Instead, see the Installing Clients with the Remote Install System.
The preferred method to install a Windows machine into win.mit.edu, or WIN, is to perform a fresh installation of the machine using the Remote Installation Service, RIS. It is important to remember that MIT does not have a site license for all Windows Operating Systems and users. Container Administrators must each keep track of our licenses, and make sure we have a CALs per machine. For OS licensing, please see Volume and Licensing, MIT/Windows. For CALS (ordering info from May, 2003), visit the GovConnection Catalog, either departmental or personal, and find the Microsoft Select product named "Acad. Select Windows Server 2003 per Device Client," Catalog Item #440472.
Q: What is RIS?
Q: May I have the username and password required to perform a Remote Installation of Windows?
Q: Which network adapters are supported by the RIS boot floppy?
Q: Can I remotely install Windows without having my drive reformatted during the process?
Q: Can I remotely install my laptop?
Q: Can I remotely install Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server or Server 2003 at MIT?
Q: What PXE Bios versions are supported at MIT?
Q: Once I RIS, even though I remove the floppy, the Client Installation Wizard begins again.
Q: Can I join the MIT Windows 2000 Domain without performing a RIS install?
Q: How do I add a user's Athena account to local admin group?
Q: How do I rename a WIN machine?
Q: Are you aware of any other common problems?
Q: Does PXE/RIS work on every MIT subnet?
Q: I hear about an XP and other "advanced" images. Do these exist and if so, how do I find one?
A: RIS (Remote Installation Service) is Microsoft feature that enables Windows 2000 or XP Professional to be installed onto a machine over the network. The technology uses a combination of DHCP, PXE, TFTP, NTLM, and CIFS to install a new image of Windows onto a machine. During the process the client machine drive is reformatted and the machine is joined to the Windows 2000 Domain. All of this happens with a minimum of human interaction.
Q: May I have the username and password required to perform a Remote Installation of Windows?
A: Yes, provided you have the privilege, see win.mit.edu RIS or Join Computer page.
In the past we tried to control the growth of the Windows 2000 Domain. The domain was still in its early stages of deployment, not a mature environment, and the old user name and password was not given out lightly. Therefore, if you know the user name / password for the RIS service you should not pass it on to others, and expect it to disappear at any time.
There are also licensing concerns. MIT does not have a site license for Windows. The RIS service must not be abused and used as a method to freely distribute illegal copies of Windows to machines on the MIT campus. For more information about Windows 2000 licensing at MIT please see, Volume and Site Licensing, MIT/Windows.
Q: Which network adapters are supported by the RIS boot floppy?
A: Only a limited set of adapters are supported by the boot floppy. You cannot add additional network adapters to the RIS Boot disk. Microsoft adds additional network adapters over time and makes the updates in the Rbfg.exe tool available through normal distribution channels, such as the Web, Windows Update, and future service pack or feature pack updates.
The following list contains the supported network adapters on the current boot floppy:
Many computers being shipped today come with support for a network remote installation in the BIOS. If your machine is not supported by the boot floppy, you may be able to use this built in capability. Read your system documentation for more information.
New Drivers
As of Summer, 2002, some OEM Drivers have been added to the default RIS image to support IBM IntelliStations, Intel Pro 100 VE and PRO 1000MT NIC's. RIS installations can be performed on the IBM IntelliStations via PXE boot ROM and do not require a floppy disk.
Intel Pro 100 VE
When text mode setup began under the default RIS, it did not detect the Intel Pro 100 VE integrated adapter in the IBM IntelliStation. See Microsoft articles Q254078 and Q315074 for more information. We obtained a new .inf file from Intel, and together with information in http://support.intel.com/support/network/adapter/pro100/pro100ve/tti007.htm, which indicated that MS driver e100bnt5.sy_ be removed from the i386 directory of the RIS image, we now support a RIS install on the IntelliStation.
PRO 1000MT
Intel's documents recommend checking standard .inf files for subdirectories referenced which are not properly parsed by RIS. This was found to be the case with the PRO 1000MT and an updated .inf file has been included in the default RIS image to correct this.
If you find that these drives may be causing problems during your RIS installation, a generic image is available via the advanced RIS interface by choosing the Pismere Workstation v0.1.0 (SP2) image.
Q: Can I remotely install Windows without having my drive reformatted during the process?
A: Not at this time. The current RIS process always reformats the hard disk and all existing data on the hard disk is destroyed. This is a feature of RIS as delivered by Microsoft.
