The Microsoft Server Appliance Kit 2.0 enables original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to quickly create headless, fixed-function server appliance products based on the Microsoft Windows® operating system. The Server Appliance Kit also enables independent software vendors (ISVs) to quickly develop Web user interface (UI) and Local UI plug-ins that can be included in server appliance products, and provides documentation for independent hardware vendors (IHVs) to develop hardware reference platforms from which to build server appliance products.
The Server Appliance Kit includes build documentation, an OEM pre-install kit (OPK), a hardware reference specification, a driver development kit (DDK), a software development kit (SDK), and target software components. The target software components include a Web UI framework, Local UI framework, and Reliability framework. The Server Appliance Kit also provides features that plug into these frameworks to perform tasks such as configuring a network, setting date and time, setting the language, and updating server appliance software from a Web browser.