8 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2012.
1.2.1 Taking an image of the master system
First, you create the desired system configuration and save the image of the system hard disk to a
network folder, detachable media (such as a USB hard drive) or removable media (such as a DVD). An
image, also called a master image, is a file that contains the system in a packaged form.
Scenarios
Scenario 1
Each department in your organization, such as accounting, sales, and technical support, uses a
fixed set of applications for daily work.
You create a library of master images. For example, you create one image for each department.
You then deploy these images to new hardware without having to manually configure the
operating system and applications.
Scenario 2
You need to deploy a standard configuration included in a master image, to machines with
different hardware.
You use the separately-sold Acronis Universal Deploy add-on. This add-on configures Windows
system drivers so that Windows is able to boot on dissimilar hardware. Without this add-on, the
motherboard, processors, and mass-storage devices of the imaged and the target hardware must
be identical. The same applies to non-Windows operating systems.
1.2.2 Deployment to specific machines (immediate, manual, and
scheduled deployment)
You can perform deployment to a specific list of machines with known physical addresses (called
MAC addresses). The deployment can run immediately after you set it up, on a schedule, or when
you start it manually.
These ways of deployment are also known as manual deployment and scheduled deployment.
When the deployment is about to start, the software will power on the target machines with
predefined MAC addresses by using the BIOS Wake-on-LAN (WOL) functionality.
Machines in another subnet can be woken up through a component called Wake-on-LAN Proxy,
which is delivered with Acronis Snap Deploy 4. The machines typically boot into the PXE server that is
installed in the same subnet.
Machines that do not support Wake-on-LAN can be booted into the Acronis environment manually
before the deployment starts. Such machines will also be deployed, provided that they are listed for
deployment.
Scenarios
Scenario 1. An organization receives a shipment of machines from a manufacturer along with the list
of their MAC addresses. The IT department has to deploy the operating system to the new hardware.
Scenario 2. An Internet café, school or university lab has 100 machines with known MAC addresses.
The nightly deployment of the initial standard image on these machines is needed.
