DEP-Automated Deployment Services (ADS)
Description
Automated Deployment Services (ADS) is add-on to Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition providing a solution for rapidly deploying Windows server operating systems onto bare-metal servers across large, scaled-out installations. With support for script-based mass server administration, ADS also enables administrators to administer hundreds of servers as if they were one
Scoping the Issue
Questions to help narrow down the issue:
Where are you having an issue?
· PXE booting. DHCP or TFTP errors. (before getting into Deployment Agent(DA)/WINPE Agent)
· Inside the DA/WINPE. Network card driver issue or disk issue
· Are you having a problem with a specific task Sequence
· Boot to DA
· Boot to HD
· Boot to WINPE
· Capture image
· DA-Deploy image
· Winpe-Deploy image
· Reboot
· Connecting to device in DA or post setup using administrative agent(AA). IE the device shows up in disconnected state
· Running task sequences post setup
Is multicast enabled for your image deployment?
Is the device on the same subnet as the controller?
Does the issue reproduce only when on remote subnet?
Do you have IP helper table entries configured for the ADS controller?
What operating system are you deploying?
Are you running ADS 1.1?
What service pack is applied to the ADS controller?
Are you booting Deployment Agent (DA) or WINPE?
Are you using one of the built in task sequences or a customized task sequence?
Does the issue reproduce if you use a built in task sequence that has not been modified?
How many network cards present on the controller?
Is the problem specific to a device or all devices?
What type of network card is in the device?
Are you having an issue with VSMT?
Data Gathering
To troubleshoot ADS issues gather the following information:
· Exact error message you are receiving
· IP Address of ADS Controller
· IP Address of DHCP Server
· IP Address of device
· MAC address of device
· Event logs of ADS controller
· History output of jobs you have run from ADS console
· Any custom task sequences being used
Troubleshooting / Resolution
ADS 1.0 is unsupported. Use 1.1
Make sure that devices are set to boot PXE first
Make sure the device and controller are set to the correct date/time. ADS requires that the date/time be correct
Make sure the AA is installed on each device. Any event log errors for the AA service
If you are having a issue with VSMT it is recomended to use the evaluation version of SCVMM to do P2V'S instead
If you are running SP2 on your controller make sure you have the following update installed
937088 Image deployment fails when you try to deploy an image by using the Boot-to-da.xml template in ADS after you install Windows Server 2003 SP2