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- Overview
- Installing the Windows Deployment Services Role
Overview
In some deployment scenarios, it may be preferable to PXE boot the deployment media over the network instead of using a USB drive, as this may enable a large volume of systems to be booted more rapidly. There are several different PXE solutions that are available; this article will focus on PXE booting the Macrium Deployment Kit's technician's rescue media using Windows Deployment Services (WDS). The steps in this KB article were performed using Windows Server 2022; the exact steps may vary for other Windows Server versions.
If PXE booting is a requirement, we recommend considering Macrium SiteDeploy as a deployment solution instead, as it features an out-of-the-box PXE server, requiring less configuration and management. More information about Macrium SiteDeploy can be found here.
Installing the Windows Deployment Services Role
In 'Server Manager', select 'Manage' and then select 'Add Roles and Features'.
This will open the 'Add Roles and Features' wizard. The first page of the wizard contains a summary of the wizard and some recommended steps before installing roles and features:
On the second page of the wizard, select 'Role-based or feature-based installation':
On the 'Server Selection' page of the wizard, select the destination server where WDS will be installed:
On the 'Server Roles' page of the wizard, select the checkbox shown next to 'Windows Deployment Services':
After 'Windows Deployment Services' has been selected, a window will open prompting you to select whether management tools should also be installed. In this example, the management tools will also be installed:
On the 'Features' page of the wizard, select 'Next' without adding any features.
The 'WDS' page will show an overview of WDS and some items to note before using WDS:
On the 'Role Services' page, ensure that both 'Deployment Server' and 'Transport Server' are selected:
The final page of the wizard contains a summary of the options that have been selected. Optionally, 'Restart the destination server automatically if required' can be selected.
Finally, select 'Install' to start the WDS installation.
Configuring WDS
Once the WDS installation has completed, the 'WDS' tab will be shown in 'Server Manager':
In this tab, right-click on the relevant server where WDS will be configured, then select 'Windows Deployment Services Management Console':
In the Windows Deployment Services console, expand the server tree on the left-hand side of the page, right-click on the relevant server, and then select 'Configure Server':
The first page of the wizard that opens contains some information that should be followed before configuring the server.
Optionally, WDS can be integrated with Active Directory to provide extended functionality during deployments; however, this article will focus on configuring WDS as a 'Standalone server'. For more information about the 'Integrated with Active Directory' option, see the Microsoft documentation here.
On the next page of the wizard, select the location of the 'Remote Installation Folder'. This is where boot and image files used by WDS will be stored. By default, these files will be stored on 'C:\RemoteInstall', but this can be changed using the 'Browse' button.
When proceeding with the default location, the following warning will be displayed:
Select 'Yes' to proceed with the chosen location.
If the server where WDS has been installed is also a DHCP Server, the 'Proxy DHCP Server' page will be displayed. Ensure that 'Do not listen on DHCP and DHCPv6 ports' and 'Configure DHCP options for Proxy DHCP' are selected:
Next, specify the computers that WDS will respond to. In less secure environments, the 'Respond only to known client computers' option should be used, as this requires a computer to be "pre-staged" before WDS will respond to it, preventing unauthorized computers from receiving an unauthorized boot or installation image.
In this example, we will select 'Respond to all client computers (known and unknown)', meaning that WDS will respond to any applicable system that is PXE booted.
Select 'Next' to complete the configuration. Once the progress bar has completed, select 'Finish' to close the wizard:
WDS has now been fully configured. To start PXE booting the Macrium technician's rescue media to create and deploy deploy golden images, a WIM file can be extracted from the Macrium technician's rescue media and imported into WDS. See this article for the steps to do this.