I have been looking into tools to automate the creation of servers. For two different reasons:

• Production
• Development machines

I love the idea of the immutable server.

I have seen the tools demoed and used successfully on *nix boxes running Rails or Lamp etc.

Has anyone found a good way to do this in the Microsoft stack?

I would like to get in on the fun and create scripts that will install Windows, patch it according to specification, deploy Sql Server create scripts to build out a database and just for fun deploy SharePoint and configure it, and then deploy a SharePoint solution to it.

I can get part of the way, install Windows manually, install Sql Server manually, use Powershell to do all the configuration and setup. Install SharePoint and configure part of it, then powershell for the rest of the configuration and deploying a solution.

I would love to have the ability to run one script though, or at least one unified process.

I can, and have mostly used VM template images and then instantiated them, but the creation of the template is usually a manual step.