Share via


Cannnot locate Windows Deployment Service

I recently encountered an issue where though "Windows Deployment Services" service was running, when I tried to access WDS mmc it failed with error "Cannnot locate Windows Deployment Service"

Checking event viewer I found there were error and warning as below (when tried to restart service (which restarted successfully)

Log Name:      Application
Source:        WDSIMGSRV
Date:          
Event ID:      258
Task Category: (1)
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      
Description:
The description for Event ID 258 from source WDSIMGSRV cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event: 

0x2


Log Name:      Application
Source:        WDSServer
Date:          
Event ID:      512
Task Category: WDSServer
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      
Description:
An error occurred while trying to initialize provider WdsImgSrv from C:\Windows\system32\WdsImgSrv.dll. Since this provider is not marked as critical, Windows Deployment Services server will  continue.
 
 Error Information: 0x2 


I looked for above errors on internet however, found nothing much.

When tried to initialize-server, it suggested "An error occurred while trying to execute the command.
Error Code: 0xC1030105
Error Description: The initial setup of Windows Deployment Services has already
been completed."

After lot of hit and try and searching for this behavior I found, uninitialize and then reinitialize actually fixed this issue (hope it would help someone else too)

C:\Windows\system32>wdsutil /uninitialize-server

Windows Deployment Services Management Utility [Version 6.1.7600.16385]
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

The command completed successfully.

C:\Windows\system32>wdsutil /initialize-server /reminst:"{D:\RemoteInstall}"

Windows Deployment Services Management Utility [Version 6.1.7600.16385]
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

The command completed successfully.