33 thoughts on “MDT 2013 – Standalone WDS in Windows 2012 R2”

1. so good , so detail

2. Thank you for the visit and the positive feedback
   As soon as we have more time, we will post even more new stuff on MDT technology

   Till next time
   See ya

3. Hello Griffon,

   thank you so much for this good article.
   I have one question, when I´m adding the generated Image to my Boot Images and I´m booting it, in a time the computer restarts and boots again(boot loop)

   What I have to do, that this didn´t appears again!

   I know that in WDS I have to set the pxe guideline, but I want that it´s set automaticaly.

   How can I do this?

4. Hello there,
   I’m not sure to understand your question.. What’s not working ? PXE or your boot image ???

   Waiting for a more precise description of the problem

   Till next time
   see ya

5. Hello there,
   the PXE and the boot image ist working! 🙂

   My problem ist a boot loop, because of the WDS-Server.

   When my boot Image is created, I´m importing it to my WDS-Server that I can start an Installation.

   After, the OS had installed on the computer, the computer restarts and the installation process agains.

   I´m speaking from this settings:
   http://msayem.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/wds_p1_29.png%3Fw%3D698

   My problem is, that we´re using this setting: “Always continue the PXE boot”.

   We have 150 computers, and there are have to install automaticaly.

   I want that this setting, is setting back to “Use PXE promt policy from server” or to “Never PXE boot”.

   Sorry for my bad englisch 🙁

   I hope that you are understanding me and that you can help me.

6. Hello there,
   Ok, now I got the point 🙂

   In Windows 2008, you could change a registry key to reset the boot order. This is an extract of a Technet Article. I’m assuming that registry should also work for Windows 2012 R2
   Try this and let us know if this is working for you

   Technet Extract……

   If you combine these two configurations, the client will automatically boot from the network without requiring user intervention and the computer will end up in a circular loop (always booting from the network and never booting from the hard disk drive). The following registry key controls these settings:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WDSServer\Providers\WDSPXE\Providers\BINLSVC
   Name: ResetBootProgram

   Type: REG_DWORD

   Value: 0 or not set means no action.

   1 means that during the imaging process, the value stored in the netbootMachineFilePath attribute in AD DS for the prestaged device will be cleared. The value for the referral server is also stored in the netbootMachineFilePath attribute. Therefore, when you specify 1 and this value is cleared, any server in the domain can answer the client the next time it reboots.

   Using this option ensures that on the next boot, the computer will receive the default server NBP (commonly the .com version). Therefore, the computer will try to boot from the network (because the network is listed first in the BIOS boot order), but the computer will be sent the .com NBP. After allowing sufficient time for the user to press the F12 key, this option will time out and the device will boot from the hard disk drive. The value is cleared after the image is applied, as one of the final actions performed by Windows Deployment Services.

7. Hello Griffon,

   thanks for your reply.

   Technet Extract:
   The value is cleared after the image is applied, as one of the final actions performed by Windows Deployment Services.

   My problem is that exactly this didn´t work for me.
   The value isn´t cleared after the image is applied.

8. Hello there,

   the registry key will not be cleared…it’s the Active Directory attribute (netbootMachineFilePath attribute in AD DS) that will be cleared…..(technet extract again). Obviously to have this working, you would need to integrate WDS in your arcite Directory.

   To achiveve what you are asking, you will need to be a little bit more creative….. There might be plenty of ways to achieve this.
   My approach would be to use Manufacturer tool (such as Dell Client configuration toolkit) to change boot order in the bios through my task sequence. HP has also such a utility

   Another option (if you have brand new pc would be to keep boot order hardisk, pxe, cd….). the first time it boots, it will boot to pxe the second time it will boot on disk. You could use the pxelinux.com and create a custom menu where the boot to disk is the first option…..

   Reading a little bit about WDS, there might be additional optioins but I would need to check for this

   Till next time
   see ya

9. hi griffon,
   really nice and detailed how-to!
   I’ve build a test environment for a standalone WDS-Server, but I get a failure, when i want to start WDS-Service.
   I get a runtime error, that the service doesn’t respond.
   Do you know any solution for this issue?

   greetz,
   Chris

10. Hello Chris,
    I remember that the first time I started the WDS I time to time got an error. Next one should be good. You could try to start the services (in the service manager) and check if you have an error there. Check also event logs (you do not provide me enough info)

    check these links

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954410/en-au

    http://dipanmpatel.com/2012/08/21/unable-to-start-wds-error-code-2310/

    collect more info in your event logs and maybe we can find out what the problem is

    hope this help
    Till next time
    See ya

11. How did you get the image to show? Where did you put it?

    Regards,

12. Hello there,

    If you look at the post and on the screeenshots, you will see that there is a file called test.png located in the RemoteInstall\boot folder.
    If the image is not displayed, maybe you have to change the size of the image….try a smaller size 640×480 and try again

    Till next time
    See ya

13. HI Griffon, Thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge with the MDT community, its been very helpful to many of us who are new to MDT. In my case I am from the old Autounattend.xml and batch file automation era.

