The new tools that Microsoft released in 2007 for use with Vista migrations work with Server 2008 also. There’s the Windows Automated Installation Kit, or WAIK, consisting of the answer-file tool System Image Manager (SIM); the mini-Windows operating system WinPE; and the image capture tool ImageX. Whether you use these tools to deploy Server 2008 depends largely on how many systems you have to roll out, and how consistent their configurations need to be.
The Windows Deployment Services (WDS) product, successor to RIS, permits deployment over the network from either Server 2008 or Server 2003, and is free (that is, you’ve paid for it in your server license). It uses the new and improved Windows Imaging format (.WIM) and permits multicasting, but watch out for those bandwidth requirements. Server 2008 is one big product.
If you want to know more about these tools, you may have seen something called the Business Desktop Deployment 2007 “solution accelerator.” Now there’s a successor to BDD 2007 and it’s called “Microsoft Deployment.”
Of course, you SMS shops can perform scheduled deployment of Server 2008 with full reporting and inventory management. Sorry, did I say SMS? I meant “System Center Configuration Manager.” There sure is a lot to keep up with in the Microsoft world these days.
See recent blog posts…
The evolution of Group Policy in Windows Server 2008 – Part 2
The evolution of Group Policy in Windows Server 2008 – Part 1
Server Manager – One-stop shop for Server Administration
Back to the Future with Read-Only Domain Controllers
