Create Pending Devices

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

You can use the Pending Devices database to approve or reject client installations from Windows Deployment Services. At the same time, you can prestage the client computers. Prestaged clients are computer account objects that are created within Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) before the operating system is installed. This allows you to specify the boot image and client unattend file that the device receives, and specify the computer name and organizational unit where the computer account will be created. The Auto-Add policy gives you the power to prestage without needing to know the client computer's GUID or MAC address in advance.

To enable the Auto-Add policy, select For unknown clients, notify administrator and respond after approval on the PXE Response Settings tab of the server's properties page. When this policy is enabled, unknown clients that PXE boot are placed in the pending queue. The device remains in the queue until one following actions occurs:

  • The device is approved. When a device is approved, the client computer continues with the network boot operation and a computer account object is created in AD DS to represent the physical device.

  • The device is rejected. When a device is rejected, the client computer aborts the network boot attempt and continues to boot from the next device (as defined in the BIOS boot order). A computer account in AD DS is not created for a rejected device.

  • A time-out is reached.

  • The network boot attempt is cancelled by the user.

All devices in the pending queue are represented as an entry in the PendingDevices database, on the Windows Deployment Services server that responded to the client’s initial PXE boot request. The purposes of this temporary storage location are:

  • To provide the management utilities with a common interface to use to generate a list of all pending devices on a server.

  • To serve as an audit trail by recording what devices have been approved or rejected.

The following procedures explain how to view, approve, and reject pending devices. For more information about working with pending devices, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=89223.

To view pending devices

Using the MMC Using WDSUTIL

Select the Pending Devices node.

Run WDSUTIL /Get-AutoAddDevices /DeviceType:PendingDevices

To approve a pending device by using the default settings

Using the MMC Using WDSUTIL
  1. Select the Pending Devices node.

  2. Select the device you wish to approve.

  3. From the Action menu, select Approve.

Run WDSUTIL /Approve-AutoAddDevices /RequestID:<ID> with the ID obtained from the Pending Devices database

To reject a pending device

Using the MMC Using WDSUTIL
  1. Select the Pending Devices node.

  2. Select the device you want to reject.

  3. From the Action menu, select Reject.

Run WDSUTIL /Reject-AutoAddDevices /RequestID:<ID> with the ID obtained from the Pending Devices database

Additional considerations

  • For more information about working with pending devices, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=89223.

  • You need to delegate permissions to the computer object for the Windows Deployment Services server by using the AD DS management tools. This ensures that the Windows Deployment Services server can successfully create new computer objects in the domain.

Additional references