Unusually Large Rdeploy Image
Typically our corp baseline image using ghost is around 4-5GB.
I was recently tasked to begin setting up imaging for other models of systems in the environment using rdploy and firm through DS 6.8. We currently perform remote imaging for one model (Dell Optiplex 620) so all our scripts and driver injection are in working order.
However, when I created a new baseline image and created a self extracting .exe image using rdploy 6.9, the image grew to about 7.72GB. When I used rdeploy, I left the default compression as is: Optimize for size, could this be the issue? It spans across 4 files winxp.exe winxp.002, winxp.003, winxp.004
I have looked over the obvious, hibfil.sys, hibernat.sys, pagefile.sys, removed any unnecessary files and I can not get the image to shrink any further.
Keep in mind, this is baseline with no drivers, no added manufacturer applications, slim as possible.
Any assistance would be appreciated.
wow, that is huge. When you
wow, that is huge. When you bring down the image, how large does it say on the harddrive itself? If it is still the same size, do this.. get a program like tree sizes or something and see where it may be coming from.
When creating my images, i always do speed & size.
I got my image down to 2.6gig with all patches installed and a few extra patches for .net, xml, powershell, and a few small apps we use. After the image goes down we have it instlal office, communicator, and a few other apps that my company uses.
So do this, bring down the image, do a foldersizes or tree sizes on it and see where the data is. May be some kind of temp files or a copy of an image in your image.
This is with no apps like AV
This is with no apps like AV or anything? Our patched baseline is 1.5gb with the default compression setting. Anything over 2 seems too big. Could the issue be you need to turn off system restore before you install anything such as patches and what not? Are you using a slipstreamed volume licensed CD?
Running TreeSize as mentioned may help find the culprit.
That is actually true.
That is actually true. I just recently removed office communicator and other applications from our image and have them installed after the image is deployed. I was looking at our old image with office in it.
Feeling Dumb...
Aen - used your suggestion of TreeSize from Jam Software, showed me exactly what was wrong: hidden restore directory and among some other misc installers not needed.
Sometimes, it's good to get another perspective.
Thanks all.
Glad you found it man!
Glad you found it man!
Suggestion
You might disable System Restores for the imaging. That will eliminate the "hidden restore directory".
My current university image
My current university image is 33 gigs (impossible to create in msdos). I laugh at your tiny 7 gig image.
My god, what do you have in
My god, what do you have in that image!?!? How long does it take you to image? Hope everything is at 1gig links ROFL. I dont see a portal image on a disk/usb key chain (well, might be some 64gig ones).
o.O
I have...
XP SP3
Office 2003
Office 2007
Adobe CS3
Arcgis Desktop
Matlab
MS Visual Studo w/MSDN
Lot's of other class software. Takes about 1-3 hours. Multicasting is slower. Remember, the newer version of a software takes up 150% more space than the previous version. I think that might be Moore's law?
Further Discussion...
So I turned off System Restore, that go rid of 1GB. Set Pagefile to zero in preperation for sysprep, dropped another 1GB.
Now down to 5GB.
My next question is viewing with TreeSize, I noticed a lot of windows installer files located in:
Are you guys using Microsoft Windows Installer Cleanup Utility to cleanup any unneccessary installer files? If so, are you using the following command: C:\Program Files\Windows Installer Clean Up\msizap G!
Thanks!!
My .02 cents
You said in your original post that there were no manufacutrer installs but I see some (that also explains the WINDOWS\installer folder size). Are you inheriting someone elses base image or did you build this thing from the ground up with a Scripted OS install? I recommend doing a SOSI and starting from scratch if you aren't already.
My volume license build is as follows:
How exactly is WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution being used? It doesn't seem like you should need that. Beacause you are installing some apps like Oracle...etc into your image, you are just going to have to deal with the larger size. Why don't you leave them out and do unattended installs of those programs as post tasks? I think if you actually do the math you are saving bandwidth by installing them after the image is put down. You will lose some imaging time, but it should still be under an hour start to end. Also when the next version of one of those apps comes out you can update your process without changing the image. To me using the windows installer clean up sounds like a bad idea. Doesn't that even have some disclaimer before it opens or before you download it that you should try other uninstall methods first? If you need to deploy and update, or even a new version of one of the base apps in your image you may have screwed yourself if you ran that utilty. All kinds of weird uninstall errors or issue could come up due to missing install histories and logs.
I agree with this
I agree with this completely.
It looks like you are using Software Delivery to install either patches or software to your PC that you imaged. What you can do, is just add the patches to your scripted install and do the SVCPACK.INF. What i do is, download all of the latest patches and put them into the unattend file and every quarter update them. Sysprep that image and upload it.
All applications besides some base MS packages are installed via a task that i have run AFTER the the base image is put down on the machine and with a couple of tasks, they install all of the software applications. Even have some of them as SVS files.
This makes your deployments very scalable and not have to redo a lot when adding new patches. Tasks are your friend!
We do use SWD but this is not
We do use SWD but this is not the path for SWD cached installs and I never use Altiris to deploy MSFT updates. This is MSFT related cache folders from what I can discover unless someone else can advise otherwise.
Don't get me wrong, I love tasks and I have plenty of those for non-std or hotfixes based on desktop or laptop. But I really don't see how your multiple tasks for adding patches is any better than building inside the baseline. Why not use Windows Update?
Maybe I need to get a refresher on best industry practices for image creation...anyone have any documented process they would like to share so I can do a comparo?
My .01 cent...
I'm updating an existing baseline used in production. Using rdeploy, restore the image and update then create new self extracting .exe.
Regarding C:\windows\softwaredistribution - this is windows based not Altiris or other deployment tool. My date stamps are all 8/21 or 8/25 which are the dates I updated baseline with windows update. Perhaps you don't have this file directory because you're not performing windows update for yoru baseline???
As for the other manu app's (oracle, etc.) you're right, I will need to eat the footprint but that is small by comparison to the cached install / uninstall folders I'm looking at today.
If this is your existing
If this is your existing production then it could just be residual stuff. I do not use Windows Update, that must be the reason for some of the additional folders. I'd say the underlying size could be that the system restore was on before this image was patched on day 1. You may have fixed that for your build this time, but the only way to totally address it would be to start over, no system restore, no windows update (script the patches with /passive /norestart), slipstreamed SP3. If that isn't an option then you probably have about as slim of an image as you are going to get.
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