    At present I have been using a simple standalone virtual FreeNAS VM which I have configured with a CIFS SMB share to host all my boot floppies, batch and OS/Applications distribution files etc. I also have TFTP configured on it for enabling Linux kickstart deployments that I do for VMware ESXi and Linux distros etc.

    I would like to build a MDT server and port the above setup for using as my virtual training lab, but I am not quite sure how a standalone MDT server can be configured to deploy virtual machines into a LAB domain. I gather this should be possible by adding the below into the CS.ini file?

    DomainAdmin=JoinAccount
    DomainAdminDomain=LAB.LOCAL
    DomainAdminPassword=P@ssw0rd
    AdminPassword=P@ssw0rd
    JoinDomain=LAB.LOCAL

    And for the mapping to the standalone MDT share use something like the below in the BSini file:

    [Default]
    DeployRoot=\\MDT01\MDTLAB$
    UserDomain=LAB
    UserID=BuildAccount
    UserPassword=P@ssw0rd

    Would the above setup work for deploying machines into my LAB domain using a standalone MDT server? If not how can this be achieved.

    Best
    MP

14. Hello Manoj,

    Yes this should do

    If you check our MDT section, we always prefer to have a standalone MDT installation because it’s portable and can be used anywhere.
    As long as you can reach the domain, you can use the Standalone MDT and join the machine to the domain

    As I said, this should be working…..

    Hope this help
    till next time
    See ya

15. Hey Griffon! Thanks for your quick reply. I will go ahead and try and build the standalone MDT2013 server and report back.

    Best regards…

16. Hey I like you blog helped me a lot, I wanted to ask a question regarding the deployment of applications one the applications have been imported and the task sequences have been created does the application automatically deploy to the captured image ?

17. HEllo;

    If your task sequence has been configured with a step that deploy applications; yes this will done automatically

    Till next Time
    See ya

18. Hi Griffon,

    Many Thanks for wrote this article. This confirmed that I have done correct steps for getting PXE boot with WDS by generate MDT.

    I am looking for instructions regarding to create ComputerSetting in MDT Database and then create DHCP Filter and Reservation IP as well. Do you have any idea?

    Best Regards,
    Jobbo

19. Hello Jobbo,

    Your message was marked as spam….
    If I have time, I will try to have a look to your question…sorry for the inconvenience

    Till next time
    See ya

20. I have problems with DHCP and DNS
    I dont know how can I configured,
    I cant boot any PC from PXE, Message I have is DHCP offers not received
    Can you show me how to configured on the stand alone DHCP

    Let me tell you this website is awesome

21. Hello George,

    Simply perform a basic configuration. have a loot at http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-New-Scope-in-DHCP
    for creating your dhcp scope
    For DNS, use this link https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/323445

    Hope this help
    Till next time
    See ya

22. Thank you for your reply, this websites is very Helpful

    I did apply this basic settings,
    But still having Problems

    Do I have to set up a static IP for the server?

    D you give private classes for this, I dont mind paying for a few classes for this teaching , thanks

23. I found that I need it to this to fixed

    Create my Static IP same as the Scope in DHCP
    I got this DNS error 407 and found the solution here
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/279678

    Also this DHCP error and find the solution here( I have to set up my Static IP First)
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/298490

    Thanks.

24. Hello George,
    Sorry for the late answer I see you found your way. Yes, the DHCP/DNS needs to get a fixed ip address in order to have the mdt setup working
    Hope you will move forward with your setup
    Till next Time
    See ya

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26. @smithb764,

    Thank you for the visit and the positive feedback.. we hope that our posts are indeed valuable to everyone
    Till next time
    See ya

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28. @Smithd46,

    Thank you for the visit and your interest in our blog 🙂 We like to see that info posted here can be useful
    Till next time
    See ya

29. Hello Griffon,

    First of all, I want to thank you for the incredibly helpful explanation. I’ve been busy installing a deployment server at work, and thanks to your help in the blog, I’ve been able to install it. Now, however, I have a problem where I hope that you or others can help me with this.

    I suddenly get the following error after the PXE Boot:

    File: \Windows\System32\boot\winload.efi
    Status: 0xc0000428
    Info: The digital signature for this file couldn’t be verified

    If I continue booting without checking the digital signature, I will only get a black screen and nothing will happen.

    Do you perhaps know why this is happening? Shall I disable the drivers?

    Thank you and regards

30. @JT,

    have you try to recreate/update the wim file created by MDT or WDS that are loaded during the boot process…. Use one of the latest version of OS you have (including any service packs) and try to rebuild the litetouchePExx.wim file and try again
    Hope this help
    Till next time
    See ya

31. Hi Griffon,

    thanks for the suggestion. Indeed, there was something wrong with the wim file.

    Thank you for the help

    Regards

32. @JT,

    Ah, I knew it.. Thank you for the feedback
    Till next time
    see ya

33. what is MDT 2013 deployment solution on a Windows 2008 R2 server.