# Introduction

In this short guide we'll deploy a few Linux distro's through Microsoft Windows Deployment Services. It'll be my first online tutorial in English, so I thank you in advance for your understanding. If you come across a wronly used idiom, horrifying grammar and/or spelling mistake or other ways in which I've butchered the English language, please let me know.

This gitbook will guide you through setting up a WDS server to deploy linux from a local NFS server, in the shortest way possible. So be advised: this might, and probably is, not the most secure way to go. There are many other ways to approach a deployment using a WDS server, this is just one of them. Or if you want to do deployments completely the OSS way, go check out the [FOG Project](https://fogproject.org/).

When you've gone through this tutorial you can:

* Set up a simple WDS / Active directory / DHCP / NFS server
* Make it deploy a Linux distro (Opensuse and Centos) from a local file server (using NFS)

What to do after this guide:

* You can still use your WDS server to deploy Windows clients, so experiment. The excellent Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) will still work in unison with this setup.
* Add more Linux distros
* Amp up your security settings
* Use kickstart or other automatisation options to have your Linux deployments automated.

I don't write these guides with PDF in mind. So no layout comments please. Only download if you're desperate!

Ken Vanden Branden

\
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://kenvb.gitbook.io/deploy-linux-with-microsoft-wds/master.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.