Windows 7 / Getting Started

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PXE Services

The Windows Deployment Services PXE server is built on a unified and scalable architecture. As shown in Figure below, it uses plug-ins to provide access to the data store. The PXE server supports one or more plug-ins, and each plug-in can use any data store. Windows Deployment Services provides a default BINL plug-in, as shown earlier in previous section.

Note Windows Deployment Services in Windows Server 2008 R2 also adds a provider called WDSSIPR (SImple PRovider), which is installed with the Transport Server role service and uses an .ini file as a data store.

Developers can use published application programming interfaces (APIs) to create PXE server plug-ins. You can find these APIs in the Windows Vista Software Development Kit (SDK). The SDK also includes samples that developers can use to create their own plug-ins. For example, a developer can create a PXE server plug-in that works without requiring Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) and reads settings from a Microsoft SQL Server database.

Management

Windows Deployment Services provides two management tools that significantly simplify management tasks. The first tool is an MMC console that provides a GUI for common management tasks. After installing Windows Deployment Services, you start this console by clicking Windows Deployment Services in the Administrative Tools folder of the Start menu. Examples of common tasks that you can perform using this console include adding images and configuring server settings. The second management tool provided by Windows Deployment Services is the Wdsutil command-line tool. Wdsutil provides all the management functionality that the console provides and more. You can use Wdsutil to perform individual management tasks; you can also use it to automate management tasks by scripting Wdsutil commands. Both tools use the management API that Windows Deployment Services provides, and both tools enable remote administration of Windows Deployment Services servers.

Other management utilities for Windows Deployment Services include:

• Capture utility The Windows Deployment Services capture utility captures images to the .wim file format. It includes a light version of the ImageX /capture functionality and provides a GUI for it. You can use this to add the resulting .wim file to the image store.
• Active Directory Users And Computers MMC snap-in You can use this snap-in to administer legacy RIS functionality and configure settings on the Remote Install tab of computer accounts.
• Risetup and Riprep Windows Deployment Services provides updated versions of Risetup and Riprep for upgrade scenarios (available in Windows Server 2003 only).

The Windows Deployment Services management console provides significant administrative control. You can add and remove servers. You can configure a variety of options, including computer-naming rules, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) settings, PXE response settings, and so on. You can add and remove installation and boot images. You can also organize images into image groups. The Windows Deployment Services management console gives you full control over your image groups and the images you add to them. You can configure permissions for each image group and for individual images, too. You can also associate an answer file with each individual image. The Windows Deployment Services management console helps you better manage images for different platforms. For example, you can associate different boot programs and boot images with the x86, x64, and ia64 platforms. You can also associate a global answer file with each platform.

Note Windows Deployment Services in Windows Server 2008 R2 also allows the administrator to choose the preferred boot behavior, such as whether to require an F12 keypress to boot or not.

Client

The Windows Deployment Services client is a special version of Windows Setup that runs only within Windows PE. In other words, when you deploy Windows 7 to the destination computer using Windows Deployment Services, the Windows Deployment Services client runs within Windows PE on the client computer. This approach allows deployment of Windows 7 as well as images of previous versions of Windows. Note, however, that the version of Windows PE you use has to be at least as recent as the operating system you are deploying. For example, Windows PE 3.0 will deploy Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP, but Windows PE 2.1 will deploy only Windows Vista and Windows XP.

The Windows Deployment Services client drives the setup experience as follows:

• Language selection For Windows 7, the client prompts the user to choose a language. This choice applies to the setup user interface and the operating system installation. The user can also install additional language packs (Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate Edition operating systems only).
• Credentials gathering The client prompts the user for required credentials to connect to the image store on the Windows Deployment Services server.
• Image selection The client displays a list of images available to the user and allows the user to choose an image to install on the destination computer.
• Disk configuration The client allows the user to partition and format the destination computer's hard disks. The client provides the same options as Windows Setup.

However, you can automate all of the settings that the client prompts for. To automate these settings, you use Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM) to create an Unattend.xml file. For more information about creating answer files, see the Windows Automated Installation Kit User's Guide, which is installed as part of the Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK) 2.0.