahul wrote:
Hi All,
Can anyone help me, i have created windows xp install image but it is not showing up in os chooser. However i can see boot image and capture image but not windows xp install image ( used capture image to create install image). Help is much appreciated.
Thanks,
Rahul
on Friday June 22 2007 at 9:01 am R wrote:
Im having the same problems as Rahul, Created an XP SP2 image, i can see it on the server but i cannot select it, the HAL is exactly the same! Any ideas?
on Thursday July 12 2007 at 1:27 pm Schakal wrote:
Hey @all
has anybody found a way to deploy Windows XP images on a WDS ? So that I can select them
using the Windows PE enviroment? I used the original boot.wim from the Vista DVD.
Thanks,
Schakal
on Thursday July 19 2007 at 3:03 pm tipalm wrote:
What about pushing ramdisk non-windows ISO? Well I take that back. I can push about 800 megs then I get a VM error on the client (4 gigs of ram). Is there a place to raise the maximum size of the .wim file?
My suggestion was to create a thin winpe client and just map the drives with the install folders.. they want “proof of concept”… this guys prefers to use a usb 2.0 dvd-rom drive…manually… to every machine. I am waiting to use “(my boss) I want to help bring the company into the 21st century.”
Thanks,
Tipalm
on Thursday August 16 2007 at 11:01 pm Tom wrote:
I don’t think you can actually get installation images into the Windows PE menu. What you’ll need to do is add the Vista boot.wim as a Boot Image. Call it Image Install, or whatever you like. Boot to that image, then you will be able to select any image in your Install Images folder using the Vista installation GUI.
on Friday September 14 2007 at 8:10 pm Anthony Chacon wrote:
Charlie. I am getting the same thing. NO Volumes in the drop down box when trying to capture an image from a XP SP2 machine. Did you solve your problem?
on Thursday September 20 2007 at 9:48 am Scott wrote:
I had the same problem with no volumes appearing in the drop down box, but following Charlies sysprep -minint -reseal cmd, it worked.
on Thursday September 20 2007 at 9:52 am Scott wrote:
I had the same problem with no volumes appearing in the drop down box, but following Charlie’s sysprep -minint -reseal cmd, it worked.
on Thursday October 4 2007 at 10:35 am Eddie Ortiz wrote:
If you got an old Beta Copy of Vista you can use the Boot.wim file on that to create your Restore Image Boot File =)
on Thursday November 15 2007 at 7:58 pm Joey wrote:
Has anyone tried to build windows 2003 server images with WDS? I just installed WDS and am not sure what to do to create a WIM from a server. Is the point of running sysprep first to wipe the SID? Can I just PXE boot and then choose capture image?
Any help would be fantastic.
on Monday November 19 2007 at 4:15 pm Arne wrote:
Hi all,
on Thursday May 31 2007 at 4:49 pm Charlie wrote: … Select volume to capture” -dropdown list is empty. I couldn’t select a volume to capture…
I’ve got the same problem, but there is no way to get a volume at all. I’m very frustrated.
I made a capture image from the LTI_bootimage at the WDS server…
The other supposed way:
Tasksequencer in Windows Deployment/BDD2007
Q:
Did anyone capture installed computers with the tasksequencer without installing an image in the same sequence before?
If it works like this - witch tasks should be used?
Please A:
on Wednesday November 21 2007 at 3:24 pm Darren Cordina wrote:
Hi Rob,
I had windows 2003 standard edition and this edition does not have RIS. Then I upgraded to enterprise edition and even there could not install RIS as it was not listed in the ADD/Remove windows components but I could install WDS. Can WDS work without RIS installed?
on Monday November 26 2007 at 8:29 pm Tien Hoang wrote:
Hello,
I have a question regarding to use the Window server 2003 platform for building the image, but that images of system with 2008 installed. Have you try this before. I had no proble to build the image with both platforms having the same OS as 2003. This time, I have to build the image of win 2008.
