Microsoft KB Archive/822516

= Considerations That Apply When You Deploy Multiple Operating System Images by Using Automated Deployment Services =

Article ID: 822516

Article Last Modified on 10/26/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
 * Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit x86)
 * Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition
 * Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition (32-bit x86)

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SUMMARY
This article discusses some considerations that apply when you deploy multiple operating system images by using Automated Deployment Services (ADS). It contains information about using ADS to deploy multiple images one at a time in sequential order and about using ADS to deploy images more than one at the same time in parallel order.



MORE INFORMATION
When you use ADS to deploy different operating system images to multiple devices, you may find that ADS performs these jobs in sequential order instead of performing them at the same time.

For example, consider the following:
 * You have two devices where you want ADS to deploy images.

-and-
 * You want each device to perform different roles so you must deploy a different image to each device.

-but-
 * When you examine the details of each operation, you find that while one device is actively downloading the image. The other device appears to be in a wait state or appears to stop responding.

You find that when the download of the image to the first device is complete, the download of the image to the second device starts.

This is expected behavior when you deploy multiple operating system images by using ADS. 

MORE INFORMATION
The component of ADS that deploys the images is the Image Distribution Service (IDS). If you want to deploy the same image to multiple devices at the same time, and each device will receive the same image, you must have more than one network adapter and you must create an ADS set. A set contains all the devices that will receive the image and can be compared to a User group in a domain. However, the same rules still apply: IDS will only deploy one image at a time for each network adapter. If you try to deploy images to two different ADS sets at the same time, IDS deploys one image to the devices, and then it queues the other request until the first one completes. When you deploy an image to a single device, it is deployed through unicast. When you deploy an image to an ADS set, it is deployed through multicast. IDS can adjust the network bandwidth that is used during the multicast imaging transmissions.

For more information about how to create and work with ADS sets, review the documentation that comes with ADS.

