How do you document windows server configurations?
You say you're building the sytems from scratch, so it sounds like you're more interested in the automated setup than you are grabbing configuration from a "live" system.
The installation of every version of Windows since Windows 2000 has been fairly straightforward to automate via "answer files".
- Unattended Installation Fundamentals (Windows 2003)
- Unattended Installation Fundamentals (Windows 2008)
The installation of Active Directory (dcpromo.exe) can be performed from an answer file.
- Unattended promotion and demotion of Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 domain controllers
- Create an Answer File for Unattended Domain Controller Installation (Windows Server 2008)
Objects can be imported into Active Directory from CSV/LDIF files, or added programmatically via script. If you're creating a single domain those objects will only need to be imported once and CSV/LDIF import will probably be fine. If you're creating multiple domains or multiple forests then you'll probably be best served by writing a script (since distinguished names of objects will be different on a domain-for-domain, forest-for-forest basis).
The installation of every version of Exchange since Exchange 2000 can be automated with an answer file.
- How to Create an Answer File for Running Unattended Exchange Setup (Exchange 2003)
- How to Install Exchange 2007 in Unattended Mode
In an Active Directory environment a lot of configuration consistency can be had by using Group Policy to enforce settings on computers. I shoot for a goal of having all non-stock configuration settings re: the OS set by group policy such that when I deploy a new server I'm not hand-ticking configuration items (allowing 'Remote Desktop', running 'Add/Remove Windows Components' / SYSOCMGR to change the loaded Windows components, applying local filesystem and registry permissions, etc).
Beyond the initial installation of the products, knowledge about where each product stores its configuration will take you a long way toward consistency. Scripting to manipulate the filesystem and registry isn't a whole lot different on Windows than manipulating configuration files on a *nix machine. Where registry manipulation isn't appropriate there are typically command-line utilities to perform most other configuration tasks (netsh, the "net" command, resource kit tools, etc). I'd be fairly certain that most configuration tasks you're going to run up against have already been automated and made scriptable by somebody if you look hard enough.
re: disk imaging - If you have identical hardware you can get away with disk imaging after using the SYSPREP tool to reset the computer's security ID (SID) and prepare it for imaging. If you hardware isn't consistent, though, I'd recommend against disk imaging. Your server vendor, assuming it's a name brand, should have a "story" for automated OS deployment that includes provisioning the drivers for the hardware (OpenManage Server Assistant, SmartStart, etc).
One other option for "live" systems is SYDI (http://sydiproject.com/)
From the project website: "At the most basic level SYDI consists of a collection of scripts which collects information from your servers and networks, then writes the data to a report.
Documenting a network can seem like a huge project, SYDI helps you get started. Instead of manually collecting information like ip addresses, os version, hardware configuration the scripts collects this automatically it can write directly to Word (or XML)."
A lot of Windows config is actually stored in a sane and logical manner and in sane and logical places. If you're coming at it with your Unix hat firmly on, you're probably trying to take a Unix-like approach to gathering this information, which will very quickly lead you into a mess.
To take Group Policies as an example: in order to document GPO configuration you can just use the gpmc to (1) generate human-readable config documents, and (2) generate machine-usable exports of your current GPO config. These are just a matter of a few simple mouse-clicks and you'll have everything in a nice package.
For server setup you can use WMI scripts to dump out any amount of information imaginable in the precise format you want, without having to go near either AD, the filesystem or the registry. You can even use free tools like LANSweeper (http://www.lansweeper.com/) to automate the process and make the end result available on a web page for everyone to see.
Another point to be aware of, which was touched on above but bears repeating, is that in an AD environment servers do not exist in isolation from each other. Configuring AD, Exchange and GPOs is a one-time-only job. You don't need to configure GPOs separately on each Domain Controller, for example.
We have some software that can document IIS, Windows Servers, SQL Instances, Exchange.
There is a FREE version that may cover some of your requirements.
http://centrel-solutions.com/xiaconfiguration
Thanks,
Dave
I recently started playing with Spiceworks, and I've got to admit, I suspect it works by the FM principle.
As long as your machines are domain-authenticated, it will take care of everything. At the very least, use it to create documentation in a form that you're more familiar with.