WDS - Duplicate Bootp IP Addresses & Multicast Question

[Phoenix-IT]

Hi Ladies and Gents...

I'm having a couple of little issues with WDS on Server 2008 R2 Standard. The WDS Server is not connected to our main network, nor is it connected to the internet. I've set it up specifically for imaging groups of computers for our Desktop Support team. It's connected to a single switch that the clients connect to with no routing or anything like that going on. It's setup with AD, DNS and DCHP, all of which were left to the default setting when I added those roles before adding the WDS role.

Almost everything is working fine. I've created boot and capture images, added drivers when necessary and I'm able to capture and re-deploy operating systems as expected. However, I have noticed when I boot more than one machine at a time, while the boot.wim is being transmitted to the machines, two of them can have the same IP address. Most of the time they seem to boot normally, but I do occasionally get an error that the setup program encountered a network error. Is this normal?

Second, how many clients need to be imaging at the same time before multicasting will show significant advantage over the normal deployment option? Our desktop guys will probably be imaging anywhere from 5 to 20 machines at a time through a 10/100 or gigabit switch. (Some of the obscure notebooks don't like the gigabit switch.) The reason I ask is because I haven't been able to get multicasting working. I did set it up by-the-book according to Microsoft's WDS getting started guide, but the clients don't ever see the the multicast once they've booted. The only option they show is the normal disk loading process. If multicasting won't make a significant difference when imaging 20 computers on a single switch then it's hardly worth being concerned about.

Thanks Much!

[Tripredacus]

I have not seen a time when more than one MININT will have the same IP address. The only reason I could think it would be possible is if you configured your server to use GUIDs instead of MAC Addresses. Some companies will have GUIDs of all FFF for some stupid reason. You should check your Scope settings, such as maximum clients and lease time. I personally use a lease time of 3 hours.

As far as "multicasting" goes, Server does this automatically for all network traffic by default. I know that WDS has a multicast setting you can use but honesly I've never tried it. The maximum number of clients you can boot off Server's PXE is based on the amount of memory and overhead on the server. Changing SMB settings can also effect PXE. As an example, I had a WDS with 2GB RAM that could only support 8 clients. My current WDS has supported 20+ but haven't hit maximum clients yet. Using managed switches with Link Aggregation (the server needs to be able to do that also) will also take care of the 100/1000 switching issue.