TABLE OF CONTENTS One of the key techniques in the virtualization process is the technique to duplicate the physical environment. With most people, third-party products like Norton Ghost (by Symantec) pop into mind. But in this case we are going to take a look at the Microsoft solution in disk-duping land.
Microsoft released Automated Deployment Services (ADS) in 2003. The first version was primarily used for rapid deployment scenarios. At that time, virtualizing needed two separate tools from Microsoft: ADS and the Virtual Server Migration Toolkit (VSMT). After the update on ADS, and lifting the version to 1.1, Microsoft placed VSMT in the ADS software bundle.
There is a lot more to do than migrating using ADS. A lot of companies install multiple servers. One of the problems that soon arise is the differences that will exist when installing more that one server by hand. Even when the server is installed using an installation manual, it is very likely that the servers are not the same.
In this situation, ADS can solve your problem. Because ADS is able to image your hard disk, it also is able to deploy the same image to multiple servers (of the same type) at once. Combine this feature with the Windows capability called Sysprep, and you have your deployment solution.
In step 1, you install one server (see Figure 6.1). In step 2 you sysprep and image it using one of the templates given by ADS. In step 3 you...
