Patent ID: 7580991

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving a design list for a plurality of network servers, the design list comprising functions of a network, amount of hardware for the network, type of hardware for the network and number of WAN IP addresses assigned to the network; generating a plurality of network designs for the plurality of network servers based upon a design rule and the design list, further comprising receiving a first network design of the plurality of network designs, and wherein the design rule determines a first server in the network is a gateway server layered in a network location, and wherein the gateway server is first in receiving all incoming data packets to the network; configuring software and hardware settings for the plurality of network servers in the network, the software and hardware settings including switches, jumpers, IP address, links, ports and values of software parameters, the configuration of the software and hardware settings based upon the design rule and the first network design wherein the software and hardware settings are determined to provide cohesive network settings operable to interconnect the plurality of network servers; building a respective digital image with the software and hardware settings for each of the plurality of servers, each design corresponding to a digital image for a respective network server, the plurality of servers having a different server type than the first server and operable to support dissimilar operations; and deploying each of the respective digital images onto the plurality of servers without user intervention except to provide the number of WAN IP addresses.