Regards,
–Hoang
on Wednesday November 28 2007 at 1:29 pm Rob wrote:
Joey - The capture process won’t work without SysPrep having been run. However, you should be able to add Vista’s (or Windows 2008’s) install.wim file to the installation sources.
Arne - I’m sorry, I have no experience using the BDD package - just WDS on its own.
Darren - WDS is a direct replacement for RIS, which was available in both Standard and Enterprise versions of Windows as I remember. Installing SP2 removes the ability to install RIS and replaced the option with WDS. So, no, RIS is not required for WDS to operate, it’s a complete replacement.
Hoang - I haven’t tried Windows 2008 but this should be pretty straightforward. Windows 2008 uses exactly the same deployment methods as Vista.
on Friday December 7 2007 at 11:39 am Windows Deployment Services « Living on the Windows Side of Life wrote:
[...] is not especially useful, but This Guy seems to know his way around quite a bit, and his posts on the subject certainly helped me out. [...]
on Wednesday December 19 2007 at 7:25 pm John DK wrote:
Thanks for a very good walkthrough. I am now able to deploy both Vista and XPSP2 images. 2 things that helped me most:
Remember to sysprep, otherwise volumes are invisible.
Use Vista’s boot.wim as Restore image under Boot images, then you can choose from all your Install Images
on Tuesday February 19 2008 at 8:08 pm Mike wrote:
Hi all this seems like a much easier way to do this, I have followed Rob’s directions, but either way I try to do this, (robs or ms) I get the error access denied when I try to approve the installation….help??
Mike
on Tuesday February 19 2008 at 8:22 pm Mike wrote:
Forgot to add, I am a systems administrator, but can’t seem to be able to approve the installation…the client machine I want to send the image to sits with the message on the screen, “contacting server and then the IP address….I thought it was supposed to go right into the install instructions…anyway, Rob, if you get this please let me know what I am doing wrong….thanks, MIke
on Saturday March 15 2008 at 1:18 am Younis George wrote:
Hi,
I was able to capture WindowsXPSP2 image using Sysprep but after loading the image into WDS my Server disappeared from WDS console. I checked WDS service is running but when I click on WDS icon mmc start but I don’ t see the server name. Did any body see this problem?
Thanks
on Tuesday March 25 2008 at 6:59 pm Sander Giele wrote:
Hello,
I’m having some problems with deploying XP Sysprepped images, I’ve been able to capture the XP image after a sysprep minisetup and reseal. The image shows up on the WDS server but when I wan’t to deploy the image only vista images show up. I’ve looked everywhere on the internet but seem to find a lot of information on HAL problems and tried several things but it doesn’t seem to work. It’s a Celeron D processor with Intel D946-GZIS Motherboard but it’s strange because I want to deploy on the same computer but it doesn’t work.
In the WDS Server it shows up as an HAL: mp (MultiProcessor I guess)
Has anyone got an idea?
on Thursday May 29 2008 at 11:39 am McRonald wrote:
Hello,
@ Sander Giele,
Did you use the Boot.wim from the Vista DVD?
And are you using multiple boot.wims?
by the way, I dont think it are hal problems.
McRonald.
on Tuesday June 3 2008 at 7:35 pm Dan wrote:
Mike: I had the same problem, you need to allow the WDS server to add a computer to the domain. From the WDS whitepaper:
“To delegate these permissions:
In Active Directory, open Users and Computers.
Right-click the organizational unit (OU) where you are creating prestaged computer accounts, and then select Delegate Control.
On the first screen of the wizard, click Next.
Add the user or group you wish to delegate control to, and then click Next.
Select Create a Custom task to delegate.
Select Only the following objects in the folder.
Select the Computer Objects check box.
Select Create selected objects in this folder.
Click Next.
In the Permissions box, select the Write all Properties check box.
Click Finish.”
on Tuesday July 15 2008 at 2:19 pm michael wrote:
Mike: I had the same problem, you need to help me to Deploy windows xp on windows 2003 server
and please step by step
and the softwares
thankzz