RIS - Beginners Question

[timmoat]

I am looking into using RIS/Windows Deployment Services to roll out my XP images and move away from the existing manual machine builds.

Only problem is that majority of machines I have inherited are cr@p and do not boot to the LAN.

The Microsoft tool used to create a boot disk RBFG.EXE does not support the network card used which is a SIS 900.

Does anyone have any idea as to where I should start with this?

I will need to use native tools as no budget for Ghost or anything imaging I am afraid.

 

[crackbabie]

Investigate Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2008
Upgrade to BDD2007

Alternatively what you need to do is somehow rip an image from a working computer, alternatively you need to inject the drivers into the boot disk

I'd suggest using MDT 2008 as its fairly easy, I banged it out within 2 days, injecting network drivers into the boot image for some old computers.

If you do use it, there is a setting in the Task sequence to say dont deploy on a computer with less than 512MB Ram ... and my computers had 256MB ... it frustrated me for hours ... so set it down to 128MB ... its in a couple of places

good luck

 

[timmoat]

Thanks for the tips - its something I will look into.

My issue though is if I cant boot into a PXE environment I must have some kind of boot CD/disk in order to access the image held on a network share surely?

I want a sysprepped image as opposed to a custom cd using nlite or similar.

 

[WalleyeGuy]

You can take a look at BartPE (

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/)

for creating a Network Supported CD Boot Disk. Can customize the CD Boot Disk and add network support for any network cards that you have drivers for. Can add plugins for various imaging software packages like Ghost, Acronis, Terabyte Image for Windows, etc...

Just an idea

 

[thalligan]

In the land of free software you could check out

http://clonezilla.org/

http://www.ultimatedeployment.org/index.html

Clonezilla Live might work for you as it runs from a CD and can pull an image from SMB/FTP/SSH whatever.

About the best you can do without PXE enabled adapters.

 

[tlcscousin]

From all the looking it appears that a SIS 900 should support network boot.

Is the card set in the BIOS to boot from network (PXE)?

If so when you create the RIS install have you entered the GUID for the network cards trying to get the RIS images?
Newer motherboards should have the GUID listed in the BIOS. If it is not you can make the GUID using the MAC address followed by zeros to make up the number of characters needed.

 

[timmoat]

I think it should be able too - and I found a CD which essentially boots up with the drivers for the SIS card and then waits for a DHCP but unfortunatly the BIOS itself may be the problem.

There is no boot menu, and despite being from 2005 I can find no updated BIOS for it.

I change the boot order to have the LAN card first but it doesnt do anything.

No support for the kit though as the guy before me used to by unbranded, cheap kit. All well and good on budget but unreliable and more hassle in the long run!!!

 

[tlcscousin]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759600.aspx

Explains RIS on server 2003.I havent used server 2003 to RIS but it should be reasonably similar to the process on 2000 server.

http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/w2k3/services/DHCP_Configure.htm

Explains that the DHCP server needs to be authorized on the DHCP before it becomes active.

I include this quote from

http://web.mit.edu/win/whatsRIS.htm

To authorize a DHCP or RIS server, follow these steps: Start the DHCP management console from the Administrative Tools menu. Select the DHCP node. From the Action menu, select Manage Authorized Servers. In the Manage Authorized Servers dialog box, click the Authorize button. In the Authorize DHCP Server dialog box, enter the IP address or the computer name of the DHCP or RIS server and click OK. Even though this dialog doesn't mention RIS, you can authorize RIS servers or DHCP servers from this box. The server name and IP address should now appear in the Authorized DHCP Servers list. Select the Close button to close the Manage Authorized Servers dialog.