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

[Paul Sture]

On 2015-05-13, Chris Scheers <chris at applied-synergy.com> wrote:
> 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.

Norton Ghost was a well regarded tool for doing this task, but I see it's
been retired.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_%28software%29>

> 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.

The requirement for a unique SID turns out to be a myth (though SYSPREP
does other things that you'll need). Summary here:

<http://securityvibe.net/2009/11/07/newsid-retired/>

Mark Russinovitch's original post with the full details here:

<http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2009/11/03/3291024.aspx>


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