Snap Deploy 3 for Workstation

Complete PC system deployment solution using disk imaging technology All private and public sector organisations (businesses, schools, federal/state/local governments, etc.) face increasing challenges when configuring and deploying new PCs and workstations in a distributed environment. Having a deployment solution that enables them to use a standard configuration for a new machine will significantly decrease support expenses. Acronis® Snap Deploy® 3 for Workstation is a comprehensive deployment solution that enables IT organisations deploy or restore laptops and desktops quickly and easily. Note that this version of the product does not support server operating systems.

As well as disaster recovery, disk imaging can be used to deploy new PCs without having to install an operating system and then configure application software and custom settings every time. Snap Deploy from Acronis takes this one step further, adding tools to enable images to be pushed out to bare PCs and configure them remotely with the whole process automated, if required.

It sounds straightforward, but there's a lot in the Snap Deploy package and a number of different modules, not all of which are needed in every case.

The first requirement is to capture a disk image from a reference PC. Almost any version of Windows can be imaged including, in the latest 3.0 release, both 64-bit and 32-bit implementations.

Images are quite large so can be saved onto optical (CD/DVD) disks for manual installation or to hard disk and network shares for remote deployment. A custom Deploy Server is provided to handle the distribution, this component using multicast technology to push images out simultaneously to multiple PCs over the network.

Of course the server has to find and identify the PCs involved and they may not be bootable, so you do need to first install a Snap Deploy Agent on each one, either from a bootable CD or via a Pre-boot eXecution Environment (PXE) server, an implementation of which is also included. Wake-on-LAN (WoL) support is also built in, enabling PCs to be powered up from standby as part of the process.

The whole operation is managed from a custom Windows console with images either deployed manually - by selecting targets from a list - or automatically, with distribution kicked off when a pre-set number of targets have been discovered. Images can be password protected for security while templates allow for customisation of settings such as the Windows workgroup or domain, Security Identifier (SID) and so on. You can even deploy to different hardware from that used to create the image, by adding the optional Universal Deploy module

Management Console

The Acronis® Snap Deploy® 3 for Workstation Management Console provides centralised management of deployments across the network. From the management console you can:

• Deploy images to multiple PCs simultaneously — select systems on the network to deploy the image
• Standalone image deployment — deploy systems even if network is not accessible
• Fully automated deployment — new deployment options include Wake-on-LAN and deployment scheduling
• Configuration management — create, edit, and delete software configurations
• Create standard images — clone existing systems and save the images
• Check images — ensure image integrity before using for deployment
• Create bootable media — boot a bare system locally
• Configure Acronis PXE server — boot a bare system from the network without bootable media
• Manage files on remote systems — create and edit files/ folders on a deployed system
• Execute applications on remote PCs — create scheduled tasks to run applications on a deployed system
• View results of deployment operations — open deployment logs
• Fully compatible with Acronis Snap Deploy 2.0 and other Acronis products — Acronis Snap Deploy 3 for Workstation is capable to deploy images created with Acronis Snap Deploy 2.0 and Acronis True Image Echo

Acronis Snap Deploy 3 for Workstation

Acronis Universal Deploy

Universal Deploy provides a simple way for you to deploy new systems with different hardware. A standard configuration image can easily be deployed to identical hardware. However, while this method works for systems with the same hardware, it can fail with machines running different hardware. Systems in such cases may fail to boot because the critical Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and mass storage device drivers are missing. While Microsoft SysPrep technology allows you to import plug-and-play drivers, such as sound, video, and network drivers, it does not allow you to import the drivers required to boot the machine.

Universal Deploy provides an efficient solution for hardware-independent system deployment by allowing you to install the crucial HAL and mass-storage device drivers in an image. With this feature you can automatically or manually select the HAL and mass-storage device drivers to fit the target hardware, ensuring that newly deployed systems with different hardware are deployed properly.

Configuration Management

Acronis® Snap Deploy® 3 for Workstation provides configuration management to perform pre- and post-deployment tasks that simplify deployment and ongoing maintenance of systems:

Pre-deployment tools

• Create a standard PC image of an entire existing hard disk drive or selected partitions
• Save the image to almost any device such as: a hard disk drive, a network drive, a removable storage device
• Compress the image by selecting from one of four compression levels
• Add user account information by entering username and password for target systems
• Assign names to PC's using wild cards to generate unique names
• Assign domain/workgroup membership of PCs
• Set Internet protocol (IP) settings automatically or manually
• Assign DNS server properties automatically or manually
• Change the Security identifier (SID)
• Edit and delete PC configurations

Post-deployment tools

• Manage files on remote systems by creating and editing files/folders
• Execute applications on remote PC's by scheduling tasks