Systems Management Server Deployment

With the release of Windows Vista last November, it became my project to look into ways of managing and distributing the new operating system to an entire lab of computers. This process is called "imaging", and our solution to this problem was to use Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003. The summer of 2007 provided an excellent time to research and test this technology. SMS runs on a Windows Server machine, and not only can it send custom made images to an entire network, but it also has the ablility to remotely install new software updates or even entirely new pieces of software all together.

Setting up a system like this might not sound that hard. It's just software right? But less than clear documentation on system settings and requirements made this a summer long process. From this stemmed my own 24 pages of step by step documentation of installation, configuration, and deployment of images. The SMS method is now in full use as the lab's primary method of computer imaging and configuration.