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WDS and multicasting - session is starting too soon

Answered WDS and multicasting - session is starting too soon

  • Friday, May 01, 2009 3:17 PM
     
     
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    I have already setup and deployed our image (XP) through WDS for some time now. Everything has been ironed out and it works great. Now I am trying to finish the final stage which is getting multicasting to work.

    I setup a new multicast session however my problem is that I want to use Scheduled-Cast with the threshold argument. I want to wait until 50 computers are connected before the session starts.

    Here is my problem, after I get only a few clients connected, 2 or 3, the first couple just start imaging. They don't wait. They will sit there for about 20 seconds with "waiting for server to initiate session" or something like that and just start the image process.

    While they are waiting they show up in my multicast session on the WDS server and I can see their MAC address and client ID and all that, but as soon as they start imaging they disappear from my multicast.

    I've tried searching but can't seem to find people that are having this same problem. I already know about the boot.wim issue from the vista CD and I'm not using that one. I have added a fresh non modified server 2008 boot.wim just to be sure. Same issue.
     

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  • Monday, May 04, 2009 11:11 AM
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    Hi,

     

    Please make sure on the “Create Multicast Transmission” page, choose Scheduled-Cast, check the box before “Start automatically when the number of clients ready to receive this image is:” and type 50 in the “Threshold” dropdown menu.

     

    Normally, the transmission will not start until 50 clients connect to the WDS server. Or you can start a transmission manually at any time.

    For more information about Multicast, please refer to the following articles:

     

    How to Create Multicast Transmissions

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771005.aspx#BKMK_41

     

    Performing Multicast Deployments

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd637994.aspx

     

    70-646 Windows Server 2008, Server Administrator

    http://www.pass4sure.com/lab/70-646-LAB.html

     

    Hope it helps.

     

    Tim Quan - MSFT

     
  • Monday, May 04, 2009 4:26 PM
     
     
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    No, that didn't help at all. I am creating the multicast session exactly how I am supposed to.

    Is anyone else experiencing this issue?
     
  • Tuesday, May 05, 2009 10:28 AM
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    Hi,

     

    Thank you for the reply.

     

    I suggest trying the following to test the issue:

     

    On the “Create Multicast Transmission” page, choose Scheduled-Cast, uncheck the boxes before “Start automatically when the number of clients ready to receive this image is:” and “Start automatically at a later time”.

     

    Normally the transmission will not start until you manually start the transmission.

     

    What’s the result?

     

    You can also change the threshold to the test the issue.

     

    If the multicast transmission still start automatically too soon, I suggest enabling logging for WDS Events:

     

    1.    Open Server Manager.

    2.    Select Diagnostics -> Event Viewer -> Applications and Services Logs.

    3.    Navigate to Microsoft\Deployment-Services-Diagnostics.

    4.    Right-click the Admin log and choose Enable log.

    5.    Right-click the Operational log and choose Enable log.

     

    Reproduce the issue and check the event logs.

     

    You can also check the if any error is logged in Event Viewer according to the following article:

     

    Multicast Initialization

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc726682.aspx

     

    Tim Quan - MSFT

     
  • Tuesday, May 12, 2009 6:10 PM
     
     
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    There are no errors in the Admin log. The operational log lists the following.

    Event 4118 : 11:03:33 AM : Multicast Session Started. NameSpaceName: WDS:Workstations/XP.wim/1
    Event 4120 : 11:03:33 AM : Client joined multicast session: ClientMAC: xxxxxxxxxx
    Event 4120 : 11:03:38 AM : Client joined multicast session: ClientMAC: xxxxxxxxxx
    Event 4120 : 11:03:38 AM : Client joined multicast session: ClientMAC: xxxxxxxxxx
    Event 4121 : 11:04:09 AM : Client exited multicast session: ClientMAC: xxxxxxxxxx
    Event 4121 : 11:04:14 AM : Client exited multicast session: ClientMAC: xxxxxxxxxx
    Event 4121 : 11:04:18 AM : Client exited multicast session: ClientMAC: xxxxxxxxxx

    this was with a test of 3 machines. In my multicast session I actually unchecked both boxes for when to start. So there was no option for the session to start with # of computers, or at a certain time. By doing this I would force the multicast not to start until I manually started it, but the problem remains. Once I boot the computers into PE and select the image I want to use they sit there waiting for the server for about 25 seconds then they all just start imaging.
     
