If the WDS server has been provisioned with an answer file, the setup completes automatically. These computers locate the WDS server and begin the operating system setup process. The computers that are targets of the transmission boot using their PXE-compliant network adapters. The media access control (MAC) addresses of Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE)–compliant network adapters are made available to the WDS server. WDS also can use unicast transmissions.ĭeploying Windows Server through WDS involves performing the following steps:Īn operating system deployment transmission is prepared on the WDS server. When you use multicast transmissions, the same amount of traffic crosses the network independently of whether you are deploying an operating system to 1 computer or to 50. WDS can send these operating systems across the network using multicast transmissions, which means that multiple computers receive the same operating system image while minimizing the use of network bandwidth. WDS enables you to deploy operating systems, including Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2019, to computers over the network. Windows Deployment Services (WDS) is a server role that you can deploy on computers running Windows Server.