Developing a Compliant Hardware Platform

If you are developing hardware that is compliant with the Microsoft Server Appliance Kit hardware reference specification, you will be most interested in the hardware development kit and Driver Development Kit sections of the Help documentation. The following instructions will lead you through the development of a compliant hardware platform.

Prerequisites

• Development system with Windows 2000 Server or Advanced Server installed on standard computer hardware
• Server Appliance Kit 2.0 CD

To develop a compliant hardware platform

1. Install the Server Appliance Kit from a CD onto your development system. In the Setup Wizard, choose to install the development tools, and choose one of the three configurations: Web, NAS, or custom. Accept the default components.
2. View online Help by Choosing Start, and then pointing to Programs, and then pointing to Microsoft Server Appliance Kit, and then choosing Server Appliance Kit Documentation.
3. Read the Hardware Development Kit section to view the recommended hardware extensions for server appliances.
4. Design your hardware components.
5. Develop the following hardware components:
   • Keypad hardware
   • Local display hardware
   • NVRAM hardware
   • OS failover mechanism – This is the capability to allow the system to failover to a different partition or different drive when the primary OS fails for N times. This can be done through BIOS modification together with NVRAM and watchdog.
   • Watchdog timer hardware
6. Read the Driver Development Kit Help section to see the required drivers for any server appliance hardware extensions.
7. Design your driver software components.
8. Develop any of the following driver software components:
   • Keypad device driver
   • Local display driver
   • NVRAM driver
   • Watchdog timer driver
9. Package your driver components so that your customers can easily install them. This will typically be done using either a .bat or .msi file.
10. Build your hardware.
11. Install Microsoft Windows 2000.
12. Install your drivers.
13. Install the Server Appliance Kit from CD onto your newly-created hardware.
14. Test your hardware, drivers, and BIOS to verify that they work correctly with the Server Appliance Kit.

Once you have verified the quality of your hardware, drivers, and BIOS, you are ready to distribute them to your customers.

Related Topics

Keypad Behavior

Local Display Behavior

NVRAM Behavior

Watchdog Timer Behavior