OSD at remote site without secondary server

[Incommunicado]

So I want to deploy an OS at a remote site, on the other end of a WAN link but I don't want to install a secondary site just yet. Do I have any options?

 

I've been looking to get my head round this all morning but haven't came up with anything; I'm wondering if someone else has covered this ground already.

[Jorgen Nilsson]

Hi,

Well it depends on many factors, either

• you could create a standalone media and send that to the site,
  
• you could deploy the OS over the WAN, depending on the speed,
  
• you could use a Windows Client at the site as a DP so you can either PXE boot over the WAN and then access all packages locally from the DP or boot from a USB stick.
  

there are many different solutions depending on your pre-reqs like WAN Speed, e.t.c

 

Regards,

Jörgen

[Rocket Man]

Yes

 

A remote DP would probably be best, but as Jorgen has highlighted it depends on your enviornment. How may clients at the remote site do you have, if virtual platform such as Hyper-V is available on remote site then you could run DP on a VM and this way you can use the PXE functionality from the DP.

 

A windows 7 client acting as a DP does not support PXE.

 

Rocket Man

[Incommunicado]

Thanks guys. The third point you mentioned, Jorgen, is actually where I wanted to go with this but my understanding was that a PXE service point was required at the remote site which is why I have a secondary server in mind? How does that work with boot images, the base OS, and required software packages for the task sequence? I have a single site server and managment point here in head office - will the remote client not call the management point and PXE service point here in head office only to be directed towards my local smspxeimages$ share? Will the client still know to download the images from its local DP? I currently have a slow boundary configured for the AD site.

 

At the moment, I have a server share DP at the remote site and I can happily deploy software and updates. It's a domain controller (Server2008) and HyperV host, so I have the option of going to a secondary site, but for the size of the office I'd really prefer not to (15 employees and 4meg link)

 

Incidentally, when specifying slow and unreliable boundary, from which perspective is this? The link to the site server is over the WAN but the link to the DP is over the LAN - that's still a slow boundary right?

[Jorgen Nilsson]

Hi,

You need to configure a boundary for that site and assign the remote DP to that boundary then the client will pull all the data except from the PXE boot image from the local DP.

Regards,

Jörgen

[Incommunicado]

Awesome, thanks man

[Rocket Man]

It is the way to go....now especially you have sufficient HW at remote site to set up a decent DP.

I have a PS and 15 remote DPs on Virtual hyper-V servers acting as PXE service points and so far all working very good.

 

So i have 16 Boundaries each with a DP group assigned to each Boundary.

 

Rocket Man