DeployAnywhere in DS 6.9 SP1
I know that SP1 for DS 6.9 was just released so most people haven't had a lot of time to play around with some of the added features and that responses may be scarce.
There is a new feature in SP1 called "DeployAnywhere". From what I gather, it was originally part of a Symantec product called, "Ghost Imaging Foundation". I am looking for more information on this feature. I noticed a new file called "GIF_user_gde.pdf" in the "Docs" folder after upgrading. The PDF is the User Guide for Symantec's Ghost Imaging Foundation. In the document there are 4 pages which talk about the DeployAnywhere component. After reading it, I'm still left with multiple questions.
The document was very vague. Does anyone know anything about this new feature or can anyone provide a link to where I might find more information?
I'm trying to determine which drivers are collected, is it all of them? (I read one post indicating the only the Mass Storage and NIC drivers were collected)
How are drivers collected with this tool? Do I have to mainly run the .exe's indicated in the GIF User Guide or is the a job which can be run?
One of my primary goals in implementing DS was to create a Hardware Independent Image. I have managed to create one which I can deploy to various models but the way I created it is not as "clean" as I'd like it to be. I'm hoping that this tool might be able to help cleanup some of the mess.
Any comments or thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thanks.
There is a new checkbox option in the Deploy Image task, that says something like "run deployanywhere". After the image is deployed, then while still running in the WinPE preboot environment, the deployanywhere utility will be run on the client. This tool analyzes the hardware, and then inserts into the production OS that was just deployed onto the hard drive, the drivers that are needed for that system. Included with DS 6.9 SP1 is a driver database collection of drivers (I'm not sure if it is limited to nic and mass storage or not). The drivers are taken from this database. There is a menu item on the Tools menu in the DS console, that launches one of the GIF (Ghost Imaging Foundation) tools to manage the database. This allows you to add additional drivers to the driver database.
Great Explanation. I too was hoping to find out more info and that seems to have hit the nail on the head. Thanks much!
"The happiness of your life, depends on the quality of your thoughts."
Thanks for the response. It looks like it only collects the Mass Storage drivers and NIC drivers.
Hopefully they expand the feature to include all drivers in the future.
DeployAnywhere does HAL, Mass Storage, and NIC drivers. You are able to add to the current library of drivers. DS7 (standalone) will incorporate drivers for more hardware (video, audio, etc).
DeployAnywhere Drivers
The Universal Imaging Utility has been terrific in getting us to a single cloning image - it's hardware independent and includes all the needed drivers, eliminating us from having to hunt for and gather them.
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