How can I do a full server recovery through PXE?

I have:

  • 8 servers in various Windows Server flavors (2008 R2, 2016, 2019)
  • A Windows Deployment Services (PXE) server setup and functioning well
  • Windows Server Backup on all servers, nightly backups to a NAS

OS deployment works great: just boot via PXE, select the OS that I want, and let it run.

And I can do bare metal recovery of any of the servers using the Windows install DVD.

But is there any way to simplify this by taking the physical Install Media out of it? What I want to do is boot via PXE, and do a complete bare metal recovery directly through WinPE, or some other minimal environment.

All of the docs for WDS walk you through adding "install only" install images to the WDS server, not the full install media with recovery support.


read here: https://www.vercot.com/~serva/an/WindowsPXE1.html

Note: I'm related to Serva development