I currently have a process in which I set up a new remote server, with no pre-installed OS. Connecting over IPMI and then RDP, I proceed to install Microsoft Server 2016, which takes 2-3 hours, apply new OS updates, then install and configure a myriad of applications, some Microsoft but most my own applications and server components, which takes another 3-4 hours of manual, menial tweaks.
I am more familiar with fast deployment processes, using docker or AWS to kick out a fully working system in minutes. I'm trying to find a similarly convenient process for my own.
Ideally, I'd like to take a machine that this has all been set up on already, make an exact carbon copy of that disk and just paste it onto a new machine. This should be very fast, I imagine, as it's simply transferring bits from one source (local PC) to one destination (remote server) and should require no lengthy install steps.
I spent a few hours looking through MDT documentation and tutorials, and played with it a bit myself and it didn't seem like it was capable of adding all of the intricate custom details and files I wanted to add. Furthermore, it seemed an awful waste of time to have to build this image piece by piece from scratch using a system I'm unfamiliar with, when I already have a machine that has the exact configuration I'd like to copy.
My first thought is to get this exact carbon copy into an .iso format. Ideally, this .iso would contain an exact carbon copy of the drive, along with a CDRom bootloader that performs the copy to a target hard drive. This way, I can connect to a fresh server with no OS, boot from CD, and perform this quick clone to the new drive, reboot and log in to an exact carbon copy of the original machine.
The problem is I cannot seem to find any tooling that does this. I've discovered the Windows Backup Image feature, which does seem to make a carbon copy of the system, however it's in a format that I would need to load along with a windows boot disc to restore from. If there is a way to convert that Windows Backup Image to a boot .iso that performs the "restore" to a fresh PC, that could potentially work as well, though I'm not sure whether it would be as efficient.
I'm sure there must be someone out there who does something like this for a living! How can I make a carbon copy of my system, in order to quickly and efficiently deploy it to new machines?