Q: Can I remotely install my laptop?
A: Unlikely at this time, although some docking stations and a few 2003-era laptops may net-install. Only a limited set of adapters are supported by the boot floppy. You cannot add additional network adapters to the RIS Boot disk. Microsoft adds additional network adapters over time and makes the updates in the Rbfg.exe tool available through normal distribution channels, such as the Web, Windows Update, and future service pack or feature pack updates.
Many desktop computers being shipped today come with support for a network remote installation in the BIOS. If your machine is not supported by the boot floppy, you may be able to use this built in capability. Read your system documentation for more information.
Laptops with support were expected to start shipping during Q3 of 2001. Some laptops with docking stations may already work today. It appeared that the Sony PCG-R505TSK wwould support net booting when attached to its docking station. However, that docking station was not available to most customers as of April 30, 2001.
See the list of currently supported NICs for more information.
Q: Can I remotely install Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server or Server 2003 at MIT?
A: Not today. This feature is not supported by Microsoft.
Q: I am trying to remotely install a WIN machine and I get the following error message when I boot from the RIS boot floppy:
Windows 2000 Remote Installation Boot Floppy
(C) Copyright 1999 Lanworks Technologies Co. a subsidiary of 3Com
Corporation
All rights reserved.
3Com 3C90XB / 3C90XC EtherLink PCI
UNDI Initialize failed, no media detected.
Press a key to reboot system.
A: At this time there is only one Microsoft Knowledge Base article on the subject, Q252946.
In most cases this error means that no network adapter is detected in the computer, or the network cable has been unplugged from the machine. Check the network adapter, cable, cable type, and so on. Also check the computer's BIOS settings to make sure that the network adapter is enabled (if the network adapter is of the onboard type).
Even if the adapter and cable are OK, you still might encounter a problem. Only a limited set of adapters are supported by the boot floppy. You cannot add additional network adapters to the RIS Boot disk. Microsoft adds additional network adapters over time and makes the updates in the Rbfg.exe tool available through normal distribution channels, such as the Web, Windows Update, and future service pack or feature pack updates.
See the list of currently supported NICs for more information.
Many computers being shipped today come with support for a network remote installation in the BIOS. If your machine is not supported by the boot floppy, you may be able to use this built in capability. Read your system documentation for more information.
Try to determine what version of PXE your system supports. When the Net PC or client computer containing a remote boot ROM starts, the version of the PXE ROM appears on the screen. MIT does not currently support all PXE clients, in particular those that predate version 1.0 of the specification. However, we believe that in most cases MIT supports .99n or greater PXE ROMs. You may be required to obtain a newer version of the PXE-based ROM code from your original equipment manufacturer (OEM) if you have problems with the existing ROM version installed on a client computer.
According to Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q244454:
If a client computer has revision .99j of the PXE boot ROM and is referred to another RIS server that is located across a router, the client cannot contact that RIS server. This prevents you from receiving the prompt to press F12 to perform the remote installation. To resolve this issue, contact the manufacturer of your network adapter or computer and obtain an updated version of the PXE boot ROM. At the time this article was written, revision .99N was known not to cause this problem.
Another useful reference for advanced users may be the Microsoft page, "Troubleshooting Remote Installation Services."
If your machine is a Dell GX1, 150 or other machine with a 3Com-compatible network interface, which used to have a LinuxAthena installation, the Etherboot install did not properly initialize your NIC, and left it in an unusable state.
If you are a UNIX user, use dd
/mit/bootkit/rhlinux/etherfix.img to a floppy to get a
stand-alone DOS boot floppy containing the magic fixup program,
3c90xcfg; run 3c90xcfg and tell it to configure the NIC with an
autoconfig, and then to save the values to the eeprom.
If you are not a UNIX user, contact the UnixAthena team. The team can provide a the DOS-floppy-based fix to reset your NIC.
Q: I am trying to remotely install a WIN machine and I see "Error loading operating system." after the RIS process copies files.
A: This has been seen with "Dell Dynamic Drive Overlay, On Track v9.52." A related symptom is a blue screen of death during a plain Windows 2000 install with the message, "STOP...Unexpected kernel mode trap" after loading files.
In general, if a machine hangs during an RIS install, either just before switching to the GUI portion of the process, or generates a blue screen of death, check the partitions on the disk.
The Dell Dynamic Driver Overlay software and associated partitions should be removed, with prejudice, from any machines before attempting an installation on Windows 2000. Once this is done RIS or any other installation method should work just fine.
