Deploying SCW to multiple servers

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2

This topic explains how to deploy SCW to multiple servers.

Your options for installing Windows Server 2003 SP1 and SCW on multiple servers include:

  • Systems Management Server (SMS) with Service Pack 1 (SP1)

  • Unattended installation

SMS with SP1

Systems Management Server (SMS) is a full-featured change and configuration management, software deployment, and license-tracking system that is part of the Windows Server System. It is available from Microsoft at an additional cost.

SMS can be used to deploy operating system updates including Windows Server 2003 SP1 and SCW to your servers.

For more information about SMS, see What Is Windows Server System? on the Microsoft Web site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48227).

The Group Policy Object Editor and Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) include the ability to assign patches and software updates, but only for Windows Installer packages. SCW is part of Windows Server 2003 SP1 and is not available as a stand-alone Windows Installer package. Therefore you can not deploy SCW itself by using Group Policy.

SCW policies can, however, be deployed by using Group Policy.

Unattended installation of SCW

You can create an answer file that installs Windows Server 2003 SP1 and SCW automatically. To do so, follow these steps:

To install SCW as part of an unattended installation

  • Before initiating the unattended installation, add the following entry to the [Components] section of Unattend.txt:

    SCW=On

To apply an SCW security policy during the unattended installation, also carry out the following steps.

  1. Create the security policy file on a server that already has SCW installed.

  2. Either create a Cmdlines.txt file or modify the existing one so that it has a [Commands] section containing the following line:

    scwcmd configure /p:SCWPolicy.xml

  3. Copy the Cmdlines.txt file and the previously created policy file (SCWPolicy.xml in this case) to the $OEM$ directory.

For detailed instructions about using unattended installation, see Automating and Customizing Installations in the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Deployment Kit on the Microsoft Web site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=4748).