• Managing a Server Remotely
  
  
• Avoiding IP Address Conflicts
  
  
• Testing by Using Virtual Computers
  
  
• Versions of the Management Tools to Use with RIS and Windows Deployment Services
  
  

  Note

  When performing Pre-Boot Execution Environment (PXE) referrals in an environment that includes Windows Deployment Services and RIS, the Windows Deployment Services server must answer PXE requests and perform referrals. If a RIS server attempts to refer a client computer to a Windows Deployment Services server that is running in Mixed mode or Native mode, the client computer will receive an incorrect network boot program, which may cause the client to fail to boot.

In addition to running Windows Deployment Services locally, you can also manage Windows Deployment Services remotely using the following methods.

When two servers select the same multicast IP address to send content to, content intended for clients of either server can be routed to all clients. This causes unnecessary network traffic. Note also that this is particularly harmful if the servers are connected by a low-bandwidth connection (such as a wide area network (WAN) link), because both sets of content will be sent over this connection. The following are preventive measures that you should take to avoid this situation:

• Use a Multicast Address Dynamic Client Allocation Protocol (MADCAP) server to allocate multicast IP addresses. This will prevent addresses from being assigned twice.
  
  
• Configure a static range for each server, making sure that this range does not overlap with the ranges defined for other servers.
  
  
• Lower the multicast Time-To-Live (TTL) setting to prevent the routers from forwarding multicast traffic outside the site network. You can also configure your border router not to forward multicast traffic.
  
  

To modify these options, right-click the server in the MMC snap-in, click Properties, and then click the Network Settings tab.

Windows Deployment Services should work on virtual computers, but note that the performance will often be degraded, particularly during the Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) download phase. This phase is very resource-intensive and may fail if insufficient resources are available on the host computer. Also, performing a PXE boot on a virtual computer or virtual server can take 20 minutes or longer when you are using Windows Deployment Services. To resolve this, we recommend that you use a discover image instead of PXE in the BIOS of the virtual computer. In addition, we recommend that you use virtual computers for either client computers or servers, but not both.

There are three server configurations that you may need to manage in a production environment, and each of them has a different set of management tools. The following table lists these server configurations and the versions of the management tools that are included for each of them. Note that I indicates version 1, and II indicates version 2.

The Windows Deployment Services management tools enable you to manage a remote server. Note, however, that there are some restrictions regarding which versions of the tools will work on which server versions. The following table lists the seven possible configurations and the versions of the tools that you should use with each environment. Essentially, you should use the latest available version of each tool. For example, see the sixth row in the table: if you have servers running the 2003 and 2008 versions of Windows Deployment Services, you should use RISETUP (II), RIPREP (II), WDSUTIL (II), and WDSMMC (II)

	Note
	You cannot manage a Windows Deployment Services server running Windows Server 2008 from a Windows Deployment Services server running Windows Server 2003.