At its European Tech-Ed user event in Barcelona this month, Microsoft demonstrated the latest build of its upcoming Automated Deployment Services (ADS) software for faster set-up of server operating systems and applications. In a keynote address at the show, Microsoft program manager Paul Sutton showed how ADS, due to ship in August or September, could set up a "bare metal" blade server over a network connection by installing operating system and application components as required. Microsoft delivered the first beta-test version of ADS to customers including Cable & Wireless in March this year.
In the Tech-Ed demonstration, Sutton explained that ADS first downloads a "small version of Windows," called a deployment agent, over the network to assist the remote console. The software runs in memory and connects back to ADS via HTTP with SSL encryption security, he added. The ADS console runs only under the Enterprise Edition of Windows Server 2003, but Sutton said it can be used to deploy copies of any Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 Server operating system, and related applications.
ADS cannot be used to deploy software on client PCs, however. ADS"s wizard-driven interface can be used to create installation templates to oversee deployment of different combinations of software, including control over the sequencing of events. Servers can also be gathered into groups so that a single set of commands can be applied to multiple target systems simultaneously.