After a cumulative windows update + Reboot, The Windows Deployment Services server on my deployment server has started to log EventID 1284."An error occurred while trying to create the directory for the architecture". This seemingly seems to be a permissions error for WDS, lacking rights. The impact for end users is when they try to boot any of the served boot images from the
WDS Server, they are met with the error message on a black screen: "Status: 0xc000001 Info: A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed" thus rendering the WDS server in a non-functioning state.
Info about my server:
OS: Windows Server 2016 Datacenter Edition
HW: VMware 6.0
VM Version: 11
Network adapter: VMXNet 3
I've tried the following so far:
- Removed the WDS role -> Reboot server -> Unshare "reminst" share -> Remove "Reminst" folder -> Reinstall WDS Role -> Initialize server = Same issue occurred, EventID 1284 is logged, even when no images has been added to the server.
- Verified the "WDSServer" account has full rights to the registry key HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WDSServer
- Used the commands "wdsutil.exe /uninitialize-server" then "wdsutil.exe /initialize-server /Reminst:U:\Reminst" = Issue remains the same. EventID 1284 is logged as soon as the folder structure for reminst is generated. Tried using a different harddrive for the folder as well, but still the same.
- Tried running on sfc /scannow and a chkdsk C: = No errors found.
- Uninstalled the cumulative update -> Uninstalled WDS Role -> Deleted "reminst" share + folder -> Rebooted server -> Reinstalled WDS role -> Initialized WDS from the wdsmgmt.msc = Issue remains the same, EventID 1284 has been logged. Tried adding a new boot image and attempted to PxE boot the image as you would normally do, but the issue remains the same.
- Uninstalled my antivirus product (Mcafee Endpoint Protection 10.6.1)
It's worth mentioning I experienced a similar issue approximately 1½ months ago, where I simply chose to reinstall this server, but didn't really spend too much time on troubleshooting. So this installation is only 1½ months old.
Found various articles around the interwebz with people experiencing the same issue where a solution was never really found:
https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1966152-wds-issue
https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/172646-windows-deployment-server-binlsvc-error-1812
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/sharepoint/en-US/38c1d198-d7a0-4438-bb91-6a688b15d87e/wds-quotan-error-occurred-while-trying-to-create-the-directory-for-the-architecturequot?forum=winserversetup
Info about EventID 1284: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2008-R2-and-2008/dd353564(v=ws.10)
Some screenshots showing the error: