Deployment overview

The SmartStart Scripting Toolkit includes a set of utilities for configuring and deploying servers in a customized, predictable, and unattended manner. These utilities enable you to duplicate the configuration of a source server on target servers with minimal user interaction.

IMPORTANT: ProLiant 100-series servers do not support all toolkit commands, and those that are supported might not work as expected. For example, SETBOOTORDER might behave differently on these systems. For a better understanding, read the documentation carefully.

You can perform server deployments in many different ways using the Toolkit, but you must include the following steps in every deployment:

Create a network share.
Prepare the bootable media (CD/DVD, USB drive key, or PXE).
Configure the system and storage hardware on the target server.
Install the operating system.

Update the drivers and agents as needed.

IMPORTANT: Not all options can be configured using Toolkit utilities. Some options must be configured manually or with other configuration utilities, which are available online, before they can be used with the Toolkit. See the option documentation for more information on configuration.

The Toolkit utilities are provided in both 32- and 64-bit versions.

The 32-bit version of Microsoft® Windows® PE can be used with the 32-bit Toolkit utilities to deploy the x86-based version Windows Server® 2003 or Windows Server® 2008.
The 64-bit version of Microsoft® Windows® PE can be used with the 64-bit Toolkit utilities to deploy the x64-based version of Windows Server® 2003 or Windows Server® 2008.