Deploying your workstations via WADS

WADS for WAPT Automated Deployment Services was developed to provide a simple solution for Operating System deployments via WAPT.

Hint

As of 2024-09-20, only the deployment of Windows versions is available.

WADS mode of operation

Schematically, deploying an OS involves 3 steps:

1. Importing the different media and files required for the deployment, such as Operating System .iso images, driver packs and configuration files.

Flow diagram for importing the files required for the WADS deployment

1. Creating the boot support.

Flow diagram for creating the booting support for the WADS deployment

3. Launching the deployment on the target host using the network or a USB stick.

Flow diagram for using the boot support in the WADS deployment

Difference between WADS and other solutions

• Classic deployment solution.

Flow diagram for a classic OS deployment

• WADS deployment solution.

Flow diagram for a WADS deployment

Hint

• The WADS operating mode respects the recommanded method of the OS vendor.

• With WADS, all functionnalities are grouped on the same WAPT Server.

• Therefore, there is no need to set up any additional infrastructure other than the WAPT Server.

Software differences

Differences between WADS and other methods

WADS deployment Server	Standard MDT method	Benefit
Uses iPXE	Uses CIFS file server protocol	No need to setup a file server and no need to open additional ports
No OS image configuration needed	Requires manually editing an answer file configuration	Simplicity, all configurations are provided by WAPT
Uses HTTPS to download the Windows OS image	Uses CIFS to download the Windows OS image	The target hosts may be deployed over the internet using the USB stick method
The WADS method embeds all necessary files	The MDT method requires assembling files from different sources	The deployment, the configuration and the OS updates are bundled into one WAPT software package