Windows Deployment Services (WDS) is a really interesting tool from Microsoft for network-based installation (deployment) of Windows operating systems. In Windows Server 2003 it was called Remote Installation Services (RIS). The purpose of WDS is to remotely deploy the Windows operating systems. See this guide on how to set up and install WDS role, how to configure Windows Deployment Services on Windows Server 2019, Windows server 2022, and Windows Server 2025. Learn how to configure DHCP Server option 60, 66, and 67 for Windows Deployment Services.
Also, For the complete installation steps of WinPE, please see the following guide: Install ADK, MDT, and WDS: How to deploy Windows images via Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and Windows Deployment Services.
How does WDS work?
WDS uses a PXE method for client booting. PXE enables clients to boot off the network. To find WDS services and to load boot images, the client should be able to contact the WDS server, the client network card must be PXE compliant and most devices are NICs compliant.
For cards that don’t support PXE, we have another type of boot image which is referred to as a discover boot image.
Discover images can be used for computers that are not PXE compliant. That means that those computers cannot boot off the network.
Note: The discover image has to be created manually in the WDS server first, after which we can transfer it to external media such as CD, DVD or USB drive. For more information on WDS images, see the following What are the differences between Capture image, Discover image, Install and Boot images.
Then we can use that media to boot up the computer into the discover image, which will then allow us to connect to the WDS server over the network. So, remember that clients have to have a PXE-compliant NIC in order to contact the WDS server.
If the NIC is not PXE compliant, then we must use another means of network boot such as a Windows PE through the discover image of the WDS server. We can use WAIK tools to create an ISO image that contains the discovered boot image. ISO can then be burned to CD or DVD using some tool that is capable of creating a disc from IS
In environments with a large number of clients, WDS can be very useful as new devices can be formatted on the fly by simply plugging it to the Ethernet, without any physical support like Windows DVDs or USB drives.
Other Setup requirements
The configuration isn’t difficult but there are some requirements
- There must be an Active Directory Domain Services
- At least one partition on the server must be formatted as NTFS
- A DHCP server must be active to assign IP addresses to the WDS clients
See the following links for more details on what DHCP is, installation and configuration.
- What is Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
- How to install Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol on Windows Server 2019
- Configuring DHCP: Post deployment of Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
Please, see “When SMB Freezes Break Backups: My Solution for Critical Linux Server“, “Veeam Backup Console must be updated to the latest version‘, and Upgrade Veeam Backup and Replication v12.3.x to 12.3.2.
Configure Windows Deployment Services
The following requirements are vital.
- Choose where to store your images
- DHCP Options, and
- PXE Server Settings.
Configure your server
Open the WDS snap-in console. In the previous article, I discussed and installed the WDS role.
This will launch the Windows Deployment Services console as shown below. As you can see the server is currently not configured.
To have the server configured. Right-click on the server name (in my case, TechDarchive.techdirect.local). Click on configure the server
This will open up the Windows Deployment Services Configuration Wizard as shown below.
Read and ensure you are complying with the requirements to setup WDS. Click on Next
Click on next to continue.
On the Install Options page, verify that you choose Integrated with Active Directory and then click Next.
Click on Next. On the Remote Installation Folder Location page, you can accept the default location which is C:\RemoteInstall and then click Next
Note: If you do not want to have your boot images, install and PXE boot files etc saved to this location, click on browse and select your desired location.
Since this is in a test environment, I will leave it this way. Ensure you select a different partition for a production environment.
– Click on Next,
– This will prompt the “System Volume Warning dialog window”
– Click Yes.
Configure Proxy Server
Next, on the Proxy DHCP Server window, ensure you check the two boxes in order to use DHCP tool to add appropriate PXE options to all DHCP and DHCPv6 scopes. Click on Next
Note: If you are configuring WDS and there is not DHCP server running on the same hardware, you will not see this image below.
On the PXE Server Initial Settings window, click Respond to all client computers (known and unknown), and click on Next, please wait for few second for the process to complete.
This will start the WDS configuration as shown below.
When complete, Click on Finish.
This will display the WDS console as shown below.
You can right click
We will be adding the images in the next article. See How to add images to WDS and configure Multicast transmission via the GUI and WDSUTIL.
Start Services
As you can see in the above or below diagram, the WDS has now stopped. To start WDS, right-click on the node as shown below
– Select All Tasks
– Click on start
Now, Windows Deployment Services has started as shown below
To stop or restart WDS, follow the same steps to perform either of the operations.
I hope you found this blog post on how to configure Windows Deployment Services on Windows Server helpful. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment session.
