With the release of System Center Configuration Manager 2007, server administrators can now take advantage of the same operating system deployment tools that client administrators have been able to use for several years. In the past, server administrators often performed manual installations of Windows Server using the CD or DVD, then spent hours configuring the server.

Some administrators went a step further and built unattended setup routines by creating an unattend.txt file and perhaps using Remote Installation Services (RIS) to automate the install process to avoid having to be physically present at the server console. More advanced administrators took advantage of Automated Deployment Services (ADS) for Windows Server 2003 to completely automate the entire server build process.

At Microsoft.

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