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

[KompuKare]

Originally Posted by Martyn

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_...83_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]

Originally Posted by KompuKare

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_...83_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]

Originally Posted by jbartlett323

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]

Originally Posted by TLE

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?