How Windows Deployment Services Uses Active Directory

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

Windows Deployment Services uses Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) for a variety of reasons. AD DS is its data store, and it contains all of the necessary helper routines. Windows Deployment Services also links physical booting computers to computer account objects in AD DS. The data used by Windows Deployment Services is stored in computer account objects and Service Control Points (SCPs).

  • Computer account objects. You can prestage a device, which means to link a physical computer to a computer account object in AD DS. By doing this, you can control the installation for the prestaged device. For example, using WDSUTIL you can configure the network boot program and the unattend file that the client should receive, as well as the server from which the client should download the boot files.

  • Service Control Point objects. The computer account object for the Windows Deployment Services server contains a child object called an SCP object. This object is created the first time Windows Deployment Services is started, and it indicates that the computer account object is acting as a Windows Deployment Services server. The SCP object also stores some configuration settings for Windows Deployment Services (for example, whether the server should answer Pre-Boot Execution Environment (PXE) boot requests).

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