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- Overview
- Accessing Images Stored Locally
- Accessing Images Located on Network Shares
- Deploying to Dissimilar Hardware
Overview
The Macrium Deployment Kit enables golden images to be easily deployed to multiple endpoints, reducing the time taken to rapidly set up or reset machines to a clean state. The Deployment Kit enables a "technician's rescue media" to be created, which is a bootable media (often a USB drive or PXE server) that is used to deploy the golden image onto a target endpoint. Since the target endpoint is booted with the rescue media, it means images can even be deployed to bare metal systems.
Before following the steps in this article, we recommend creating the technician's rescue media by following the steps in this article, and then creating a golden image by following the steps in this article.
Booting the Target Endpoint
The first step is to boot the target endpoint with the deployment media. The steps required here will vary depending on the system that is being booted and the type of rescue media that is being used.
Generally, the system BIOS or UEFI should be accessed to either change the boot order or use a boot override setting. For more information on changing the boot device, we recommend contacting the system or motherboard manufacturer directly.
Once the rescue media has booted, the following screen will be displayed:
Locating a Golden Image
The rescue media will start on the 'Existing Backups' page. The rescue media will display any images that are found in the recent backup destination paths:
If the golden image is not displayed by default, additional steps can be taken to select the relevant golden image, whether it is stored locally or on a network share:
Accessing Images Stored Locally
Additional paths can be added to the list and searched for image files, using the 'Edit' button. In the window that opens, enter the path to the image and then select 'Add to list'.
After selecting 'OK', any images found in the path will be displayed in the 'Existing Backups' tab.
Alternatively, image files can be found using Windows Explorer included with the rescue media. Selecting 'Browse for an image file...' will open an Explorer window.
In the Explorer window, navigate to where the image file(s) are located, select the image that will be restored, then select 'OK':
The image and any other images that are part of the same backup set will be loaded into the 'Existing Backups' tab.
Accessing Images Located on Network Shares
To access an image stored on a network share, the share will first need to be mapped. To do this, select 'Browse for an image file...' then select the 'Map Network Drive' icon in the Explorer window that opens:
In the window that opens, the UNC path to the network share and the credentials that will be used to access the share can be entered:
|
Option
|
Description
|
|---|---|
| \\Server\share | Enter the UNC path to the root of the network share. Do not enter any sub-folders in the path |
| User name | Enter the authenticated user who has at least read access to the share. Domain credentials can be entered in the Domain\Username and Username@domain.com formats. |
| Password | Enter the password for the account was entered in the 'User name' field. |
After selecting 'OK', the share will be mapped and accessible through Explorer:
In the Explorer window, navigate to where the image file(s) are located, select the image that will be restored, then select 'OK':
The image and any other images that are part of the same backup set will be loaded into the 'Existing Backups' tab.
Deploying the Golden Image
To launch the image restore wizard, select the golden image that will be restored, then select 'Restore':
When restoring incremental and differential images, only the image that you want to restore needs to be selected. Macrium Reflect will automatically handle previous backups in the set, meaning that images can be restored in a single pass.
In the window that opens, the currently selected source disk contained in the golden image and the currently selected destination disk will be displayed.
| Option | Description | |
| Select a different source disk... |
If the disk image contains multiple disks, this option enables a different source disk to be selected. Note: When restoring multiple disks, disks must be restored one at a time. |
|
| Select a different target disk... | If the system where the restore is being performed contains multiple disks, this option can be used to change the disk that will be used as a destination for this restore. | |
| Copy Partitions | Shrink or extend to fill the target disk | If the destination disk is a different size from the source disk, selecting 'Copy Partitions' will display this option. Selecting this option will automatically resize partitions to use all unpartitioned space on a larger disk or fit a smaller disk. |
| Exact partition offset and length | If the destination disk is a different size from the source disk, selecting 'Copy Partitions' will display this option. This option will copy the partitions to the same location on the destination disk, they will also retain their original size. | |
| Erase Disk | Erases any partitions that are located on the destination disk in the wizard. The disk will not actually be erased until the restore starts. | |
| Delete Partition | Deletes the selected partition on the destination disk in the wizard. The partition will not actually be deleted until the restore starts. | |
| Undo | Undo the last activity. | |
| Float Left | This moves the partition to the left-most unpartitioned space on the destination disk. | |
| Float Right | This moves the partition to the right-most unpartitioned space on the destination disk. | |
| Fill Space | Expand the partition to use all unpartitioned space to the right of the partition. | |
| Layout | Opens the 'Partition Properties' window for more granular control over partition properties. | |
More information about modifying the destination partition properties can be found in this article.
Once you are happy with the layout and properties of the partitions on the destination disk, select 'Next':
The final page of the wizard contains a summary of the restore that will take place, providing a chance to navigate back to previous pages of the wizard and make changes to the settings that have been specified.
Selecting 'Advanced Options' in the bottom left of this page will enable additional options to be specified for the restore. These options are described here.
Select 'Finish' to start the restore:
If the restore requires partitions to be deleted/overwritten, you will be prompted to confirm the overwrite:
The restore is a destructive process; any data on the partitions shown in the window will be deleted. It is important to ensure that you are happy to overwrite the selected partitions before selecting 'Continue...'.
The restore will then begin, with the progress being displayed in the window that opens:
By default, the computer will automatically reboot once the restore has been completed. This can be changed using the 'After Restore' dropdown box:
Deploying to Dissimilar Hardware
If the golden image is being deployed to different hardware from where the golden image was created, we recommend running 'Macrium ReDeploy' to ensure that the deployed operating system is bootable on the new hardware.
Macrium ReDeploy can be found under the 'Existing Backup Tasks' menu on the 'Existing Backups' tab of the rescue media:
This article contains more information about running Macrium ReDeploy.
Once Macrium ReDeploy has been run, the target endpoint can be restarted and booted into the deployed Windows operating system.