Capturing Images: Dell OpenManage Remote Install User's Guide

Capturing Images: Dell OpenManage™ Remote Install User's Guide

	Overview of the Capture Function		About Sysprep
	Capture for Backup		Capturing an Image
	Capture for Deployment

NOTE: See "Technical Notes" for additional information about image capture and deployment.

Overview of the Capture Function

You perform the capture operation on discovered systems in the Up, Capture Failure, or Admin state (Admin is a preoperating-system state). When capturing an image from a system, Remote Install reboots the system identified by a Service Tag, captures the content stored on the system's hard drive, creates an image, and stores the image in the storage location you specify.

When capturing a target system, you may select the following operations:

Capture for backup
Capture for deployment to other systems

The next two subsections describe these functions.

	NOTE: Dell recommends that you capture one image at a time.
	NOTE: If Remote Install is not able to complete the capture, the target system enters the Capture Failure state. See "Image Capture" troubleshooting section for possible solutions and instructions on retrying the capture.

Capture for Backup

You can use the image that you capture in this operation later for deployment back to the target system from which it was captured. In this operation, Remote Install does not modify any information on the target system. After you specify that the purpose of the capture is for backup of the target system, Remote Install reboots the target system to its active operating system and transfers a disk snapshot to the image server. When the capture process finishes, the target system boots to the Up state.

Note that deploying a backup image to any target system other than it was originally captured from will cause network conflicts unless the original target is removed from the network. For more information, see "Deploying a Backup Image."

	NOTE: To capture for backup, the target system must be in the Up or Admin state.
	NOTE: If you capture an image for backup from a target system that is in the Admin state, delete the target system from which you captured the image, and then redeploy the image back to the target system, the system enters the Unmanaged state. You must reinstall the Remote Install agents on the target system to allow reconfiguration of the system.

Capture for Deployment

You can use the image that you capture in this operation later to deploy to other systems. If the target system is running a Microsoft® Windows® operating system, the Windows Sysprep process is set to run later when the image is deployed to other systems. However, you might want to prepare the target system before the capture process by updating all required drivers and firmware. In addition, you must update the Sysprep.inf file as needed. See "About Sysprep" for more information.

When the capture process finishes, the target system boots to the Wait for Configuration state. You must configure the system to bring it back to the Up state.

NOTE: To capture for deployment, the target system must be in the Up state.

About Sysprep

Capturing Windows operating system images so that they can be deployed to other systems through Remote Install relies on Windows Sysprep technology. Before you capture the image for deployment on target systems, it is recommended that you capture the image for backup so that you can restore the image target system to its original state if necessary.

If you have installed any applications on the target system, such as services, ensure that they do not have any dependency with the target system's hostname, IP addresses, users, or groups, other than built-in Windows users and groups. If the system has these dependencies, you must execute scripts before capture to remove the dependencies. You can execute these scripts manually or you can use the Sysprep framework provided by Remote Install.

Sysprep is a tool designed for corporate system administrators and other personnel who need to deploy Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 on multiple systems. Sysprep assigns a unique SID to each target system the first time the system is rebooted. Sysprep also creates a miniature setup wizard, which runs the first time the target system reboots. This shortened GUI-mode setup takes five to six minutes instead of 45 to 60 minutes and prompts you only to accept the end user license agreement and to provide user-specific information, such as product ID, user name, and company.

During the Sysprep process, the target system is sanitized of the system ID, Windows built-in users/groups ID, and network configurations.

To use Sysprep, the following requirements must be met:

Sysprep runs only if the system is a member of a workgroup, not a domain.
You cannot run Sysprep on a system that has been configured as a Cluster Services server or a Certificate Services server. However, you can use Sysprep to duplicate a standalone system that will later be configured as a domain controller, a cluster services server, or a certificate services server.
The master and destination systems must have compatible HALs. For example, HAL APIC and HAL MPs (multiprocessor systems) are compatible, whereas HAL Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC) is not compatible with either HAL APIC or HAL MPs.
The mass storage controllers (IDE or SCSI) on the master and destination systems must be identical.
Plug and Play devices such as modems, sound cards, network cards, and video cards do not have to be the same, but drivers for those devices should be available.
The size of the destination system’s hard drive must be at least the same size as the master system’s hard drive. If the destination system has a larger hard drive, the difference is not included in the primary partition. However, you can use the ExtendOemPartition key in the Sysprep.inf file to extend the primary partition if it was formatted as NTFS.

