Knowledge Base

Operating systems that you can deploy by using Automated Deployment Services or Remote Installation Services

Article ID: 842564

Article Last Modified on 11/5/2007

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard x64 Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition (32-Bit x86)
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition (32-bit x86)
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard x64 Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter x64 Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition for Itanium-based Systems
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition for Itanium-Based Systems
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit x86)
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition (32-bit x86)
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition (32-bit x86)
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Professional for Itanium-based systems
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server

INTRODUCTION

This article lists the Microsoft Windows operating systems that you can deploy by using Automated Deployment Services (ADS) or by using Remote Installation Services (RIS).

MORE INFORMATION

ADS

On a computer that is running Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition, or on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition, you can use Automated Deployment Services (ADS) to deploy the following operating systems:

Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server

Note ADS does not support deployment of Itanium-based images.

On a computer that is running Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition, or on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition, you can use ADS version 1.1 to deploy the following operating systems:

Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard x64 Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter x64 Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard x64 Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition

Note You can use the Winnt32.exe program from the Windows PE Agent to deploy x64-based Sysprep images or to initiate unattended setups.

RIS

Deploying Windows on a computer that is running Windows 2000 Server

On a computer that is running Windows 2000 Server, you can use Remote Installations Services (RIS) to deploy the following operating systems:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server

Deploying Windows XP Professional

We recommend that you use a computer that is running Windows Server 2003 and RIS to deploy Windows XP Professional. Although you can deploy Windows XP Professional by using a computer that is running Windows 2000 and RIS, you must install the two updates that are discussed in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

304314 How to deploy Windows XP images from Windows 2000 RIS servers

Deploying Windows 2000

You can use the Remote Installation Services (RIS) Setup Wizard (Risetup.exe) to create images of the following:

Windows 2000 Server-based operating systems
Windows 2000 Advanced Server-based operating systems

The ability to deploy images of these operating systems that were created by using Risetup.exe was added after the release of Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3). (Before SP3, Risetup.exe was designed to create only Windows 2000 Professional images.) Before you run Risetup.exe to create images of either of these kinds of operating systems, you must apply the hotfix that is described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

308508 Unable to create Windows 2000 Server image on RIS server

Note Installations of Windows 2000 Server that were created by using Remote Installation Preparation Wizard (Riprep.exe) are not supported. Only installations that are created by using Risetup.exe are supported.

Deploying Windows on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003

We recommend that you deploy Windows Server 2003 images from a Windows Server 2003 RIS server. You can use computers that are running Windows Server 2003 and RIS to deploy the following operating systems:

Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition
Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition for Itanium-based systems
Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition for Itanium-based systems
Windows XP Professional
Windows XP Professional 64-Bit Edition Version 2003
Windows 2000 Professional with SP3 or later service packs
Windows 2000 Server with SP3 or later service packs
Windows 2000 Advanced Server with SP3 or later service packs

Note When you use RIS to deploy Itanium-based versions of Windows, RIS supports only images that are created by using Risetup.exe. RIS does not support images that are created by using Riprep.exe.

Deploying Windows on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1

You can use computers that are running Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and RIS to deploy the following operating systems, in addition to the operating systems that are listed in the "Windows Server 2003" section:

Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard x64 Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter x64 Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

For more information about how to use RIS to deploy x64-based versions of Windows Server 2003, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

891128 Updated Remote Installation Service functionality in Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 and in x64-based versions of Windows Server 2003

REFERENCES

For more information, visit the following Microsoft Web sites:

Windows Server 2003 Automated Deployment Services
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/management/ads/default.mspx

Remote Operating System Installation
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Bb742501.aspx

Remote Installation Services and Automated Deployment Services Comparison
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/community/centers/management/table.mspx

For more information about how to deploy Windows XP images, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

304314 How to deploy Windows XP images from Windows 2000 RIS servers

For more information about how to deploy Windows 2000 images, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: