RIS, WDS, GPO and BDD2007 and VISTA future deployment

[jfmartel]

Hello, all!

I've been working for the last 2 year on RIS. Personally I do think it's a very good way to deploy Windows XP. I use it with unattended file (No RIREP).

Now I'm trying to figure out how to deal with Windows Vista to get the same stuff (or about the same)

I've been playing with the for the last month. So far, It's not really working quite well.

I know WDS is an update of RIS server. That part is working. I can get access to my old RIS images.

The part that is not working is the Vista deployment. I've been trying to deploy it, but I still don't understand how it should be. From what I understand WDS should start WinPE then start the unattended Vista installation.

Winpe simply does not work. It says it couldnt find the nic driver. Now it says to use the drvload utilie to add it, but I can't find that utility. *sigh*

Then I went on website to see what is not working. That is the fun part. Is anyone able to figure how its works in this documentation. There are too many steps, and not enough explication. It only says sometime do that and do this. And when it's not working, no explication... *sigh*

Now another tricky part, what is the difference between WDS and BDD2007. Why I should use one instead of the other? My organisation had about 500 computer so it's rather big on a single site.

Office 2007 is going to be only deployable with BDD2007 since Gpo deployment is going to be very limited with GPO.

Should I switch all my deployment in BDD2007? Whatis going to happen to all the stuff I've done in GPO deployment. Will I have to switch them to make them work in BDD2007.

Your advice is welcome.

THANKS

[joshiieeii]

Ok, what you need to get your head wrapped around is that WDS is one of many component to BDD 2007. You use the Deployment Workbench to help with the Vista deployments. Supposedly you can also deploy XP with BDD 2007. I would suggest downloading BDD 2007 if you haven't already and reading the documentation on deployment. It will make much more sense after you read it.