bn2hunt Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 I have just started setting up a RIS server for the company and a question was posed to me about a Disaster Recovery Plan. If I take a Windows 2003 server joined to the domain but not a DC. This server has DHCP running on it and has RIS and all of the images on it. Can I connect the server to a switch, connect the pc's to have windows installed on and be able to install windows to these pc's?We do not join the pc's to the domain during the RIS process.Is it possible to have RIS work without being able to access the domain?Don't know if anybody else has run into this but thought I would ask here before I started the process of setting up a testing lab if we know that it won't work.ThanksDan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogueSpear Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 In the traditional sense, no I don't believe you can RIS without access to a domain. I know that there are some people out there who have rigged together systems where they're doing RIS from Linux, but to RIS the normal way you need to authenticate to a domain account in order to get the ball rolling. This doesn't mean the computer must join the domain, but I can't really see a way of avoiding the initial text mode sign on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shieldsa Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 Correct. We're currently having the RIS machines join a workgroup - not be a member of the domain. However, the login process in RIS, to get the ball rolling, automatically creates a named computer object in AD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bn2hunt Posted June 26, 2006 Author Share Posted June 26, 2006 Could I set up a local account on the RIS Server and use that log-in to get the ball rolling? My guess is it would fail when it couldn't create the computer account. Is there a way to stop the computer account from being created? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogueSpear Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 I'm going to guess no. This is stricktly speculative, but when you look at the purpose behind RIS it would make me think not. The whole idea with RIS is to quickly get computers up and running in a medium to large enterprise. With that is the expectation of a domain. The fact that you can RIS a computer and not have it join a domain is probably more of a bug than feature. I've run into it when the NIC driver won't properly detect and install during PnP enumeration, but like I said this is unintended.With all of the hoops it looks as though you'd have to jump through, I'd say that you'd probably be better off making a good unattended installation on a DVD. I always have my clients purchase computers/laptops with a minimum of a DVD-ROM drive in them just for this reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bn2hunt Posted June 26, 2006 Author Share Posted June 26, 2006 Thats what I was telling the supervisors here. We are moving from a primarily cd based installation to RIS installs. We think it will be easier to keep the images up to date with Virus definitions than to burn a new CD every two weeks for each pc model and then hope that we get all of the old CD's destroyed. We will just have to keep a backup ISO of the installs to burn to DVD when needed.Thanks for the infoDan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeltaZero Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 It is possible to skip the logon screens by editing the OSC files...however, you'd probs need to make some changes server side to allow unauthenticated access to the image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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