Event ID 263 — Image Server Configuration

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

For the boot and install images to be available, the Windows Deployment Services image server must be configured and initialized correctly. The image server stores configuration information in the registry and in Active Directory Domain Services.

Event Details

Resolve

Ensure that the Image Server can read settings from Active Directory.

The Windows Deployment Services image server must be able to read configuration settings from the registry and from Active Directory. To resolve this issue, ensure that the registry is not corrupt and that the image server has the required permissions to read data from the registry and from Active Directory Domain Services.

To resolve this problem, do the following in the specified order:

• Ensure that the registry data is not corrupt.
• Ensure that the domain controller is reachable.
• Ensure that the Windows Deployment Services server has network connectivity.
• Ensure that the machine account has sufficient permissions.

Ensure that the registry data is not corrupt

Caution: Incorrectly editing the registry might severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data.

To perform these procedures, you must either be a member of the local Administrators group or have been delegated the appropriate authority.

To ensure that the registry data and permissions are correct:

1. Open Registry Editor. (Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.)
2. Ensure that the WDSIMGSRV registry key exists in the following location:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WDSServer\Providers\WdsImgSrv.
3. If the WDSIMGSRV key does exist in the specified location, make sure that it has permission to read from the registry. To do this, right-click the WDSServer node, click Permissions, click SYSTEM, and then make sure that Full Control is selected.
4. If the key is missing or corrupt, you should reinitialize the server. To do this, run wdsutil /uninitialize-server at the command prompt, and then run wdsutil /initialize-server /reminst:<path to RemoteInstall folder>.

If this data is correct, use the procedure in the following section to ensure that the domain controller is reachable.

Ensure that the domain controller is reachable

To perform these procedures, you must either be a member of the local Administrators group or have been delegated the appropriate authority.

To ensure that the domain controller is reachable:

1. Open the Command Prompt window.
2. Ping the domain controller by IP address.
3. If this command fails, ensure that:
   • The domain controller computer is turned on.
   • The Active Directory service is running and has network connectivity.
   • There is network connectivity. To do this, use the procedures in the following section.

Ensure that the Windows Deployment Services server has network connectivity

Note: The following procedures include steps for using the ping command to perform troubleshooting. Therefore, before performing these steps, determine whether the firewall settings or the Internet Protocol security (IPsec) settings on your network allow Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) traffic. ICMP is the TCP/IP protocol that the ping command uses.

To perform these procedures, you must either be a member of the local Administrators group or have been delegated the appropriate authority.

To determine whether there is a network connectivity problem:

1. On the Windows Deployment Services server, open the Command Prompt window.
2. At the command prompt, run ping <server FQDN>, where <server FQDN> is the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the domain controller (for example, server1.contoso.com).
3. At the command prompt, run ping <IP Address>, where <IP Address>  is the IP address of the domain controller.
4. Note the following:
   • If you can successfully ping the domain controller by IP address, but not by FQDN, this indicates a possible issue with DNS host name resolution.
   • If you cannot successfully ping the domain controller by IP address, this indicates a possible issue with network connectivity, the firewall configuration, or the IPsec configuration.

If necessary, you can perform the following additional steps to help identify the root cause of the problem:

• Ping other computers on the network to determine the extent of the connectivity issue.
• If you can ping other servers but not the domain controller, try to ping the domain controller from another computer. If you cannot ping the domain controller from any computer, first ensure that the domain controller is running. If the domain controller is running, check its network settings.
• Check the TCP/IP settings on the local computer by doing the following:
  1. Open the Command Prompt window, run the ipconfig /all command**,** and then ensure that the output is correct.
  2. Run ping localhost to verify that TCP/IP is installed and correctly configured on the local computer. If this command is unsuccessful, this may indicate a corrupt TCP/IP stack or a problem with your network adapter.
  3. Run ping <local IP address>.** **If you can ping the localhost address but not the local address, there may be an issue with the routing table or with the network adapter driver.
  4. Run ping <DNS server IP address>. If there is more than one DNS server on your network, you should ping each of them in turn. If you cannot ping the DNS servers, this indicates a potential problem with the DNS servers, or possibly a network problem between the computer and the DNS servers.
  5. If the domain controller is on a different subnet, try to ping the default gateway. If you cannot ping the default gateway, this might indicate a problem with the network adapter, the router or gateway device, the cabling, or other connectivity hardware.
• In Device Manager, check the status of the network adapter. (To open Device Manager, click Start, click Run, type devmgmt.msc, and then click OK. )
• Check the network connectivity indicator lights on the computer and at the hub or router. Check the network cabling.
• Check the firewall settings by using the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security snap-in.
• Check the IPsec settings by using the IP Security Policy Management snap-in.

If the preceding steps do not fix your issue, use the procedure in the following section to ensure that the machine account has sufficient permissions.

Ensure that the machine account has sufficient permissions

On the computer that contains Active Directory Domain Services, grant the machine account for the Windows Deployment Services server permissions to read its service control point (SCP).

To perform this procedure, you must either be a member of the local Domain Admins group or have been delegated the appropriate authority.

To grant permissions to the SCP object:

1. On the server that contains Active Directory Domain Services, open the Active Directory Users and Computers MMC Snap-in.
2. Click View, and then click Advanced Features (if it is not already enabled).
3. Right-click the Windows Deployment Services server’s computer account, and then click Properties.
4. On the Remote Install tab, click Advanced Settings.
5. On the Security tab, click SYSTEM, and then select Full Control on this object.

Verify

To perform this procedure, you must either be a member of the local Domain Admins group or have been delegated the appropriate authority.

To verify that the image server is working correctly:

1. Open the Command Prompt window.
2. To stop and restart the WDSServer service, run net stop wdsserver, run net start wdsserver at the command prompt.
3. Open Event Viewer. (Click Start, type Event Viewer in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER).
4. In the left pane, expand Custom Views, expand Server Roles, and then click Windows Deployment Services.
5. Click the Date and Time column heading to sort the events based on date and time.
6. Look for WDSIMGSRV event 256.

Related Management Information

Image Server Configuration

Windows Deployment Services