Now that you've been thoroughly introduced to what's new, what's hot, and what's not in Windows Server 2008, the time has come to install the operating system on your machines. Installing Windows Server 2008 is easy: the fun comes in configuring and customizing the operating system. I'll begin by covering the installation process. Then I devote a large part of this chapter to unattended installations, automated deployment, and batch machine imaging, because you can gain a significant time savings by letting your computer handle as many of the tedious installation tasks as possible. So, let's jump in and get started.
It's a fairly effortless procedure to install Windows Server 2008 onto new systems. Here are the steps:
Turn the system power on and insert the Windows Server 2008 DVD into the drive. If you receive a prompt asking you to select from what location to boot, choose the option to boot from the CD. The system will boot and begin the initial installation procedure. Figure 2-1 shows the beginning of this phase from the Install Windows screen. Choose the correct language, time and currency format, and keyboard input method, and then click Next.
Click the "Install now" button in the middle of the screen.
When you click the next screen, shown in Figure 2-2, you are prompted for your product key. You do not have to enter the key now, but you will be required within a certain amount of time to enter a valid key once installation is complete. Enter your key if you wish and then click Next. Note that if you don't enter a key now, make sure that when you choose an edition to install (on the next screen), you choose the edition that corresponds to the key you will enter later; otherwise, you may need to reinstall.
If you did not enter a key, the screen shown in Figure 2-3 will appear, asking you to select the edition of Windows that you purchased. (If you had entered a key, Windows would have automatically chosen the correct edition based on the contents of your key.) Choose which edition of the product—including the standard installation or the Server Core flavor—to install. Then, click Next.
Read the terms of the license agreement. If you accept (which, of course, you have to do to continue installation), check the box and click to continue.
The "Which type of installation do you want?" screen appears, depicted in Figure 2-4. If you were running this installation from within Windows, the Upgrade selection would be enabled, allowing you to move to Windows Server 2008 with most of your programs, files, and settings intact. This is not the recommended path; here, in this example, we are completing a clean installation onto a formatted, blank disk. In this case, the only available option is Custom. Click "Custom (advanced)" to continue.
A screen listing your current disk partitions will appear, as shown in Figure 2-5. You can delete, create, and format partitions to your heart's content here. Once you have at least one partition with 15 GB or more of disk space on it, you can click Next. If you haven't yet formatted, Setup will handle that.
Finally, files are copied and settings are finalized. This process can take a little while, up to 30 minutes, so feel free to step away (Figure 2-6).
Your installation will be complete once the system restarts a couple of times. The first screen you see will prompt you to add an administrator password; as you'll recall, nowhere during the setup process did you create a user account. Windows adds the administrator account automatically, and creates a complex temporary password to protect the account during installation and the initial boot process, but upon first logon you must change it.