When it captures an image for deployment, Remote Install transfers files in a Sysprep directory and runs a particular Sysprep batch file, depending the target system's operating system. If you have scripts that you want to execute during the capture for deployment operation, place them in the appropriate Sysprep directory and call the scripts from the appropriate batch file, as follows:

For Windows 2000, Remote Install transfers all the files and subdirectories from the <InstallDrive>\Dell\OpenManage\NetStart\Sysprep\WindowsSysprep directory to the target system and executes the windowsSysprep.bat file.
For Windows Server 2003, Remote Install transfers all the files and subdirectories from the <InstallDrive>\Dell\OpenManage\NetStart\Sysprep\dotnetSysprep directory to the target system and executes the dotnetSysprep.bat file.

During this process, Remote Install deletes the host name, IP, and SID settings.

Using the Sysprep.inf File

NOTE: You can obtain more information about the Sysprep.inf file from the Microsoft website or from the Support\Tools\Deploy.cab file on the Microsoft Windows 2000 CD or Microsoft Windows Server 2003 CD. Extract the Deploy.cab file to any directory and read the files deptool.chm and unattended.doc (for Windows 2000) or deploy.chm and ref.chm (for Windows Server 2003).

You can use the Sysprep.inf file to specify values for fields before you capture images. When you capture the image, Remote Install uses the values you specify in the Sysprep.inf file to set the values. As a result, the systems that you deploy with the image you capture have the values you specify in the Sysprep.inf file.

NOTE: Sysprep.inf is saved into the image and must be edited before you capture an image for deployment.

You must provide each Windows system with a product ID. You can use the Sysprep.inf file to set the product ID for a system in the image before it is captured. If you do not do this, Remote Install waits for you to enter the product ID after this image is deployed to a new system.

You can also modify Sysprep.inf to change time zone information in the TimeZone field of the Unattended section of the file. The default time zone in the provided Sysprep.inf file is 4 (Pacific Time).

Other commonly used fields include FullName and OrgName in the UserData section. You can specify these values before image capture so that the systems deployed with the captured image have the value specified in the Sysprep.inf file.

The location of the Sysprep.inf file varies by operating system, and it is important to use the correct file:

For Windows 2000, the file is at <InstallDrive>\Dell\OpenManage\NetStart\Sysprep\WindowsSysprep\Sysprep.inf.
For Windows Server 2003, the file is at <InstallDrive>\Dell\OpenManage\NetStart\Sysprep\dotnetSysprep\Sysprep.inf.

Capturing an Image

NOTE: If a target system has multiple logical drives (partitions), Remote Install captures all partitions into an image.

Capturing an image is a process of reading the contents of hard drives on the target systems and saving them to the storage managed by the image server.

Before performing image capture, it is recommended that you partition some extra space on the target system's hard drive. The definitions of file mode capture and sector mode capture that follow provide helpful information about options for partitioning extra hard-drive space on your target system. The example of the partition sizes on the target system's hard drive applies to both definitions.

Example:

A target system has an 18-GB hard drive. Drive C is a 4-GB NTFS partition. Drive D is a 4-GB NTFS partition. The remaining 10 GB of hard-drive space on the target system is unpartitioned.

File Mode Capture

File mode capture expands the last partition on your hard drive to fill the available hard-drive space, eliminating any unpartitioned free space that remains.

If you use file mode capture to capture an image from the target system with the hard drive described in the example above, you have the following results when you deploy the image to a system with an 18-GB hard drive: Drive C will be a 4-GB NTFS partition, but drive D will be a 14-GB NTFS partition, because file mode capture expands the last partition on your hard drive to fill the available hard-drive space.

Sector Mode Capture

Sector mode capture preserves the disk partitions exactly as captured and maintains any unpartitioned free space on the target system's hard drive.

