Consider you have to install 10 similar instances it will be really boring to repeat the same steps 10 times, in this scenarios installation using configuration file will be very helpful , configuration file provides the setup all the input which is required to complete the installation so it save a lot of manual inventions and time
Configuration file location can be obtained from the ready to install page in the installation wizard, normally when i do a bulk of implementation i go with GUI installation for the first instance and rest i use the configuration file created in the first installation , we can also have some template configuration files like Database engine only , engine plus analysis service etc so the we can use them for future unattended installation
Configuration file path can be obtained from ready to install page of the SQL Server installation wizard
We can user the configuration file either from the installation wizard or command prompt as shown below
Configuration file can be invoked from command prompt by giving the below command
In the below snap shot i have done an unattended installation
