Centralized Imaging/OS Deployment
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Clonezilla is my current choice to be used as a centralised image deployment tool. I hope FOG is not widely used by the community here. I would like to hear more about this, on what is being used by you all
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Year ago we bought a licence of Acronis True Image.
I still use it, I like it.
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I also use Clonezilla.
It has it's quirks - applying an image to a smaller drive than the size of the drive the image was taken from - while you can get it to work, it's a PITA sometimes. Getting it to boot in UEFI mode was also a PITA.
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@ambarishrh said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
Clonezilla is my current choice to be used as a centralised image deployment tool. I hope FOG is not widely used by the community here. I would like to hear more about this, on what is being used by you all
Windows Deployment Services on 2008R2SP1 =VM.
It does decent job for Installing Win7 machines with via Ethernet boot, its the only use for that VM.On separate note:
I once tried booting from Windows Repair ISO
https://www.sevenforums.com/attachments/tutorials/1010d1227511616-startup-repair-repair.jpg()
then launching notepad.exe from command line then opening the setup.exe file hosted on Linux Samba share I had Windows installation extracted from ISO, and I launched it and it installed... so that might be a poor man OS install centralizationWanted to use CloneZilla but it was difficult to me at that time, and I opted for WDS, plenty of options and you can add drivers easily, not sure if you can do this with CloneZilla. You just need to provide the .inf file to the boot image.
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We use WDS (and will eventually be moving to SCCM). I have used FOG in the past that worked really well.
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@dashrender said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
I also use Clonezilla.
It has it's quirks - applying an image to a smaller drive than the size of the drive the image was taken from - while you can get it to work, it's a PITA sometimes. Getting it to boot in UEFI mode was also a PITA.
I have zero issues performing either of those tasks.
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@ambarishrh said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
Clonezilla is my current choice to be used as a centralised image deployment tool. I hope FOG is not widely used by the community here. I would like to hear more about this, on what is being used by you all
I use clonezilla for this with no issues.
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@ambarishrh said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
I hope FOG is not widely used by the community here.
Out of curiosity why? It's an open source cloning tool that has/had some nice management features that I really liked.
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@dashrender said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
I also use Clonezilla.
It has it's quirks - applying an image to a smaller drive than the size of the drive the image was taken from - while you can get it to work, it's a PITA sometimes. Getting it to boot in UEFI mode was also a PITA.
You have to use the alternative ubuntu-based for UEFI.
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@black3dynamite said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
@dashrender said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
I also use Clonezilla.
It has it's quirks - applying an image to a smaller drive than the size of the drive the image was taken from - while you can get it to work, it's a PITA sometimes. Getting it to boot in UEFI mode was also a PITA.
You have to use the alternative ubuntu-based for UEFI.
Could you please share more details?
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@coliver said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
@ambarishrh said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
I hope FOG is not widely used by the community here.
Out of curiosity why? It's an open source cloning tool that has/had some nice management features that I really liked.
Just because I don't remember seeing much discussion on FOG, thought it's not being used by ML community
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@black3dynamite said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
@dashrender said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
I also use Clonezilla.
It has it's quirks - applying an image to a smaller drive than the size of the drive the image was taken from - while you can get it to work, it's a PITA sometimes. Getting it to boot in UEFI mode was also a PITA.
You have to use the alternative ubuntu-based for UEFI.
I spent one Sunday, about 6 hours downloading 15 different versions, making USB after USB.. ug.. finally got one to work after 6+ hours.
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https://www.smartdeploy.com/solutions/#device-drivers looks interesting, i like the driver management part as well, of course this is a licensed product, but I might get approval for that if clonezilla has issues
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@ambarishrh said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
@coliver said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
@ambarishrh said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
I hope FOG is not widely used by the community here.
Out of curiosity why? It's an open source cloning tool that has/had some nice management features that I really liked.
Just because I don't remember seeing much discussion on FOG, thought it's not being used by ML community
I don't use fog because I don't care about PXE booting. I boot from a USB, connect to a network share, pick my image and pull it down.
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@ambarishrh said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
@black3dynamite said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
@dashrender said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
I also use Clonezilla.
It has it's quirks - applying an image to a smaller drive than the size of the drive the image was taken from - while you can get it to work, it's a PITA sometimes. Getting it to boot in UEFI mode was also a PITA.
You have to use the alternative ubuntu-based for UEFI.
Could you please share more details?
http://clonezilla.org/downloads.php
"All versions of Clonezilla live support machine with legacy BIOS. If your machine comes with uEFI secure boot enabled, you have to use AMD64 version of alternative (Ubuntu-based) Clonezilla live." -
We have a massive migration that's about to happen in a month.win 7 to 10 upgrades and I think choosing a right image deployment solution at this point is critical. And ongoing deployment would be easier with a centralised image deployment. I see that the help desk team spending a lot of time on system installation and configuration
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@ambarishrh said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
https://www.smartdeploy.com/solutions/#device-drivers looks interesting, i like the driver management part as well, of course this is a licensed product, but I might get approval for that if clonezilla has issues
Anyone used smartdeploy?
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You can build as much or as little setup into your images as you want - just be prepared to make Sysprep Answer files and first time run scripts, etc.
from my experience, the only difference between Fog and Clonezilla (well, other than one is a server and the other is booted from a CD/USB) is that Fog is typically used to boot PXE on the workstations, then you pick your image and deploy. But now in reading the Clonezilla page, Clonezilla can do this too.
Both can do multicast deployments (setup many machines to receive the same image at the same time.
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Yeah I use SmartDeploy. Love it. I can deploy over network or USB. Actually choose USB most of time though. I made an image with our software, loaded all the drivers I will ever need, created an answer file, boot to USB, don't have to touch it again until its ready to log in which I then do so to rename computer per our naming scheme.
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@jmoore said in Centralized Imaging- Clonezilla:
Yeah I use SmartDeploy. Love it. I can deploy over network or USB. Actually choose USB most of time though. I made an image with our software, loaded all the drivers I will ever need, created an answer file, boot to USB, don't have to touch it again until its ready to log in which I then do so to rename computer per our naming scheme.
Can you automate things like joining AD
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