This occured on drives that were not the original drives shipped with the machines, but warranty replacement drives to replace busted disks. One would guess that Dell sometimes replaced drives which do not have Dynamic Drive Overlay and partitions on them with drives that do.
When an RIS installation has failed, the user should look very carefully at exactly what is appearing on the screen when the installation process stops. If the screen has any mention of "ONTRACK" or "Dynamic Drive Overlay" it should be a clear indication that the existing partitions on the drive need to be completely removed before a successful installation can take place. If the string "Partion Magic" appears on the screen a further investigation may need to be done.
Q: I am reinstalling a machine that is in the domain. Once I provide the RIS username and password and go past the computer-name screen, I get the following warning:
The server RIN has detected duplicate GUIDs...
machine_name
It offers to let me "continue and clean up later." When I select that, I get an error complaining that an existing computer account is found.
A: The machine is still in Active Directory. We automate the process using a web form named Delete a machine from Active Directory that removes the machine from the AD preparatory to rejoining the computer to its container. If you have trouble with it, please send mail to pismere-ops with your machine_name.
Q: What PXE Bios versions are supported at MIT?
A: MIT does not currently support all PXE clients, in particular those that predate version 1.0 of the specification. However, we believe that in most cases MIT supports .99n or greater PXE ROMs. You may be required to obtain a newer version of the PXE-based ROM code from your original equipment manufacturer (OEM) if you have problems with the existing ROM version installed on a client computer.
Try to determine what version of PXE your system supports. When the Net PC or client computer containing a remote boot ROM starts, the version of the PXE ROM appears on the screen.
Q: Once I RIS, even though I remove the floppy, the Client Installation Wizard begins again.
A: Make sure your BIOS is not set to boot from the network. The actual setting depends on your BIOS, but you might see a boot device setting like "NIC=On," which you should change to "PXE Off."
Q: Can I join the MIT Windows 2000 Domain without performing a RIS install?
A: Yes, while we did not orginally intend to enable this, and cannot claim to entirely support it, follow these steps (on W2K, this may change with later OSs):
Q: How do I add a user's Athena account to local admin group?
A: Provided one already has a local admin account, here is the procedure (on W2K, this may change with later OSs) to add a users Athena account to local admin group:
username@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (the caps are important).
Now when you log into this machine with your Athena account, you should be a local administrator. You will be able to install software, etc.
Q: How do I rename a WIN machine?
A: Here is a procedure to rename a WIN machine, a bit complicated, so be careful to follow instructions in order:
hostinfo
machine_name" where machine_name is the selected hostname.
(Alternative lookups are referenced from the IS Host Names
at MIT page.) If Moira comes back with the host information, then
the host name is taken; you must choose and try another. Otherwise,
if the reply is akin to "No such host 'machine_name'" then you can use
that name.
net-help@mit.edu requesting the
proposed hostname change and include the IP address plus old and new
hostnames.
net-help that the change was made, final propagation to
DNS tables may take twenty-four hours, so verify the change (as above)
before proceeding.
administrator" in
the "User name:" field, typing the local admin password, and selecting
the "machine_name (this computer)" in the drop down list at the "Log
on to:" field.
Q: Are you aware of any other common problems?
A: Common Problems
When the RIS process gets to the point of formatting the disk/partition, if the pre-RIS setup of the machine was using FAT32, it may fail. In this case, you will have to remove the partition in order for RIS to succeed.
If the RIS build fails repeatedly while copying files from the server to the workstation, complaining about file not found errors, try changing the memory in the computer.
Q: Does PXE/RIS work on every MIT subnet?
A: No. In the future it will be supported on all subnets that are managed by MIT IS. At this time, the service gets enabled one subnet at a time. To request that PXE be enabled on a specific subnet please use the PXE web form.
Q: I hear about an XP and other "advanced" images. Do these exist and if so, how do I find one?
A: Yes, there is a way to get a non-default RIS image, as you may notice with newly-revised RIS screens. On the first RIS Client Installation Wizard Screen, hit F1 for the "Interface Picker." That brings up a list of categories - "Default," "Advanced" and "Test" images. Select Advanced and hit Enter. You used to then see the first screen again and needed to hit Enter again, but that now should be circumvented. On the host info page, once you put in the usual information, you will see the advanced interface list where you will be able to select from multiple images. Each of these images is under frequent development, so use them advisedly.
Last modified 20 Aug, 2003. Send mail or suggestions