Howto setup Windows Remote Installation Services

Full guide by Microsoft is here:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/howto/remoteos.mspx#EVLAE

What is required:

-RIS server:

• The RIS server must have at least two volumes. The second volume contains the RIS installation information which is separate from the Windows 2000 Server installation volume.
• The RIS volume must be NTFS.
• The network must use DNS, DHCP, and Active Directory to use this service.
• The RIS server must be authorized in Active Directory using the DHCP administrative tool. It is easier if the RIS server is the DHCP server and is already authorized.
• The RIS server must have the same service pack of the Windows 2000 professional image that you intend to create. If it does not, there will be a failure in creating the image. This means that if the server is running SP2 and you want to create a Windows 2000 professional image with SP3, it will fail to create the image. (Note: there is information on Microsoft's site indicating that you can update the image to SP3, but I could not get that to work.)

• On the server install the Remote Installation Service by opening the Control Panel, select “Add/Remove Programs”, click on the “Add/Remove Windows Components” button on the lower left, then select the Remote Installation Service box. After the install, reboot the server.
• The RIS server must be setup using the command line utility called “risetup”. Open a command line window by selecting “Start”, “Programs”, “Accesssories”, and “Command Prompt”, then type “risetup”. This can also be accessed from the Control Panel by opening the “Add/Remove Programs” applet and selecting “Add/Remove Windows Components”. A box allowing Remote Installation Services configuration will appear. The configuration wizard will allow selection of the Remote installation folder (must not be on the system partition, must be NTFS partition, and must be shared which will be automatically created and shared).
• The wizard will ask for the path to the windows installation CD, for example windows XP SP2. It will copy the files to the RIS share.

Chances are that the image that you have prepared from the CD in the previous step will be missing drivers for the network card that is in the PC that you are attempting to install. You would get this error message: “The operating system image you selected does not contain the necessary driver for your network adapter” Follow this KB article to add the drivers into the installation image: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;246184 after doing that do not forget to restart the RIS server:

net stop binlsvc
net start binlsvc

At this point you should be able to boot and connect to the RIS server, but you still may get BSD: STOP error 0x000000bb, one of the reasons for this maybe that your client is using duplicate IP address, check your DHCP and addressing.

• Invoke the boot menu on the workstation by pressing F12 during boot, then again F12 to invoke PXE.
• Run the OS installation and install all necessary drivers and patches.
• Install the MS office, Adobe Acrobat reader, Windows Commander, VNC and other application of your choice
• Change the workstation administrator password

• Run \\RISservername\Reminst\Admin\I386\RIPrep.exe
• At this point, the Remote Installation Preparation wizard starts. Click Next.
• You are prompted to enter the name of the RIS server where you would like to replicate the contents of the client hard disk. By default, the RIS server that the wizard (RIPrep.exe) is being run from is automatically filled in. Click Next.
• You are prompted to provide the name of the directory on the RIS server where this image will be copied. The image is created under the \remoteInstall\setup\OS Language\Images directory. Click Next.
• You are prompted to provide a friendly description and help text describing this image. The friendly description and help text are displayed to users of the Client Installation wizard during OS image selection. Provide enough information that a user can distinguish between images. Click Next.
• The wizard displays a summary screen of your selections. After you have reviewed them, click Next.
• The image preparation and replication process begins. The system is prepared and files are copied to the RIS server specified. Once the replication of the image completes, any remote boot enabled client computer can select the image for a local installation.

This step is necessary only the first time when you are creating the first image. Following images are automatically added to the RIS server. You can use this procedure to view and modify the descriptions for the installed images and to remove images.

• unpack WinXP_pro_SP2\SUPPORT\TOOLS\DEPLOY.CAB
• run setupmgr.exe to create RIS .sif file
• open Active Directory Users and Computers/Domain Controllers, right click on DC that is the RIS server, click Remote Install tab. Click Advanced Settings.. Images.. Add.. to add new image with the sif file that you have created.