6/03/2009

Assign Windows PE Boot Image to Client

Windows Deployment Service (WDS) delivers a command line tool named wdsutil.exe, which can be used to prestage computers into Active Directory. I was personally intersted to get a Windows PE Boot Image automatically get choosen from a Client during Windows Boot Manager.
One purpose is for example if there are different Windows PE images for different processor architecture (x86, x64).
The parameter /BootImagePath defines the boot image which will be started by the client after the countdown

Example x86
WDSUTIL /Add-Device /Device:ComputerName /ID:MACAddress /ReferralServer:WDSServerName /BootProgram:boot\x86\pxeboot.com /BootImagePath:boot\x86\images\bootx86.wim

Example x64
WDSUTIL /Add-Device /Device:ComputerName /ID:MACAddress /ReferralServer:WDSServerName /BootProgram:boot\x64\pxeboot.com /BootImagePath:boot\x64\images\bootx64.wim

After executing the command, there's created a computer account in Active Directory which stores the configured options. Once a Client is booting from network now, it gets all information needed to choose the assigned boot image.
Note: Scripting the "WDSUTIL /Add-Device" command is nice for creating mutiple prestaged computer objects very comfortable


Further you can configure your WDS Server to only answer to known clients which delivers more control about the deployment.

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