Building Images for Deployment - Template Machine
To build Images for deployment, a Template Machine needs to be configured to contain the software and settings that need to be deployed.
Note: In most cases, it is recommended that the Template Machine be built using a Virtual Machine.
The ability to preserve snapshots with a virtual machine allows for quickly rolling Images back if problems or situations occur where multiple Images need to be created quickly.
If you require a virtual environment to build Images on, several free/open-source offerings can provide the required environment to build images. One option is Oracle's Virtual Box, which supports several platforms and is downloadable from https://www.virtualbox.org/.
As the Images captured by the Faronics Deploy Imaging process are generalized before the capture process, there is little practical difference in building the Template Machine virtually or physically.
When building Images and considering what to install on the Template Machine, Administrators have two basic approaches.
- 1.Install every possible application onto the Template Machine and then capture the Image (a Monolithic Image).
- 2.Install only basic common applications and then apply an Application Preset to the device to install anything required after the imaging process is completed (a Lite Image).
Building Monolithic Images result in a larger Image file that may take longer to apply to the system and may require less interaction after the imaging process is completed.
Building a Lite Image results in an Image that will quickly deploy over the network and can be reused as the basis for more than one set of machines, but that may require additional steps to be ready for use by the end-user