DHCP Configuration for Windows Deployment Services

I have Windows Deployment Services (WDS) currently running on one of my servers (within a domain of course). I have another machine running as a DHCP server, which is outside of the domain.

I don't seem to be able to find anywhere what settings I need to configure on the DHCP server in order for clients to find the WDS server. Google seems to continue to return results about running a DHCP server and a WDS server on the same machine (port conflicts, etc).

Solution 1:

open a netsh prompt:
dhcp server \\servername
add optiondef 60 PXEClient STRING 0 comment="Option added for PXE support"
set optionvalue 60 STRING PXEClient
set optionvalue 66 STRING WDS_SERVER_IP

Alternatively you can set options 66 and 67; but this will not use the PXE server, it will simply specify where to find the boot com file, and you will not get a menu of the different options specified in the WDS Console.

Solution 2:

You need to add Option 66, and Option 67 (Boot Server and Boot Filename).

Set the Boot IP to the IP address of the WDS server (if you specify a DNS server you can also use the hostname).

Set the Boot Filename to boot\x86\wdsnbp.com

A screenshot of our DHCP settings are below:

_{(source: 41085.org)}

See here for more information (look for Known issues with configuring Windows Deployment Services).

We are using Server 2008 WDS, which provides a GUI screen where you can select the image you want to install after the intial boot. I've never used earlier versions of WDS so I don't know how they operate.