I have been using MDT for a couple of years to image new machines, but recently I replaced it with a new server running 2008 R2 so I could use the new version of MDT and take advantage of its nice new features. I created a new 2008 R2 VM and got MDT/WAIK all installed and configured and it will PXE boot and image a new machine just fine...until it gets to the end of the imaging process! After it finishes with the Windows install and reboots, I can login and everything looks good on the new PC, but then I will get the dreaded message "A connection to the deployment server can not be made. The deployment will not proceed"
Here is the kicker, in this error message, it refers to the name of the OLD server!!! When I setup my new MDT server, I did it all from scratch, so I don't know how it somehow got the name of my old MDT server. If I boot up my old server and plug it in to the network, and then restart my target machine, it will then see my old server and finish the deployment (there really isn't anything left, it just gives me the message saying that the deployment was successful).
So, I need to figure out where its getting this address for the old server, otherwise I have to keep the old MDT server plugged in just for the very end of the imaging process.