How to Install Windows Server 2008 R2 Using PXE

Before You Begin

Setup your WDS server to deploy installation images over the network. Refer to the Microsoft WDS documentation for details.

To use a WIM image to perform the installation, you must:

• Create the WIM installation image.

  Follow the WIM installation instructions in the Windows Server 2008 R2 documentation.

• Add the required system device drivers to the WIM installation image.

  For instructions, see Installing Supplemental Software.

• Obtain the WIM administrator password.

1. Reset or power on the server. For example, do one of the following:

   • From the ILOM web interface, launch the ILOM Remote Console from the Remote Control tab. Select "Control Alt Delete" from the Keyboard menu of the JavaRConsole.

   • Press the Power button (approximately 1 second) on the front panel of the blade to turn off the blade, then press the Power button again to turn on the blade.

     The BIOS screen appears.

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     Note - The next events occur very quickly; therefore, focused attention is needed for the following steps. Watch carefully for these messages as they appear on the screen for a brief time. You might want to enlarge the size of your screen to eliminate scroll bars.

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2. Press F8 to specify a temporary boot device.

   A dialog box asks you to select a boot device.

3. Select the appropriate PXE installation boot device and press Enter.

   The PXE installation boot device is the physical network port configured to communicate with your network installation server.

   
   

   The Boot Agent dialog box appears:

   
   
4. Continue the normal Windows Server 2008 R2 WDS network installation. For additional information, consult Microsoft’s Windows Deployment Services product documentation.

Next Steps

To install drivers that cannot be installed using WDS, or to install supplemental software for your server, see Updating Critical Drivers and Installing Supplemental Software.