Unattended Installation

An unattended installation is a method for automating the Setup process. It will be of benefit to companies with two or more servers and several client computers who require an overnight upgrade.

Unattended installations also offer the opportunity to review the final settings and modify entries before the server goes into production. In the Standard edition of Server 2003, Microsoft have published a complete set of tools to make the process very easy to implement. This page explains the Setup Manager tool.

Setup Manager tool

Setup Manager builds a scripting file with answers to all the questions asked by the installation program. It saves hours of staring at the PC replying to the same questions over and over again. Setup Manager allows for the automated installation of Windows XP (Home and Professional) and Windows Server 2003 Standard, Enterprise and Web editions.

The Setup Manager tool isn’t installed by default. You need to extract it from the deploy.cab file in the support\tools directory of your installation disk. The file is called Setupmgr.exe. Double-click it to start the wizard.

The wizard is very easy to follow. The program prompts you for a file name and a location (for CD-based installations save the file to floppy and call it winnt, select .sif for the filename extension). When you are done, click OK and exit the application.

Running the script from a CD

Insert the Server 2003 installation CD and the floppy containing the scripting file created with Setup Manager in your target computer. Re-arrange the boot order in your computer’s BIOS: CD, C, A.

You can now walk away and come back in around 45 minutes. Your system will be running Server 2003.

Enhancing the script

Understanding the script parameters is an essential tool. The Pre-Installation ref file in your SetupTools folder gives a lot more information about the parameters.

Applying scripting parameters to your winnt.sif file will enable you to preinstall service packs, pre-configure applications, move documents and settings, add support and branding information, include update drivers, create directories, copy files, install hot fixes, etc.

So far, so go but what if you have to install the software in 200 servers? The next page talks about Sysprep, the computer cloning tool supplied by Microsoft.