WDS Error – PXE-E55(…) port 4011

I’ve always tested WDS and MDT using VMware Workstation software.
For those familiarzed with this software, it enables you like Virtual PC or Virtual Server to run Virtual Machines inside your’s. Like for example running a Linux distro, an beta version of Windows. It’s like a sandbox for you to play with.

Today I had to install WDS and MDT on a phisical Server (HP ML310 G4) and tried to PXE boot a desktop (HP DC7800 SFF). After hitting F12 for network boot I’ve got stuck on an error never seen before:

PXE-E55: proxyDHCP service did not reply to the request on port 4011

After some googling I found out the solution and the cause of if.
VMWare has a DHCP server so you don’t need to install it on any machine (the WDS machine for example).
In the case of this phisical server, I had to install WDS and a DHCP Server on Windows 2008.
In this case, for this to work you need to:

- On the WDS+DHCP machine, open registry editor and navigate to:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WDSServer\Providers\WDSPXE and change the value to UseDHCPPorts=0

- Then, open the command-prompt and execute the following command:
WDSUTIL /Set-Server /UseDHCPPorts:No /DHCPOption60:Yes

And everything starts to work pretty well then!

MDT Wizard Editor – Reading Minds!

I have been testing all BDD and MDT beta versios, since they were available via Microsft Connect website. I’ve also watched with great surprise, and excitement a lot of webcast about Vista deployment.
And since the fist time, I’ve always felt that the deployment team at Microsoft, was really reading the minds of a lot of system administrators/deployment people.

Almost everything you wished to had, while creating an Windows XP deployment, you now have when creating a Windows Vista deployment.
And the Microsoft Deployment Team did it again! 

This time, Microsoft has release via Codeplex website the: Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) Wizard Editor!
This is steel on beta version but this tool, makes it able to change the contents of the XML/HTML files that appear during the WinPE phase.

So go on, visit and help the development of this great tool!
http://www.codeplex.com/MDTWizardEditor