Sidebar: Pre-staging a Client

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Pre-staging a client computer can help to make your WDS deployment solution more secure. Not just any client can deploy an image from your WDS server—only the clients you've pre-staged. Follow these steps to pre-stage a client computer:

1. From a domain controller, open the Active Directory Users and Computer snap-in from Server Manager or from the Start menu under Administrative Tools, Active Directory Users and Computers.

2. Right-click the Container or Organizational Unit where you want to create the new computer object then choose New, Computer, and click Next.

2. Give the computer a name (I named mine Bldg7Fl3MarketingVP)  then click Next.

3. On the Managed page, select the This is a managed computer check box and type either the GUID or MAC address. If you're using a MAC address, there are two rules: No dashes allowed and this field requires 32 characters. A MAC address is only 12 characters, so you'll need to add 20 zeros in front of the MAC address. Don't bother counting—just type the MAC address and add zeros until the Next button turns blackthen click Next.

4. The Host server page allows you to direct the client to Any available remote installation server or to choose a specific WDS server by selecting The following remote installation server (I know it says remote installation server, but it means WDS) and typing a WDS server's hostname. I chose to direct this client to a WDS server named 2K8Srv, as Figure 4 shows, and clicked Next. Finding a WDS server is performed by broadcast traffic, so if you have two WDS servers on a single subnet and want to split the traffic between the servers, this is how you do it.

5. The New Object - Computer page lets you review your settings. If everything looks good, click Finish.

You can also pre-stage a client from the command line. On the WDS server, open an elevated command prompt by right-clicking the command prompt (on the Start menu under All Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt) and selecting Run as administrator. Type the following command to create a computer object in ADUCs Computers container and pre-stage it:

WDSUtil /Add-Device /Device:Computer Name /ID:GUID or MAC.

So to pre-stage the same computer I did in ADUC, I'd use

WDSUtil /Add-Device /Device: Bldg7Fl3MarketingVP /ID:00000000000000000000005056C00008