AMD PCnet network card drivers for VMware

Additional drivers are required when using Windows Deployment Services to deploy Windows Vista, while using VMware Workstation.

Two locations for AMD PCnet drivers:

• VMware NIC driver. The easiest way is to start up a VMware session and choose the “Install VMware Tools” option. Don’t worry if you already have them installed—all this does is mount a VMware Tools installation CD (which may autorun to perform an installation, for which you may just press “exit”). In the CD that appears in your VMware session, go to: E:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\Drivers\vmxnet\win2k\ and copy these files to your host system. Now we can use the peimg utility to mount the driver.
• http://www.amd.com/us-en/ConnectivitySolutions/ProductInformation/0,,50_2330_6629_2452%5E2454%5E2486,00.html
  Use the Windows XP signed.
  

Update the WDS boot image to include the new third-party network driver

To do this, follow these steps:

Note: The following procedure assumes that the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) is installed on the WDS server.

1. On the WDS server, click Start, click Run, type wdsmgmt.msc, and then press OK.
2. Under your WDS server, double-click Boot images.
3. Right-click the boot image that you want, and then click Disable.
4. Right-click the same boot image, click Properties, and then click General.
5. Note the name and location of the boot image that is displayed in the File name box.
6. From the Windows PE Tools Command Prompt, type the following:
   C:\program files\windows aik\tools\petools\copype.cmd x86 e:\windowspe-x86
   Note: Keep this command prompt window open for the next step.
   Imagex /info Drive:\remoteinstall\boot\x86\images\boot.wim
   Notes:
   Drive:\remoteinstall represents the path at which the Remoteinstall folder is installed.
   Boot.wim is the name of the boot image.
7. Note the boot index number of the bootable image that is displayed. To identify the boot index number, locate the line that contains "boot index: X."
   
   Note: X is the boot index number. The number indicates that image number X is marked as bootable and that the image is to be updated. The second image is the default image that you would typically modify. However, always verify which image is marked as bootable.
8. At a command prompt, type the following:
   Imagex /mountrw Drive:\remoteinstall\boot\x86\images\boot.wim 2 mount peimg /inf=driver.inf mount\Windows
   imagex /unmount /commit mount
   Notes:
   Drive:\remoteinstall represents the path at which the Remoteinstall folder is installed.
   Driver.inf is the name of the third-party driver.
   The Imagex /mountrw command mounts the specified image, with read/write permissions, to the specified directory.
9. Enable the boot image on the WDS server. To do this, follow these steps:

• On the WDS server, click Start, click Run, type wdsmgmt.msc, and then click OK
• Under WDS server, double-click Boot images.
• Right-click the boot image that you want, and then click Enable.
  
  Link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923834

VMware Workstation 6 - PXE boots slow

Problem:
I'm trying to use Microsoft's WDS to do PXE boots.
But it's taking literally 20 minutes to download the 167MB boot file.

HOST: Windows XP or Vista / Vmware 6.0
Guests: Windows 2003 / Vista and "pxe boot client / no operating system"

Fix:
Close VMware before making changes to the .vmx file.
Setting ethernet0.virtualDev = "vlance" in the .vmx file will switch to the AMD PCnet 32 from the e1000

Dcdiag - checking DNS

Dcdiag.exe is a command-line tool that most administrators know about. It's great for troubleshooting various domain and domain controller (DC) issues, and in Service Pack 1 for Win2003, it has picked up some new capabilities.

Run Dcdiag /TEST:DNS to test the health of AD's DNS infrastructure. By default, this tests both basic DNS functionality, forwarders or root hints, delegation, dynamic updates, record registration, external name resolution, and Internet host resolution (it checks for http://www.microsoft.com/ by default). This is a great one-command test to see how your entire DNS infrastructure is working.

A second is Dcdiag /TEST:CheckSecurityError, which looks for basic security problems.
As always, you can run Dcdiag right on a domain controller or from your client workstation (although you'll need to specify a server or naming context so that Dcdiag knows what to test; use the /s: argument to specify a DC server name).

Tool Location
The Dcdiag command-line tool is included when you install Windows Server 2003 Support Tools from the product CD. For more information about how to install Windows Support Tools, see Install Windows Support Tools (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=62270

To install Windows Support Tools

1. Insert the Windows CD into your CD-ROM drive.
2. Click No if you are prompted to reinstall Windows.
3. When the Welcome screen appears, click Perform additional tasks, and then click Browse this CD.
4. Go to the \Support\Tools folder.
   For complete setup information, refer to the Readme.htm file available in this folder.
5. Double-click suptools.msi.
6. Follow the instructions that appear on your screen.

Vista Updates

Windows Vista suffers from several issues with ReadyBoost, copying/moving large files, resuming from sleep/hibernate and Blu-ray playback on numerous systems.

Microsoft solved a number of these problems through 938979 Vista Performance and Reliability Pack and 938194 Vista Compatibility and Reliability Pack.