I want to setup a data server as a VM. So I decided I'd go with Windows Server 2003 x64 (smaller footprint than 2008) and SQL Server 2008 x64 Standard (preferred database). I will have a separate disk for databases, so system disk shouldn't be affected by growing databases.
I'd choose Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core (that would probably take less disk space than 2003), but installing SQL 2008 on it isn't supported by MS (even though it's now possible (as I can read on the net) since R2 has .net framework included).
By choosing older server product I can have a smaller disk footprint size (taken by OS), but it will grow in time because of all the patches and service packs.
What can I do to have AND KEEP small disk footprint of this installation even in the future? I would like to have my server patched an up to date, but I don't want system disk size to grow...
Edit: Small disk footprint meaning I would like to make the smallest VM disk size possible to install my database server (with ie. 1GB free space). I would also like to avoid future disk resizes due to patches/service packs etc.