WDS Client Issue

[Kev389]

Hi All

I have had a problem with deploying an image to one particular model of PC at work. I have stepped closer to solving the issue but I have once again hit a road block.

I will start with the background of the problem so you know what I have already tried and where I am up to in this issue.

A few months ago we needed to re-image the entire organisation's computers due to, upgrade, virus and performance reasons. I have set up a WDS server on a Windows Server 2003 SP2 machine. This setup worked on all the computers from our supplier manufactured 2005 - 2008. Which have been PXE version 2.0.

However this year's delivery are using Gigabyte G31M-ES2L motherboards. The info for the built in Ethernet card is as follows (some of which is shortened):

Intel UNDI PXE-2.1 (build 82)

Covered Patients... etc

Realtek PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller Series v2.25 (090106)

To begin with the computer would not detect the WDS server at the stage of searching for the IP address at PXE BIOS level. After a conversation with our supplier they suggested using Options 66 & 67 on our DHCP server. So, I configured the options as follows:

Option 66 - (WDS Server IP address)

Option 67 - boot\x86\pxeboot.com

When booting the machine into PXE the client then discovered the WDS sever and would load the boot image. Once in the boot image an error message occured:

WDSClient: An error occurred while obtaining an IP Address from the DHCP Server

After investigating using the SHIFT+F10 shortcut to try and renew the ip address, I found the ethernet controller would not appear after entering the command. I took the boot image and used WAIK to inject the correct Ethernet Drivers to this image.

I have now added this boot image to the WDS server and booted the client from it. I now recieve this error message:

WDSClient: There was a problem initialising WDS Mode.

I also have enable Spanning Tree on all of our backbone and edge switches as this was also causing the DHCP request to fail.

I am using an editted boot image from a Windows Vista CD

I have tried adding a delay to the PXE response (currently on 0)

I cannot figure out why this is still showing an error.

Could anyone assist with this issue, either if they have extensive knowledge of WDS or have solved this problem by encountering it themselves?

If you need anymore information to assist, please ask. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Edited January 21, 2010 by Kev389

[Tripredacus]

Sounds like you need to inject the Vista drivers for the NIC into your boot image.

[Kev389]

Thanks for you reply.

I have injected the vista drivers into my boot image.

In the command prompt window in the vista boot image screen the image can see the network adapter. The network adapter is working and i can ping my servers both using the Server name and the IP address which leads me to believe TCP/IP & the DNS resolution is working.

[cluberti]

Here's a suggestion - try downloading WAIK 3.0 (for Windows 7) and creating a stock WinPE from that, or use a Windows 7 boot.wim image, and try to use one of those as your boot image on your WDS server rather than the Vista one. You might have more luck with the newer PXE standard.

[Kev389]

Here's a suggestion - try downloading WAIK 3.0 (for Windows 7) and creating a stock WinPE from that, or use a Windows 7 boot.wim image, and try to use one of those as your boot image on your WDS server rather than the Vista one. You might have more luck with the newer PXE standard.

Thank you for your reply however;

I've used a Windows 7 x86 boot image. The image does exactly the same as the Vista boot image.

It had the drivers needed in the image already. The computer is recieving an IP address and can talk to the servers.

The message says:

WDSClient: There was a problem initializing WDS Mode

However the pxe still works with the other system on the network..

Please anymore suggestions anyone?

[cluberti]

Just a wild guess, but what is the status of portfast on these switch ports? I've seen Cisco switches fail with similar errors before when portfast was disabled, but honestly if the driver is there and PXE works, it sounds like it could very well be a network config issue.

[Kev389]

I see where you are coming from with it being a network issue as I was getting this message, or a similar message before when spanning tree was off and failing.

We are using HP Procurve switches. Backbone and Edge and i have checked the GUI + CLI interfaces for a reference to Fastport and I haven't found that option.

I have read somewhere before about Spanning Tree + Fastport needing to be on. However im not sure that our switches have a fast port option.