[perlabsrat]

I have a server running 2k8 and WDS so we can do PXE installs. I am wondering if there is a way to bypass the need for typing in the server name and a user/pass to logon.

We do not need the security in our lab and I would like the server to be open to anyone who hits it.

Currently we do the following steps:

Step1: User boots server
Step2: User hits F12 at 'Press f12 for network service' prompt
Step3: User selects X86 or X64 depending on preference
Step4: User chooses language, clicks NEXT and is then prompted for domain\user

Idealy I would like to not be prompted for the domain\user but even if all they had to do was hit enter at this screen would work.
Does anyone know if this is possible?

Thanks...

[fizban2]

if you prepare an unattend build you can add the Microsoft Windows Setup Component, here under WDS there is a section for Logon credentials for connection to the WDS server

[perlabsrat]

fizban2, on Apr 30 2009, 12:59 PM, said:

if you prepare an unattend build you can add the Microsoft Windows Setup Component, here under WDS there is a section for Logon credentials for connection to the WDS server

None of the installs are unatended, I need the uesrs to go through the manual steps of performing the install for the type of work we are doing. I am just looking for a hack to bypass the need to authenticate on the pxe/wds server before picking what OS to install.

Thanks.

[fizban2]

you don't have to unattend teh whole installation, your unattned file could have just the XML to provide credentials for logon to the WDS server

[perlabsrat]

fizban2, on Apr 30 2009, 04:04 PM, said:

you don't have to unattend teh whole installation, your unattned file could have just the XML to provide credentials for logon to the WDS server

Does the xml need to be injected in the wim images or is this a file that gets dropped somewhere on the server?

[fizban2]

on teh WDS server properties page there is a tab for unattended files for 32 bit, 64bit and IA64. You can set them up to run from there

[cluberti]

You could also use something like MDT 2008 to provide the deployment choices to the users, which allows you to put credentials into the configuration files on the server so the users never get prompted. Assuming you aren't using the credentials to provide a specific image or set of images to display to the users (which is all this is really for), then this might be the easiest way to go. It can be easily automated using config files too, so they only see the choices they need (it builds the unattend.xml file from these choices on the fly which then get applied to the image deployment).