Operating System Deployment (OSD) is a very commonly used feature of Configuration Manager. It provides administrators with the necessary tools to create operating system images that can be deployed to computers. OSD troubleshooting can be a complicated process. There are so many different components and technologies working together to provide the solution:
- Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK)
- Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) (replacement for AIK)
- Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT)
- Windows Deployment Services (WDS)
- TCP/IP Networking
Network installation of OS images is a very popular deployment method. It leverages Windows Deployment Services and ADK to provide a Pre-Execution environment, which allows for remote deployment of Windows images. Technicians press F12 to initiate the deployment. It's very common to use the concept of Unknown Computers to support bare metal deployments. When you enable unknown computer support, any unknown computer can PXE boot and deploy the OSD image (note that it is useful to protect this feature with a password). If you disable this option, you can use Import Computer Information to prestage your computer for the OS deployment. OSD can be difficult to implement and there is a lot that can go wrong.
As previously stated, this is a complicated process. It is impossible to include all scenarios and error codes that you might encounter. Details of some useful troubleshooting steps are provided in the following table. Further details are provided in the following sections:
Often you have to configure the environment to allow administrators to install operating systems on computers across the network. You need some means of allowing these computers to network boot by downloading boot images from a PXE-enabled DP(WDS server). This is easy if the computer and the WDS server are on the same subnet. The computer automatically finds the WDS server and downloads the boot image. However, the solution has to be configured to work when the computer and the WDS server are on different subnets. Some of this configuration is beyond the remit of the Configuration Manager administrator and should be carried out by the Network Administrator.
DHCP options 66 and 67 can be configured so that a PXE client can locate the WDS server and boot images. This allows a computer to boot into Windows PE. Options 66 and 67 can be configured at the server or individual scope level.
- Option
66is configured with the name or IP address of the WDS server. - Option
67is configured with a filename (SMSBootx64wdsnbp.com).
However, the fact that DHCP options can only be configured to find a single file can cause issues in certain cases, especially with newer Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) computers. DHCP options are not recommended for this and other reasons. Other reasons include:
- Configuring an IP Helper on a router or layer 3 switch provides a much more reliable solution than using DHCP options.
- Using DHCP options prevents load balancing via multiple WDS servers.
- DHCP options can be configured with only a single WDS server. There is no possibility of a highly available solution.
- Clients may bypass the Windows Deployment Services answer settings.
IP Helpers (this is a Cisco term) are a much better solution to configure for network installations. They are also very easy to configure. It's quite possible that you already have IP Helpers in your network to relay DHCP requests to the DHCP server on a different subnet.
Following is an example of an IP Helper configuration on a layer 3 Cisco switch:
interface Vlan10 ip address 172.16.112.254 255.255.255.0 ip helper-address 172.16.1.1 End
This allows PXE requests from client computers in 172.16.112.0/24 subnet to find the PXE-enabled DP (172.16.1.1). See that the one-filename limitation does not apply here.
You've tried to network boot a computer but you are unable to receive an IP address. It's likely that you will need to import a Network Interface Card driver for this computer into Configuration Manager and add this driver to the boot images. But what driver do you need to import?
The driver should be based on the installed WinPE version (which is based on the AIK/ADK version), regardless of what operating system you want to deploy.
|
WinPE version |
AIK/ADK version |
NIC driver equivalent |
|---|---|---|
|
3.0 |
WAIK 2.0 |
Windows 7 |
|
3.1 |
WAIK Supplement for W7 SP1 |
Windows 7 SP1 |
|
4.0 |
ADK 8.0 |
Windows 8 |
|
5.0 |
ADK 8.1 |
Windows 8.1 |
|
5.1 |
ADK 8.1 with update |
Windows 8.1 update |
|
10.0 |
ADK 10 |
Windows 10 |
Finding the right NIC driver can be a trial and error process. It's better to be sure that it will work before you import and add to the boot image. Use drvload.exe while in Windows PE to test the driver. After you add the driver, use ipconfig to verify IP addressing and test connectivity using PING.
An example of drvload syntax is as follows:
drvload.exe E:NICmynic.inf(DRVLOAD tool temporarily adds this driver from flash drive to the WinPE boot image)drvload.exe /?(displays usage information)
When you are satisfied that you have the correct driver, you can import to Configuration Manager and add to boot images.
If your solution supports Unknown Computers and there is no deployment available for your bare metal deployment, it could be that some of your new computers have duplicate SMSBIOS GUIDs. This GUID is configured by the vendor. If you have duplicates, you should contact the vendor for support. They may be able to provide you with a tool to reset the GUID.
You could also apply a registry change (BannedGuids) to your WDS server to prevent the detection of the duplicate GUIDs. This is not officially supported and would not be the preferred method of resolving this problem:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesWDSServer ProvidersWDSPXE] Value: BannedGuids Type: REG_MULTI_SZ Data: <The duplicate GUIDs>
WDS is automatically installed when you enable PXE on a DP in Configuration Manager 2012. You can install WDS in advance of enabling PXE but you should not configure it. Configuration Manager will configure PXE for you. This is a common mistake.
On occasions, the WDS Server service will not start. It may be necessary to disable PXE and uninstall WDS as follows:
- Disable PXE on the DP.
- Verify that WDS has been automatically uninstalled.
- Reboot the server to complete the WDS uninstall.
- Delete the
RemoteInstallfolder. - Delete all files from the
C:WindowsTempfolder. - Enable PXE on the DP.
- Verify that WDS has been automatically installed.
- Reboot the server to complete the WDS installation.
- Verify that the
RemoteInstallfolder exists and that thesmsbootfolder is populated.