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Making WinPE Wait for Network in LTI Deployments

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In some environments, network device drivers and/or infrastructure take longer to load than WinPE waits before running the task sequence. This can be due to congested DHCP scopes, link negotiation latency or slow loading network drivers. In these cases, it is necessary to delay the start of the task sequence until a valid IP address is obtained otherwise the task sequence will fail.

In order to do this, you can create a script that will wait for a valid IP address before continuing on with the LiteTouch Wizard. The LiteTouch Wizard is launched using a RunSynchronous command in the Unattend.xml file for WinPE. MDT obtains this file from %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit\Templates folder. Here are instructions for doing this with MDT 2008 and an x86 Boot Image (UPDATE : MDT 2010 includes a wait by default) :

1. Navigate to %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit\Templates and rename the Unattend_PE_x86.xml file to Unattend_PE_x86.old

2. Copy the attached Unattend_PE_x86.xml file to %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit\Templates .

3. Navigate to your Distribution Share and copy the attached WinPEFiles folder there.

4. Navigate to the WinPEFiles\Windows\System32 edit the file “WaitForIP.bat” replace <SERVERNAME> with the name of your WDS Server.

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5. In the Deployment Workbench , navigate to the Deploy Node and right click on the LAB deploy point and choose Properties.

6. In the Windows PE tab under extra directory to add and Browse to the WinPEFiles folder created in step 3. Note: navigate to the WinPEFiles and not any of the sub directories. Click OK to apply the change.

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7. In the Deployment Workbench , right click on the LAB Deploy point and choose “Update”

This post was contributed by Aly Shivji a consultant with Microsoft Services - U.S. East Region.

Disclaimer: The information on this site is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, confers no rights, and is not supported by the authors or Microsoft Corporation. Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified in the Terms of Use .

WaitForNetwork.zip

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I'm facing a similar issue as above and it is only with Windows XP that this issue is surfacing. Not with Windows 7 or Vista. Need help! :)

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Yes this is only for MDT 2008 - MDT 2010 includes a wait for IP by default. However you could perform other actions in the batch file such as checking for appropriate DHCP addresses, network connections, shares to become active, etc you could use the sme methodology.

  • Anonymous
    October 05, 2009
    So is this primarily intended for MDT 2008?

  • Anonymous
    October 10, 2009
    Good question Tony.  The screen shot is from 2010.  If "MDT 2010 includes a wait by default", what is being addressed?  

  • Anonymous
    December 29, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 22, 2010
    This is because u are using AIK tool of windows 7 and it is not compatibel with xp

  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2011
    Hello. Where in MDT Update is the batch file that is waiting for the network? I have upgrade to MDT 2010 update1 and have the same issue with the task sequence starting before i have a network ip address.