1.1 Glossary

This document uses the following terms:

Active Directory: The Windows implementation of a general-purpose directory service, which uses LDAP as its primary access protocol. Active Directory stores information about a variety of objects in the network such as user accounts, computer accounts, groups, and all related credential information used by Kerberos [MS-KILE]. Active Directory is either deployed as Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) or Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS), which are both described in [MS-ADOD]: Active Directory Protocols Overview.

Active Directory domain: A domain hosted on Active Directory. For more information, see [MS-ADTS].

Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS): A directory service (DS) implemented by a domain controller (DC). The DS provides a data store for objects that is distributed across multiple DCs. The DCs interoperate as peers to ensure that a local change to an object replicates correctly across DCs.  AD DS is a deployment of Active Directory [MS-ADTS].

client machine GUID: Each client machine is assigned a unique GUID by the machine manufacturer and is stored in the SMBIOS of the client machine as per [DMTF-DSP0134].

deployed OS: An operating system (OS) image that has been deployed/installed on the client machine.

deployment agent: An application on the client machine that communicates with WDS server and deploys an OS image on the client machine.

deployment agent unattend: Unattended instructions that provide input for all or some steps performed by the deployment agent. If unattended instructions do not provide input for certain steps, the deployment agent asks the user for input.

domain: A set of users and computers sharing a common namespace and management infrastructure. At least one computer member of the set has to act as a domain controller (DC) and host a member list that identifies all members of the domain, as well as optionally hosting the Active Directory service. The domain controller provides authentication of members, creating a unit of trust for its members. Each domain has an identifier that is shared among its members. For more information, see [MS-AUTHSOD] section 1.1.1.5 and [MS-ADTS].

domain join: A process to configure a machine to join an Active Directory domain and assume the identity assigned to it by the domain controller.

driver: Software that allows applications to interact with a hardware device by using abstract/high-level constructs.

driver package: A collection of the files needed to successfully load a driver. This includes the device information (.inf) file, the catalog file, and all of the binaries that are copied by the .inf file.  Multiple drivers packaged together for deployment purposes.

Endpoint GUID: Set of relevant services provided by a Service Provider are grouped together and as a whole identified by a unique Endpoint GUID.

globally unique identifier (GUID): A term used interchangeably with universally unique identifier (UUID) in Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the value. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] must be used for generating the GUID. See also universally unique identifier (UUID).

image group: Each image group has a unique name and an ACL to specify users who are allowed to deploy OS images from the image group. An image group can contain multiple OS image containers.

little-endian: Multiple-byte values that are byte-ordered with the least significant byte stored in the memory location with the lowest address.

machine naming policy: Specifies a naming scheme that is used to generate a name for the machine.

multicast namespace: Hosts multiple content that are available to clients using multicast sessions. Identification by a unique name is required. All content under a multicast namespace is available for transmission over multicast transmission.

multicast transmission: The ability of server to send OS image container files using the multicast feature of the User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

OS deployment process: Set of operations that must be performed by the deployment agent to prepare and deploy an OS image on client machine. It also includes steps that are performed by a deployed OS to bring the OS to a functioning state. Each step in the process might require input from the user.

OS image: Set of files required to deploy/install an Operating System on a machine. Each OS image is in either Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) or Windows Imaging (WIM) format. Each OS image also has associated OS image metadata.

OS Image Container: Single or multiple files that contain one or more OS images. Each OS image is identified by a unique numeric value in an OS image container.

OS Image Language: An OS image supports multiple locales and at deployment time any supported locale can be chosen for deployment.

OS Image Metadata: Set of attributes that specifies the properties of an OS image.

OS Image Unattend: Unattended instructions that provide input for some or all steps performed by the Deployed OS to bring OS to a functioning state. If Unattended instructions do not provide input for certain steps, Deployed OS asks user for input.

Remote Installation (REMINST) Share: A disk share that all WDS servers are required to create on initialization.

Status Message: Client sends status update messages to WDS server during deployment of an OS image on client machine. Each status message includes the severity and description.

Unattend Variable: A placeholder in the Unattended Instructions that is replaced by a value during OS Deployment Process.

Unattended Instructions: Set of instructions that enable Deployment Agent and Deployed OS to operate in Unattended Mode.

Unattended Mode: Same as Unattended Operation.

Unicode string: A Unicode 8-bit string is an ordered sequence of 8-bit units, a Unicode 16-bit string is an ordered sequence of 16-bit code units, and a Unicode 32-bit string is an ordered sequence of 32-bit code units. In some cases, it could be acceptable not to terminate with a terminating null character. Unless otherwise specified, all Unicode strings follow the UTF-16LE encoding scheme with no Byte Order Mark (BOM).

VHD Image: An OS image packaged in the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format.

WDS server: A Windows Deployment Services (WDS) server that communicates with clients by using the WDS OS Deployment Protocol to aid in deployment of an OS image on a client machine. Clients also communicate to a WDS server to request initiation/setup of multicast sessions for content available in multicast namespace on server.A WDS server provides an extensible mechanism to allow service providers to provide services to clients.

WIM Image: An OS image packaged in Windows Imaging (WIM) file format.

MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.