RIS, Remote Installation Services is a

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

-supplied server that allows PXE BIOS-enabled computers to remotely execute boot environment variables. These variables are likely computers that are on a company's (or that company's client's) network. RIS is used to create installation images of operating systems or computer configurations, which can be used to demonstrate the installation process to users whose machines have been granted access to the RIS server. This eliminates the need to use a CD-ROM for installing an operating system.

Background

At boot time, a workstation that has been set to boot from PXE will issue a

BOOTP The Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP) is a computer networking protocol used in Internet Protocol networks to automatically assign an IP address to network devices from a configuration server. The BOOTP was originally defined in RFC 951. While some part ...

request via the network. Once the request is received, the DHCP Server will supply an

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...

to the machine, and the DNS server will point the client computer to the RIS server, which in turn will issue a disc boot image (often called the "OS Chooser"). Once the OS Chooser environment has been booted, the user must authenticate against the Domain Controller, and can then select a Windows image to install. The source files for each image can be customized with 3rd party utilities such as nLite to slipstream updates and service packs, apply tweaks, perform unattended installations, and include software with the operating system.

History

Remote Installation Services was introduced with

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, and was officiall ...

as an optional component when installed on Windows 2000 Server. Initially, it supported only the distribution of Windows 2000 Professional, but with Service Pack 3 allowed for the remote installation of

Windows 2000 Server Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, and was officiall ...

. RIS was updated twice; once to support

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...

, and again to support

Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2003 is the sixth version of Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows NT family of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on March 28, 2003 and generally available on April 24, 2 ...

. With the release of Service Pack 2 for Windows Server 2003, RIS was replaced with Windows Deployment Services.

Overview

On Windows 2003, two services are required to provide Remote Installation Services:

DHCP The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network management protocol used on Internet Protocol (IP) networks for automatically assigning IP addresses and other communication parameters to devices connected to the network using a cli ...

and Remote Installation Service. The Remote Installation Server doubles as a proxy DHCP server to provide Boot Server and File name instructions to clients. Remote Installation Service utilizes UDP port 4011Service overview and network port requirements for the Windows Server system
Microsoft Inc. to provide clients the contents of each page the OS Chooser displays. Additionally, this service can provide drivers to clients; it is often used to provide the workstation's network card driver, which is required to launch the OS Chooser and mount the share where images are stored.

Installation Using RIS

RIS can be used only for clean installations and cannot be used to upgrade a previous version of Windows. A RIPrep image can contain the operating system and applications. Computers that are connected to the same network as the server, and have been enabled, automatically start the RIS sequence. This process can be automated through what is called Remote Replication. Remote replication allows installations to be sent to a designated network share at a remote office, which can then be run by any system at that location. This allows servers to run the install automatically, eliminating the need for dedicated hardware or personnel at each facility. The primary benefit of remote replication is reduced cost and complexity of managing multi-site organizations.

References

External links

*Windows 2000 RIS Step-by-Step Gmango
RIS and Windows 98
Using Windows 2000 Remote Installation Service to Deploy Windows 98
BINL protocol explained
{{Windows Components Windows components