Universal Imaging Concepts

From CoolSolutionsWiki

Having one image for all PC platforms became possible with the advent of XP and the corresponding version of sysprep. This "document" is to clear up many misconceptions by network/pc admins out in the field.

  • XP sysprep strips most items out of the HAL so that it will boot on virtually any system
  • Sometimes you need to mess around with the sysprep file to configure mass storage drivers, but that's beyond this docs scope.
  • vmware works well for building a base image, but there are caveats with the scsi controller and you must get the vmware driver. There is information in ENGL's forums about this (http://www.engl.co.uk)
  • The basic way of building an image is to do the following 
  * Create a clean install
  * put all the drivers for all your computers in the image in a directory that sysprep will scan on boot
  * take an image
  • The above method is cumbersome, but it does work
  • ENGL leverages add-on images heavily to keep a very streamlined base image and only push down the appropriate drivers as an add-on image.
  • It would be possible to script all this (ENGL did it) to allow you to use the add-on image method to push just the drivers you need. However, if you don't have the oodles of time, you would be wise in considering ENGL's Imaging toolkit.
  • Multi-core CPUs are a little more complicated. Some suggest using a single-core image and then using some method to update just the files that affect the core. There is a coolsolution on this topic.

Even if you're not interested in purchased ENGL's products, this document "in a nutshell" tells you imaging issues that come up and some ways to work around them. http://www.engl.co.uk/products/scenarios.htm


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