Questions on RIS

t3ch_guru

I was wondering since many of you are sys admins/net admin. Anyone familiar with using Ris and ghost on server 03? I am basically trying to deploy computer images to computers that i am working on.

1. How would one go about editing the ris menu.

2. How do I get ris to work without having dhcp in the same box as ris.

I want it to be able to assign an ip without being in the same box. I tried usig our main dhcp server, but it didn't work. We had to enable the scope on the ris box. I know there has to be a way to work it.

As a future sys admin I would like to be able to deploy our computers at a fast rate and not hae to keep installing drivers and software over and over. Why not automate it.

dynamik

I'm not too familiar with RIS, but you're probably missing these options on your DHCP server: DHCP Scope Options for a RIS Server

Is there a reason you're not using WDS? It's the way of the future

The only time I still use RIS is for our break/fix department for clean installs of legacy OSes. You can do that with WDS as well, but it looks like it's a PITA to get working, and it's really not worth my time. Even with legacy OSes, you can still use WDS to make an image, so RIS (or a CD) would only have to be used for the first installation of that configuration.

t3ch_guru

I would love to implement wds especially since we mainly using 08 servers. i think we have like maybe 1-2 03 server everything else is running 64bit server 08. I am just following what my IT director want. We are also using GSS+RIS. I mean i guess since we have ghost he wants to temporarily use it. Then I could start using wds since it replaced ris.

Also regarding the link you sent I remember we did those settings and it was still acting up.

Claymoore

It's been about 4 years since I set RIS + Ghost, but I'll try to help.

1. You create the Ghost Boot disk for RIS using the Ghost console then you add a new OS installation/image/whatever to RIS and select the Ghost RIS disk file you created earlier. The RIS PXE menu will list both a server 2003 and Ghost installation option automatically after that I think. This link may help:
Using RIS with Ghost

2. Make sure you authorize the RIS server in DHCP.
How To Use Remote Installation Service to Install Windows Server 2003 on Remote Computers

One thing I do remember is that the Ghost + RIS option does create an account for each computer in AD (separate from the account that sysprep will create for the PC when it joins the domain), but Ghost can only count up to 99. Once you reach account Ghost99 (or whatever Ghost names them) you will need to delete the computer accounts in order to keep ghosting PCs.

I set this up to Ghost PCs at a new office that did not have connectivity to our old office. It was a stand-alone DC and separate domain on one server whose sole function was to image PCs. We kept it around on a separate switch after the move so that I did not have to mess with multicasting on our production network. A couple of years later I needed to move the Ghost server function to our production network to support a mass desktop deployment upgrade, but I had installed 2003 SP2 and now had WDS instead of RIS. I spent about a week learing and configuring WDS, recreated our ghost images as .wims, created a custom boot image with scripts to automate the whole process, and got rid of Ghost completely.

t3ch_guru

Our RIS is tied to DHCP. There I can turn off the DHCP service on the RIS server and it shoudl work correct? Also you know when you look at the DHCP optioon 60,66,67.

We edited them like some places said they had to do. So:

60: PXEClient
66: <ip address>
67: startrom.com
for option 67 do you need to be more exact and say "OSchooser\i386\startrom.com"?

We have it without pointing to the direct but just "startrom.com"

dynamik

I just did this the other day, and I used the full path for option 67. I'm not sure if that's necessary or not, but that worked for me.

t3ch_guru

I am at work and I tried it and now it is working. I guess you have to tell it where it is at. Well I learned some things. Thanks guys

blargoe

There is no reason why you can't use WDS, you can download and install it on 2003 or use what comes with 2008. It's backwards compatible with RIS.