You can use Windows Deployment Services to link physical computers to computer account objects in Active Directory Domain Servers (AD DS). This is called prestaging the client. Prestaged clients are also called known computers.
If you have set WDS to only respond to known computers then you'll need to prestage the computers otherwise the PXE boot will fail.
To prestage a computer for WDS deployment you'll need to know the mac address or GUID of it, you can get that info in a variety of ways, the easiest (for one computer) is to simply press the PAUSE button on your client pc when it is PXE booting to the server, you'll see both the MAC address and GUID listed.
If you want to use scripts to get these values then download the following from Microsoft (Sample_RIS_Scripts.zip), this bunch of scripts can collect GUIDs and more...
ok, now that we have the GUID lets start Active Directory Users and Computers, click on Computers and right click, choose New, Computer.
give the computer a name
click next and make sure to select This is a managed computer
Input the GUID or MAC address with no -
eg: if the GUID reported in the bios pxe boot screen is
C2EB3E06-82DB-F741-A5F0-8312855E7753
then remove the dashes so it reads
C2EB3E0682DBF741A5F08312855E7753
the Next button below will remain Greyed out (inactive) until you input the GUID (or mac address) correctly
select your Remote Installation server (the WDS server....)
click next and review the summary, click finish and you have now prestaged your computer in Active Directory.
at this point you can PXE boot the client and WDS will treat it as a 'known' computer and you can deploy as per normal.
more info about prestaging with WDS from Microsoft here >
Creating Computer Account Objects in AD DS
You can use Windows Deployment Services to link physical computers to computer account objects in Active Directory Domain Servers (AD DS). This is called prestaging the client. Prestaged clients are also called known computers. This allows you to then configure properties on the computer account to control the installation for the client. For example, you can configure the network boot program and the unattend file that the client should receive, as well as the server from which the client should download the network boot program. You can create a computer account object and associate it with a physical computer using the following methods:
* Using WDSUTIL. You can prestage client computers before they have attempted a network boot, by running WDSUTIL /Add-Device /Device:<name> /ID:<ID>. You cannot prestage computers by using the Windows Deployment Services MMC snap-in, but you can set the Auto-Add policy and approve or reject pending computers.
* Using the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in. You can prestage client computers before they have attempted a network boot using AD DS. For instructions, see the section "To prestage a client computer" in How to Manage Client Computers.
* Enabling the Auto-Add policy. If you enable this policy, when you approve the installation for an unknown client, the installation will proceed and a computer account will be created in AD DS for the client. For more information, see Enabling the Auto-Add Policy
* Using Windows Deployment Services as part of the image installation. By default, all operating system installations using Windows Deployment Services result in a client computer that is joined to a domain. You can disable this functionality using the Client tab of the server’s properties
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You can use Windows Deployment Services to link physical computers to computer account objects in Active Directory Domain Servers (AD DS). This is called prestaging the client. Prestaged clients are also called known computers.
If you have set WDS to only respond to known computers then you'll need to prestage the computers otherwise the PXE boot will fail.
To prestage a computer for WDS deployment you'll need to know the mac address or GUID of it, you can get that info in a variety of ways, the easiest (for one computer) is to simply press the PAUSE button on your client pc when it is PXE booting to the server, you'll see both the MAC address and GUID listed.
If you want to use scripts to get these values then download the following from Microsoft (Sample_RIS_Scripts.zip), this bunch of scripts can collect GUIDs and more...
ok, now that we have the GUID lets start Active Directory Users and Computers, click on Computers and right click, choose New, Computer.
give the computer a name
click next and make sure to select This is a managed computer
Input the GUID or MAC address with no -
eg: if the GUID reported in the bios pxe boot screen is
then remove the dashes so it reads
the Next button below will remain Greyed out (inactive) until you input the GUID (or mac address) correctly
select your Remote Installation server (the WDS server....)
click next and review the summary, click finish and you have now prestaged your computer in Active Directory.
at this point you can PXE boot the client and WDS will treat it as a 'known' computer and you can deploy as per normal.
more info about prestaging with WDS from Microsoft here >
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