- Windows 2000 Deployment Guide Part 26: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
- Windows 2000 Solutions
Windows 2000 Solutions
With Windows 2000, Microsoft offers a number of technologies to simplify the process of managing configuration changes within an enterprise. The two key technologies are remote OS installation and IntelliMirror.
Remote OS installation allows an administrator to deploy the Windows 2000 operating system to computers connected to the network. The operating system can be deployed to a single computer, such as in the event of a hard disk failure, or to a number of systems, as you might perform to deploy several new systems to new employees or when upgrading hardware for an entire department.
IntelliMirror is a term Microsoft uses to refer to three key Windows 2000 technologies:
-
Installation and maintenance of software
-
Management of user settings
-
Management of user data
The magic of Windows 2000 IntelliMirror relies on other components of the Windows 2000 operating system to work. To take advantage of the wonders of IntelliMirror and remote OS installation, you must plan to implement the following features within your enterprise:
-
Active Directory
-
Group Policy
-
Roaming Profiles
-
Offline Folders
-
Distribute File System
-
Synchronization Manager
-
Windows Installer Service
-
Remote Installation Service
As you can see, to fully realize the potential of IntelliMirror, you need to deploy a number of Windows 2000 features, but chances are that you'll be deploying most of these features anyway. Depending on your configuration management needs, the features of IntelliMirror might be just what you've been looking for.