Cloning a machine after SQL Server 2008 R2 Express installation

Question

We're rolling out laptops to some of our staff that will require SQL Server 2008 R2 Express be installed. We'd naturally prefer to do the setup of the laptops (including the installation SQL Express) once and then clone it to the other 50 or so machines. Will the cloning cause problems with SQL Express? Should we consider doing that install manually after the cloning instead?

Answer 1

Hmmm... good question. I'm thinking there's going to be at least one task needed: Running sp_dropserver and sp_addserver on each laptop after they boot into the cloned image. I'm sure there's probably more and to be honest I'm not even sure that imaging is a supported operation with SQL installed.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174310.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174411.aspx