Before we can automate, we need to install Windows
Server 2022, as well as do an upgrade.
I'm going to go through a Windows Server 2022 manual installation. And
what that will do for me is it will give me a list of all the different
things that I'll need to manually choose, and I can then automate those
using an answer file where I can go ahead and choose all the different
answers ahead of time, so I can walk away from my installation after I
get started.
There are lots of different ways to automate your server installation, but the
answer file is one of the ways that goes ahead and puts in what all the common
answers that you would normally choose, so you can automate that information and
have it customized the way you want it.
If you have a key,
you can enter it here, but if we're going to be using this to create,
say, a template for a future automated installation,
then we don't really need the key; we can go ahead and choose that later.
So I'll click on, I don't have a product key, and it will continue, and
then it will allow us to go ahead and boot into Windows, but it won't have
full functionality until we get it licensed.
Now we have the option for which version of Windows Server we want.
So this particular ISO file or DVD file,
whatever it is that you're using, will give us specific types of installations.
Yours might look different; it might just show the
Standard or the Datacenter types of versions,
but mine shows them both.
So I'm going to choose the Standard (Desktop Experience).
That will give me all the graphical user interface options
that we're used to. The Standard version would just end up
giving us a command prompt.
Now I'm going to choose to accept the license terms,
click Next. Now, if I had the operating system already
installed, then I could choose an upgrade,
say from 2019 to 2022, but I don't. This is a brand new
installation so you have to choose Custom.
If you have multiple different, unallocated spaces,
you can combine them into one particular partition,
and you could install from there.
I'm just going to go ahead and choose the one I have and click Next.
Now we see the installation.
The installation could take anywhere from a few minutes up to an hour.
It just depends on how many resources that you have on your server.
So if your server is very fast,
it won't take long, but if your server slow, then you could see
quite a delay until you get to the point where it restarts into
Windows Server 2022. I'm now prompted to enter the password now
that the installation has completed.
So I'll go ahead and do that, Finish, and that's going to
be the password for the administrator.
If this is a workstation like Windows 11,
something like that, then you would have to actually pick the username as well.
The Windows Server installation is complete. As you can see, you don't get
the same types of questions that you get when you boot into Windows 10 or
11 the first time. It just takes you right into Server Manager, it prompts
you about the Windows Admin Center, and you can go ahead and start
working. Manually installing Windows Server 2022 gives you a good idea of
what settings need to be set when you plan your automated installation scheme.