[Info-vax] Do you (or someone you work with) sysman on Windows?

[Chris Scheers]

Richard Maher wrote:
> Thanks everyone very illuminating. I hadn't appreciated the logistics.
> 
> Having said that, once a hard-ware platform is chosen and some form of 
> base-line SOE is available then can they really not just ship images of 
> that single disk on all new servers (or clients)
> 
> i.e. We're running all the same cores/cpus same C: drives RPMs same 
> memory gigabytes etc and we're going to run out 50 of these, is it 
> really not possible to start with a disk that has a DBMS and IIS and 
> Python and  .net 4.X and esoteric.DLL?
> 
> But more to the point, I suppose, if Microsoft let's you stick in a 2008 
> R1 Server CD into a 2003 machine and hit [upgrade] why aren't more 
> people doing it?
> 

If you are going to be configuring 50 "clones", definitely use SYSPREP.

Get one machine configured the way you want with software and drivers, 
then run SYSPREP on it.

Then clone the disks.

When each system boots, you will go through a minimal configuration. 
This is basically the same setup you see when you boot a new machine out 
of the box.  (In fact, Microsoft calls it OOBE, Out Of the Box Experience.)

Among things, this will ensure that each machine has a unique SID.  If 
you just clone disks without SYSPREP, the machines will have the same 
SID which can cause "interesting" issues.

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Chris Scheers, Applied Synergy, Inc.

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