If you use sector mode capture to capture an image from the target system with the hard drive described in the example above, you have the following results when you deploy the image to a system with an 18-GB hard drive: Drive C and D will remain exactly as they are in the example. Drive C and drive D remain at their original 4-GB NTFS partition sizes, with 10 GB of total hard-drive space remaining unpartitioned.

Recommended Steps Before Capturing an Image

Before capturing an image from the target system, it is recommended that you perform the following steps.

NOTE: Some users may choose to install applications that will be captured into the image. Some applications have a special license scheme that binds the application to specific hardware or software. Copying one application from one system to another by an image-based method may not work.

Identify the system from which to capture an image and ensure that Remote Install supports the target system.
Ensure that the target system is in a valid state for capture (the Up, Admin, or Capture Failure state).

Use the Systems→ Properties→ List function to view target systems under the management of Remote Install. If the system is not listed in the system list, connect the target system to the management network and power up the system. If a configuration file is associated with the Service Tag of the target system, Remote Install configures the system, which goes directly to the Up state. If a configuration file is not associated, the system goes to the Wait For Configuration state. See "Systems→ Configure → Configure" to configure the target system and bring it to the Up state.

NOTE: Systems can be brought to the Admin state from the Up state. See "How do I Change a System's State to Admin?"
Establish some unused space on the system's hard drive—space not used in any partition. This allows for more reliable deployments, as two hard drives whose available space is nominally the same may differ slightly in formatted size.
When considering the size of "extra space" partitions that you are creating, refer to the definitions of file mode and sector mode capture in the previous subsection. The method of capture that you select affects the amount of partitioned space that remains on a hard drive after capture.
Dell recommends that you create a small (100 MB) partition as the last partition on the system you are preparing to capture from. For example, on a disk with 18 GB of space:

Create a 17.6-GB partition for the operating system (the main partition).

Create a 100-MB partition as the last partition.

Image Capture Procedure

To capture an image from a target system, perform the following steps.

NOTE: (*) indicates a required field or task.

Click Systems.
Click Capture.
Select the system you want to capture from the list of discovered target systems and then click Next.

Enter the following parameters for image capture:
- Image name (*) — The name of the destination image to be captured. This image will be stored in the image storage.
- Description — Description of the image, target system, or any relevant information you want to enter.
- Capture mode (*) — Select Sector mode or File mode for the image capture.
  
  If you select Sector mode, Remote Install saves the data in all sectors of each hard-drive partition. Even if a small fraction of the partition's data capacity is used by the file system, Remote Install saves the entire partition, sector-by-sector.
  
  If you select File mode, Remote Install saves only data that is used by the file system on each partition. For example, at the time of the capture operation, if a partition size is 10 GB and the file system on that partition uses only 1 GB, Remote Install saves only approximately the 1 GB of data used by the file system.
  
  File mode is the default setting for Capture mode as long as a valid file system exists for the partition being captured. Otherwise, Remote Install uses sector mode.
  
  NOTE: You might have problems deploying an image that was captured from a hard drive that is larger than the target hard drive.
- Storage location (*) — The storage location to store the image.

Select Capture image for deployment to other servers or Capture image as a backup to be restored to this server. See "Capture for Deployment" and "Capture for Backup" for explanations of the differences between these two operations.

NOTE: If you are capturing from a system in the Capture Failure state, these options are disabled; Remote Install automatically uses the same option (deployment or backup) that you chose when you initially tried to perform the capture.

Click Capture to capture the image.

Remote Install displays a confirmation page.
Ensure the details of the image capture are correct and then click Confirm to continue with the capture.

Additional Notes for Capturing Windows Server 2003 Images

If the target system's Windows Server 2003 operating system was not installed by Dell, you may need to activate or reactivate the operating system after you perform a capture. See "Windows Server 2003 WPA Process" for more information.

Additional Notes for Capturing Red Hat Linux Images for Deployment

When you capture a Red Hat® Linux image for deployment, Remote Install transfers all the files and subdirectories from the <InstallDrive>\OpenManage\NetStart\sysprep\linuxsysprep directory to the target system and executes the linuxsysprep.sh file. During this process, Remote Install deletes the host name, IP, and DNS settings.

If you have scripts that you want to execute during the capture for deployment operation, place the scripts in the \linuxsysprep directory and call the scripts from the linuxsysprep.sh file.

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