Lesson 10-From Here to There: Remote Installation of the Windows XP Professional Client

1. Lesson 10-From Here to There: Remote Installation of the Windows XP Professional Client

2. Overview • Configure a server for Remote Installation Services. • Configure Remote Installation Services. • Perform a remote installation of Windows XP Professional. • Create an image from a reference computer.

3. Configure a Server for Remote Installation Services • Remote Installation Services (RIS) is used to install client operating systems over the network. • To use RIS on a network, at least one server should have RIS installed. • RIS works in two modes.

4. Configure a Server for Remote Installation Services • RIS hardware requirements • RIS software requirements

5. RIS Hardware Requirements • Sufficient hard drive space is required to store the operating system images. • At least 4GB of space is recommended. • A network interface card (NIC) is also necessary.

6. RIS Software Requirements • Active Directory, DNS, and DHCP must be installed and running on the network. • RIS requires a TCP/IP-based network.

7. Configure Remote Installation Services • Operating system considerations. • Additional RIS configuration settings.

8. Operating System Considerations RIS supports flat images for: • Client-level operating systems – Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP Professional. • Server operating systems – Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server, and Windows Server 2003 Web, Standard, and Enterprise Editions (both 32- and 64-bit).

9. Operating System Considerations Licensing considerations: • Microsoft offers different volume licensing packages. • For products that use a product activation key, it is possible to get a Volume Licensing Key (VLK).

10. Additional RIS Configuration Settings • Group policy settings • Server property settings

11. Group Policy Settings Editing the Default Domain Policy through the domain properties in Active Directory Users and Computers

12. Group Policy Settings The location of the RIS Choice Options in the Group Policy Object Editor console

13. Group Policy Settings The Choice Options dialog box

14. Server Property Settings The Remote Install tab of a RIS server’s properties dialog box

15. Server Property Settings The New Clients tab of the advanced settings dialog box for an RIS server

16. Server Property Settings Computer Account Generation dialog box

17. Server Property Settings The Images tab of the Remote Installation Services Properties dialog box

18. Server Property Settings The Image Properties dialog box

19. Perform a Remote Installation of Windows XP Professional For installing an OS image to a client computer using RIS, it must be ensured that: • The client meets the minimum system requirements for the operating system. • The computer can access the RIS server even if no operating system is installed.

20. Perform a Remote Installation of Windows XP Professional Preboot Execution Environment (PXE)-enabled NICs: • PXE provides an ideal way to connect a client computer with no operating system to an RIS server. • It is possible to configure the NIC as a boot device on computers that support PXE.

21. Perform a Remote Installation of Windows XP Professional Prestaging a computer account: • A computer is prestaged by creating a computer account as a managed computer. • Managed computer accounts require the Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) of the NIC in the computer.

22. Perform a Remote Installation of Windows XP Professional The product key: • To fill in the product key automatically, the product ID must be added to the answer file. • By default, the answer file is named ristndrd.sif.

23. Create an Image from a Reference Computer RIPrep image: • Is created using the Remote Installation Preparation Wizard. • Is prepared from a client computer called a reference computer. • Is used to duplicate the setup on other computers. • Supports the same operating systems as flat images.

24. Create an Image from a Reference Computer Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL): • HAL enables the operating system to interact with the computer’s hardware in a general way. • The hal.dll file is used to identify the type of HAL the computer is using.

25. Create an Image from a Reference Computer HAL Versions and Corresponding Original Filenames

26. Create an Image from a Reference Computer Installing from a RIPrep image: • The riprep.sif answer file is edited to include the product key. • The answer file is located in R:\RemoteInstall\Setup\English\Images\yourimagefolder\i386\Templates.

27. Summary • Remote Installation Services (RIS) is used to install client and server operating systems. • All versions of Windows Server 2003, except the Web Edition, can act as RIS servers. • A flat image is an image of an operating system’s installation CD. • All images require proper licensing.

28. Summary • Clients of an RIS server should have PXE-enabled NICs to boot from the network. • A RIPrep image is created from an existing reference computer using the Remote Installation Preparation Wizard. • The HAL allows the operating system to communicate with the computer’s hardware.