Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Deployment Services (WDS)

As you may have noticed, I’ve been doing some lab work on Windows 7 deployment recently. Last night I upgraded the MDT 2010 build to an RC. Within 15 minutes I was in a position where I was able to deploy a clean build Windows 7 machine and do an upgrade from XP to Windows 7 while conserving the user’s state on the machine.

Ben Armstrong (the Virtual PC Guy) blogged overnight about his experience with WDS on Windows Server 2008 R2. That was my next step: I want to get the LiteTouch.ISO mounted on there so I can run it on the network.

My MDT lab is 4 virtual machines running on Windows Server 2008 R2:

• Domain controller with DHCP/DNS.
• MDT server, MDT-SVR
• Virtual PC 1: Windows 7
• Virtual PC 2: Windows XP with a user state and a snapshot I can restore after Windows 7 upgrades

I loaded WDS (Windows Deployment Services) onto MDT-SVR in Server Manager. It’s pretty simple from there:

• I configured the role.
• I added the Windows 7 images from the mounted ISO.
• I used the discovered boot image to create a capture image and loaded it.
• I’d previously extracted the x86 Integration Components (drivers) for Hyper-V. I added those as a package called Hyper-V.
• I added the drivers to both boot images.

No using DISM or command prompt yet.

Now I booted up a VM with PXE Boot (F12). I changed the boot order of the VM to get that working reliably. Wait .. PXE in Hyper-V? Yes, you CAN do it.

Next thing you know, the VM has loaded the pre-boot environment discovered via BOOTP/DHCP. I picked a boot image and deployed Windows 7.

Time taken? 10 minutes. OK, I had already extracted the drivers and I knew WDS from W2008/W2003. But it was pretty easy!

EDIT #1: I’d say it was less than 15 minutes later before I could log into the new Windows 7 VM running on Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.