RIS Client May Hang in Text-Mode Setup on a Network Without NetBIOS

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

SYMPTOMS

When you are installing Windows 2000 from a Windows 2000-based Remote Installation Service (RIS) server using a RIS Pre-Boot Execution Environment (PXE) client, the installation may stop responding (hang) during the Text-mode portion of Setup if the following conditions are true:

• The client becomes temporarily disconnected from the network.



• The network does not use NetBIOS.

CAUSE

If a RIS PXE client is disconnected from the network at any time during the Text-mode portion of Windows 2000 Setup, the client cannot reconnect to the server unless NetBIOS is enabled on the network.

This behavior occurs because the PXE client stores the RIS server's IP address in its memory cache. If the client is disconnected, the IP cache is automatically flushed. When the client is reconnected to the network, it attempts to find the server using NetBIOS name resolution and continues to try until it finds the RIS server. If NetBIOS is not active on the network, the client appears to hang.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, reset the client to restart the Setup process by using the Client Installation Wizard (CIW). On a network that uses NetBIOS, this is not an issue; the client automatically reconnects when the NetBIOS name is resolved and continue with Setup.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbenv kbnetwork kbsetup
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb