Remote Installation Services

[Ricardo Zapato]

I work on a network at a church, and for a church it's a decently advanced. We have three server machines: the first being our AD DC with DHCP, the second being the server for user files, and the third (freshly made) being an exachange server and remote installation services server. The first server is running Windows 2000 while the rest run Windows 2003 Standard Server.

I have installed RIS on this third server, and that's about as far as I can get. When trying to boot with the boot disk it just pops up saying that there was "No reply from a server."

Any ideas on what could be causing this problem? I know that DHCP is working just fine for other computers, and I have tested this in two computers thus far, both to no avail.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

-Ricardo.

[Jon Finley]

If you haven't gone through MS's step guide, this would be a good place to start:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/howto/remoteos.mspx

Also:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/deploy/depopt/remoteos.mspx

Last comment... 2003 Server has LOTS of things turned off and or blocked by the default security policy. You're probably going to find that it's something simple to turn on, that was on by default under 2000 Server.

Jon

[Ricardo Zapato]

I've gone through both those sites and I'm wondering... is it bad that under AD under the properties for the RIS Server I do not have the Remote Install tab?

I just went through DNS by chance and noticed two records going to this server (it has dual gigabit nics in a bridge), and I deleted the non-necessary pointer. That might have some effect, won't know until I test it on Thursday.

Thanks for any more help :).

[Rune J. Winje]

Installing DHCP on a Domain Controller is not recommended for security reasons.

If the DHCP server is a member of the DNSUpdateProxy group and installed on a DC all SRV, A and CNAME records registered by the Netlogon service on the DC will not be secure. Likewise the use of secure dynamic updates can be compromised when DHCP is installed on a DC. To avoid this problem install DHCP on a member server.

Back to RIS, the main point is that the RIS server needs to be authorized as a DHCP server. Without this it will not respond to clients.
(I assume DNS is OK because of Exchange and I assume RIS itself has been installed OK with dedicated SIS volume etc...)

If you have changed/removed NICs do a right-click->Repair on the remaining NIC or alternatively a netdiag /fix

Other links:
PXE Client Receives a "No Reply From Server" Error During RIS Server Discovery
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;284987
Cannot Remotely Administer the Remote Installation Service
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;247592
PXE Client with Revision .99j Boot ROM May Not Be Able to Contact RIS Server
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;244454



Cheers,
Rune

[Ricardo Zapato]

Removing the extra pointers in DNS fixed the problem, works great now.

Thanks for all the help :)