I'm running ColdFusion 9.0.0 Enterprise on CentOS 5.5 x86_64 with Apache 2.2.3 and connecting to databases on MS SQL Server 2005. I'm trying to automate new server set up and would like to know if it is possible to create new ColdFusion instances via the command line, rather than by browsing to the CF Admin site and clicking on Add New Instance. It seems to be possible to configure instances once they've been created by modifying the relevant xml files which are primarily in {cfserver_rootdir}/cfusion.ear/cfusion.war/WEB-INF/cfusion/lib/. But I don't know how to do the initial instance creation without the GUI.
If there is no way to trigger this via the command line, would it be reasonable instead to copy an existing instance and modify its configuration via the xml config files? If so, how would I go about registering it with the main cfusion instance, so that it shows up under Enterprise Manager - Instance Manager? Are there any potential problems with configuring instances this way?