RIS installation is similar to other automated installation technologies: unattended installation, image-based installation with Sysprep and Windows Server 2003, and Automated Deployment Services (ADS). Like RIS installation, these technologies are designed specifically as mass deployment solutions. Although you can use all of these technologies to automate the installation of Windows Server 2003, each of these technologies is based on a different set of installation processes, and rely on a different set of programs and tools. If you want to automate installations with minimal user interaction, use an unattended installation. To copy preconfigured operating systems and software applications, you should use an image-based installation with the Sysprep tool. RIS is typically used during large-scale deployments with minimal administrator or end user interaction.

Unattended installation is a method of automating clean installations and upgrades with minimal user interaction. Unattended installations are particularly useful if you are:

•	Upgrading a Windows server to Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition or Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition operating systems.
•	Performing automated installations on computers that have various hardware configurations.
•	Performing automated installations on specific types of servers, such as domain controllers, remote access servers, and servers that run Certificate Services or the Cluster service.
•	Configuring a wide range of operating system settings during an automated installation without using batch files and scripts.

In addition to these deployment solutions, unattended installation is a useful method of creating master installations for image-based and RIS installations.

To perform an unattended installation, you first create an answer file, which is a text file that contains answers to the questions that Windows Setup normally prompts you for during an installation. After you configure your answer file, you typically create a distribution share (a folder that contains the Windows Server 2003 installation files) as well as any device drivers or other files that are required to customize the installation.

Note

•	You do not need to use a distribution share to perform an unattended installation. You can use an operating system CD instead of a distribution share.

After you have created an answer file and a distribution share, you are ready to start the unattended installation on a destination computer. To do this, you run the Windows Setup program (either Winnt.exe or Winnt32.exe), and specify the name of the answer file that you want Setup to use and the location of the distribution share that contains the installation files. Setup then runs and carries out all of the instructions that are specified in the answer file.

Unattended installation requires some upfront planning and design, but it is the most flexible and robust automated installation technology.

Image-based installation with the System Preparation (Sysprep) tool is a method of copying, also known as cloning, preconfigured operating systems and software applications onto servers.

Image-based installation with Sysprep is a suitable automated installation technology if you need to:

•	Install identical operating systems and software configurations on multiple computers.
•	Install an operating system and software configuration as quickly as possible.
•	Perform clean installations of an operating system, rather than upgrade an existing installation.
•	Minimize end user interaction and post-installation tasks.
•	Install operating systems on computers that have similar hardware and hardware abstraction layers (HALs).

To perform an image-based installation with Sysprep, you first set up a master installation — a computer with the operating system, software applications, and configuration settings that you want to install onto the destination computers in your organization. Then you run Sysprep, which prepares the master installation so that you can create a disk image (that is, a functionally identical replica of its disk) that can be copied onto multiple computers. Next, you use a non-Microsoft disk-imaging program to create the disk image of the master installation. Finally, you copy the disk image onto your destination computers.

You need two tools to perform an image-based installation with Sysprep: Sysprep, which can be found on any Windows Server 2003 operating system CD, and a non-Microsoft disk-imaging program, which you must purchase from a non-Microsoft vendor. You run Sysprep on the master computer before you create an image of the master computer’s hard disk. Sysprep configures various operating system settings on the master computer to ensure that every copy of the master computer’s disk image is unique when you distribute it to a destination computer. Specifically, Sysprep configures a master installation so that unique security identifiers (SIDs) are generated on each destination computer. Sysprep also configures the master computer’s disk image so that every destination computer starts in a special setup mode known as Mini-Setup. After you copy a disk image onto a destination computer, Mini-Setup runs the first time you start the destination computer.

You use the non-Microsoft disk-imaging program to create an image of the master computer’s hard disk. You also use the disk-imaging program to copy the disk image from the master computer onto a shared folder or a CD, and from the shared folder or CD onto a destination computer.

Image-based installation with Sysprep requires substantial planning and design, but it is the fastest method of installing operating systems and applications. You cannot use it to perform operating system upgrades.

You can use Automated Deployment Services (ADS) to remotely and automatically deploy Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003 family operating system images onto servers without an operating system. You can also use ADS to configure, maintain, and manage servers. By using ADS, you can reduce administration costs of your data center. ADS is designed for organizations that are running data centers like service providers and corporations.

ADS reduces the number and complexity of the steps required to deploy and configure a server by using task sequences. The processes required to deploy and configure a server have been captured by a set of scripts or tasks that are easily extensible by the data center to follow their business and technical processes. Placing the configuration steps within scripts makes it easy to automatically perform the deployment or configuration of a server or group of servers based on external events (such as the arrival of a customer order, or the need to add additional servers because the existing servers are overloaded).

With ADS, you use a single server, called a “Controller,” to perform large-scale server administration in your data center. The Controller, together with the other ADS services, enables you to deploy operating system images onto servers or to repurpose existing devices with new operating system images. In the data-center environment, you can use ADS to:

•	Mount an image as a file and edit the image.
•	Remotely purpose a device that has no operating system to a useful state or repurpose a device from one state to another state.
•	Run extensible and configurable operations, such as scripts, on one or more systems from a single administration point.
•	Leverage the ADS WMI Object Model to build custom applications.