pxe booting to wds to deploy windows 7

[programmerbob]

I'm a noob when it comes to pxe booting, and not sure what I'm doing wrong. I have a multicast windows deployment services image setup and listening.

When I try to pxe boot, it just gets stuck doing dhcp, and then never finds the server. Does the server and target computer need to be on the same subnet to find each other? I don't have control over AD(I'm an OU administrator in a large college), so hopefully I don't need to set things there.

I've never used pxe to deploy my images before though, so I might be missing something.

[Tripredacus]

What OS are you using on the WDS server?

Is the WDS Server also your Domain Controller?

Is the WDS Server also your DHCP server?

[cluberti]

When I try to pxe boot, it just gets stuck doing dhcp, and then never finds the server. Does the server and target computer need to be on the same subnet to find each other? I don't have control over AD(I'm an OU administrator in a large college), so hopefully I don't need to set things there.

No, the server and target don't need to be on the same subnet, but remember that PXE uses broadcast to find both DHCP and the deployment server. That means that if the client and server are NOT on the same subnet, you do need DHCP helpers to route the traffic - so while they don't necessarily need to be on the same subnet, it won't work by default without some configuration on the routers between subnets for the PXE traffic.

I'm assuming your WDS server and your client are on separate subnets, which would explain why the client cannot find the server.