# Unable to bootstrap windows server

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/unable-to-bootstrap-windows-server/7952>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [March 9, 2016, 3:31pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/unable-to-bootstrap-windows-server/7952 "2016-03-09T15:31:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SirChubby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@SirChubby](https://discourse.chef.io/u/SirChubby)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 3:31pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/unable-to-bootstrap-windows-server/7952/1 "2016-03-09T15:31:36Z")

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This topic has probably been discussed at some point but I did not find when looking.

I have Chef development kit installed on my windows 7 admin client and the chef client installed as a service on a server 2008 R2 instance.

I’m trying to bootstrap the server, but it keeps wanting to download the client installation package and fails.

How can I run the bootstrap without downloading the client?

I use:

knife bootstrap  
windows winrm --winrm-user administrator --node-name

msiexec /qn /i C:\inst\chef-client-12.4.3-1.windows.msi ADDLOCAL=“ChefClientFeature,ChefServiceFeature,ChefPSModuleFeature”

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**Author:** ![kallistec](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/kallistec/32/23_2.png) [@kallistec](https://discourse.chef.io/u/kallistec)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 6:42pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/unable-to-bootstrap-windows-server/7952/2 "2016-03-09T18:42:25Z")

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> [@SirChubby](#):
>
> How can I run the bootstrap without downloading the client?

The bootstrap needs chef-client installed to do its job. If you cannot download Chef from the internet because of your network configuration, you can:

1. Pre-install chef-client on the box, then bootstrap it;
2. Use the `--bootstrap-proxy` option to let the bootstrap download chef via a proxy server that can access the internet;
3. Use the `--bootstrap-install-command` option to provide a different command to install chef;

HTH

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SirChubby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@SirChubby](https://discourse.chef.io/u/SirChubby)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 5:50am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/unable-to-bootstrap-windows-server/7952/3 "2016-03-10T05:50:32Z")

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Hi,

I’ve preinstalled the client on the server and it is running as a service. Bootstrap is still trying to download, which i don’t want it to do as I want to control the client version installed and not always use the latest.

Is there a parameter to the knife bootstrap to indicate a preinstalled client?

Thanks.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SirChubby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@SirChubby](https://discourse.chef.io/u/SirChubby)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 11:02am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/unable-to-bootstrap-windows-server/7952/4 "2016-03-11T11:02:52Z")

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I circumnavigated the problem by giving a local folder path as url to option --msi-url

i.e.  
knife bootstrap windows winrm --winrm-user --node-name --msi-url “file:///c:/tem  
p/chef-client-12.7.2-1-x86.msi”