  • Wednesday, May 13, 2009 3:42 AM
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    Hi,

     

    Thank you for the reply.

     

    It seems multicast is totally not functioning. I suggest checking prerequisites and known issues for creating WDS in the article below again:

     

    How to Create Multicast Transmissions

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771005(WS.10).aspx

     

    Tim Quan - MSFT

     

     
  • Friday, September 10, 2010 5:16 PM
     
     
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    There are no errors in the Admin log. The operational log lists the following.

    Event 4118 : 11:03:33 AM : Multicast Session Started. NameSpaceName: WDS:Workstations/XP.wim/1
    Event 4120 : 11:03:33 AM : Client joined multicast session: ClientMAC: xxxxxxxxxx
    Event 4120 : 11:03:38 AM : Client joined multicast session: ClientMAC: xxxxxxxxxx
    Event 4120 : 11:03:38 AM : Client joined multicast session: ClientMAC: xxxxxxxxxx
    Event 4121 : 11:04:09 AM : Client exited multicast session: ClientMAC: xxxxxxxxxx
    Event 4121 : 11:04:14 AM : Client exited multicast session: ClientMAC: xxxxxxxxxx
    Event 4121 : 11:04:18 AM : Client exited multicast session: ClientMAC: xxxxxxxxxx

    this was with a test of 3 machines. In my multicast session I actually unchecked both boxes for when to start. So there was no option for the session to start with # of computers, or at a certain time. By doing this I would force the multicast not to start until I manually started it, but the problem remains. Once I boot the computers into PE and select the image I want to use they sit there waiting for the server for about 25 seconds then they all just start imaging.


    My apologies for resurrecting this old thread but I was hoping that there may have been some type of resolution identified. Per the quote above, I am experiencing the exact same problem. I have a a lab full of computers (~60'ish) that I just finished imaging this week. While my image is huge, (my .wim file is just under 30GB's in size) my imaging process took about a day and a half+.

    My gripe is not so much the time it took to image my computers, but the fact that these machines do not image simultaneously... (like what I would normally expect from any type of multi-cast transmission ). The way that my setup worked almost seemed as though WDS handled my image using multiple unicast sessions. (*e.g. The completion percentage of my computers were for the most part completely different from one another)

    The process of creating a multi-cast transmission is pretty straightforward, in that, there are only a few options to choose from. If you take 10 minutes to read over the available documentation and what each options provides, I think it would be safe to say that most people should have a pretty good handle on how this process 'should ' work.

    Anywho - Unless I've completely missed the boat on how WDS' multi-cast transmissions are suppose to operate, my problem still persists. The computers begin the imaging process prematurely without prior authorization. Note: I do have logging enabled and everything seems to check out just fine.

    My setup includes four (4) Cisco 2950 switches and a 30 GB XP image that is deployed via WDS using Windows Server 2008 Ent. (Not R2 )

    Lastly, the link below provided by Tim Quan appears to have moved as it is no longer a valid URL.

    I'll continue to troubleshoot the problem - Thanks for any help!

    signaturee
     
  • Friday, September 10, 2010 9:45 PM
     
     
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    WDS's multicast implementation is designed to allow new clients to join an existing, in progress session without any drop in performance. It is expected that your client will be at different % of completion (especially if you're using an autocast transmission), and this should not impact the overall transfer time per client.

    I believe the article that Tim referenced is now located here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd637994(WS.10).aspx

    There's also an article on diagnosing common issues with WDS located here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754137(WS.10).aspx, and an article on performance and scalability expectations here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732088(WS.10).aspx

    There's also some explanation of the WDS Multicast server performance counter here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772277(WS.10).aspx, which may also be helpful in diagnosing performance problems.

    I would expect that on a well behaving network, multicasting a 30GB image would take somewhere in the 1-2 hour range (assuming an average of 8MB/sec 30*1024 = 30,720 MB to transfer @ 8MB/sec = 3,840 seconds, which is about 64 minutes.) This assums that all of the clients are starting at or near the same time, and doesn't include TFTP download of the boot image.

     
  • Monday, September 13, 2010 11:15 PM
     
     
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    Thanks Aaron! I appreciate your reply!
    signaturee