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Andy, Looks like I got it working!!! I had a corrupt *.inf file that was causing the RIS not to create the PNF files. Thanks in advance, Joey

1. You have authorised the new production RIS server on the domain (should be from what you say)? yes it is authorized. 2. You are definately connecting to the correct server when client PXE boots, in case you have more than one production server? Yes 3. What other roles is your RIS server performing (i.e. SMS, DNS, SQL, etc.) Just RIS 4. The folders used to store your RIS images have not had the permissions tampered with (that might stop writes/deletions/etc)? No I deleted the RemoteInstall directory and re-ran the risetup just to make sure the image was right with permissions Could you also let me know if all your RIS servers use the same OS version and what that is? The Dev Server and also the Production server are running Windows Server 2003 Serivce Pack 1 I guess we could rebuild it, not looking foward to that but is an option

Andy, I have followed the steps bellow to a "T" and still no dice with the PNF recreation on the Production server. 1. Copy the device driver files for the devices into their respective folders. Use the folder structure that you created in the previous step. %risetup_image_name%\$oem$\$1\Drivers\NIC 2. Copy the network adapter driver and the associated .inf file to the \RemoteInstall\Setup\%language%\Images\%risetup_image_name%\i386 directory. 3. If the device driver that you are adding is an updated version of a driver that is already in this directory, you must delete the associated .pnf file from the \RemoteInstall \Setup\%language%\Images\%risetup_image_name%\i386 directory. 4. Stop and restart the Boot Information Negotiation Layer (BINL) service on all RIS servers on which you copied the drivers. This step is required for these changes to take effect. I have done this like 100 times with no issues on our DEV ris server, however on the new Production server it doesn't work. I did some googleing and also tried the following "Restart the BINLSVC and the SIS services." still no dice. Also like I said I deleted all the PNF files out of the \RemoteInstall\Setup\%language%\Images\%risetup_image_name%\i386 directory and did a stop and restart of BINLSVC and no PNF files where recreated. I also plugged a box into the RIS and negotiated an install and still no PNF creation? Thanks for the quick reply, Joey

I have a DEV RIS server that works fine with PNF file creation. I have created a new RIS server on the domain at work and got it rocking in rolling for the most part. I have added drivers in the same way I did on the old DEV server and it doesn't seem to be creating the PNF files. I got crazy and deleted all the PNF files in the I386 directory and tried to stop and restart the BINLSVC services and still no PNF's. I also tried the old boot up a desktop to the RIS a few times and see if the PNF's would generate and no go. Not sure what I am missing but any help would be apprecaited. Thanks in advance, Joey

Thanks I will give it a shot

This may help not sure if you found this or not? http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;319114

Bios Updates, and Nic Updates if possible. I had some problems with a few of my IBM Intelistations Z pro's and some of my Dell 530 Persisions. Once I updated the Bios on the Dells and the broadcom flash on the IBM's I was set and rocking and rolling.

So far I have been able to find all my quick anwsers by searching this great forum, so thanks to all that have taken the time to help others! My questions is once you build the base_image with say SP1 using risetup, if you try to create a new image with SP2 will it work if SP1 is still your base image? The reason I ask is I made a SP2 disk off our orignal volume license and then used nlite to intergrate all the hot fixes. Once the hot fixes where added it created an ISO which I burned and then copied to the RIS sever then used risetup. Everything copied fine and seemed to be ok. I then copied my custom default.sif over into the templates on the xpsp2 templates directory making a few changes. Upon PXE boot up I was able to choose SP2 and it started the format and copy of files. However once it hit like 40% it bombed out. Thinking it was a bad copy to the RIS sever I deleted the files and copied them again. Again it bombed at 40% not being able to finish the copy of the files. However if I take the CDROM that nlite made and boot off it I am able to format, copy the files, and finish the windows install. I think I over read some where that once you have the base_image set to SP1 that you can't create a new base image with say SP2. I am not 100% that is the case or if the nlite CD is not going to work. Again any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance, Joey

Michael, I myself was in the same boat less than 1 hour ago. I ran across this site and was able to get it to work with my IBM Intellistation ZPRo http://web.mit.edu/ist/topics/windows/serv...du/whatsRIS.htm Here is the good stuff you need though, if you follow it to a T you will be working perfect Configuring a RIS image to load a SCSI Mass Storage Device driver in textmode In some instances systems require an OEM SCSI Mass Storage Device driver to begin the installation. The reason for this is if the controller of the boot drive is not supported by drivers included in the Windows 2000 CD, an OEM driver must be loaded before setup can access the disk. This is regardless of whether the controller has BIOS loaded or not. The user can either hit F6 and use drivers from an OEM floppy during the install, or we can configure the RIS image to load the driver. Microsoft has documented a process for loading a Mass Storage Device driver in the textmode portion of setup for unattended installations. I did not see specific instructions for this pertaining to RIS, so I substituted the unattended.txt file for the .sif file in their documentation, and the installation was successful. The second change made was to add the driver files to i386 in case RIS would only look there and not in the OEM path. Additional testing need to be done to see if this was necessary. It was done only as an insurance measure to get the Building 37 cluster image ready without too many iterations of testing. What we found was that setup did not try to detect this device, it merely forced the driver to load regardless of the hardware of the system, so if another machine without this controller were to use this image, the result would be the infamous BSOD, with the message, "Inaccessible boot device". This means any time we need to have RIS load such a driver during textmode there must be a dedicated RIS image for that hardware, or at least that disk controller. See the following URL for Microsoft's documentation [this particular doc was for XP, but the same applied to 2000. I used it because it was much more brief and to the point of what I needed than the 2000 doc]: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documen...bc_cai_qcxl.asp Here is the procedure as it applied to RIS after you create a new image for this hardware: 1). In the distribution folder, create the Textmode folder in the \$OEM$ folder. 2). Copy the driver files into the Textmode folder. 3). Copy the driver files to \$OEM$\1\Drivers\SCSI 4). In the beginning of the .sif file, add an [OEMBootFiles] section and then the following entries: oemsetup.inf driver.sys [substitute the name of the driver] txtsetup.oem 5). Add a [MassStorageDrivers] section to the .sif file and determine the device name From the txtsetup.oem. For example for the LSI Logic Ultra 320 you will find the this line: SYMMPI = "LSI Logic PCI SCSI/FC MPI Miniport Driver",symmpi The name you would use here will be "LSI Logic PCI SCSI/FC MPI Miniport Driver" So the syntax you will use in the sif file under [MassStorageDrivers] will be look like: "LSI Logic PCI SCSI/FC MPI Miniport Driver" = "OEM" 6). In the [unattended] section of the .sif file, make sure the DriverSigningPolicy = Ignore entry exists. Also verify that the OemPnpDriversPath includes \Drivers\SCSI. 7). Stop and restart the Boot Information Negotiation Layer (BINL) service on the RIS server. This step is required for these changes to take effect.

Well I have been working on my MCP and stoped dead in my tracks after I learned about RIS. Since our office has some 500 boxes I thought I would take it upon myself to get a tricked out RIS server running on our network. We used to have one back in the day but no one could figure out the driver issues with our IBM itellistations and Dell Workstations so they stopped dead in their tracks. Anyways I just wanted to thank all the staff that run this site, I know the type of time it takes for Mod's/Admins as I have run a board with some 3000 memebers at one point in my life. Well before I spend my whole night welcoming myself I will cut it short. Again thanks for the site!!! Joey