Post-Image Software Installations
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Hello!
I’m new to FOG and am trying it out as a potential replacement for Acronis Snap Deploy. In Snap Deploy, we have a master image and we have created deployment tasks for each of our departments. Each department has different software packages to install. I have all of the installers for the software packages baked into the master image. The deployment tasks each execute a different batch file, which installs all of the packages. I’d like to know the best way to go about this with FOG. It looks like the Snapins are an option, but they seem to be associated with an image.
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If I were to do it this way, wouldn’t I have a different image for each department? This would take up significantly more storage space on the machine that hosts FOG, which ends up being a lot more to manage as time goes on.
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Is there another way to select which packages install on every machine we image, without having to go to the FOG console, and assign them to each computer?
We are deploying Windows 11 images, if it’s of any consolation.
Thanks in advanced!
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Hi mwestaph,
I am also new here but I believe I can take a crack at your image.
Snapins I feel are great, they automatically install after your machine is imaged. The other tool you would want to consider here are the “Groups” feature. While this isn’t a traditional group where new hosts inherit group settings, its a good way to apply settings on mass.Here is my basic setup:
I have 2 images and 6 groups. I then onboard all of the client machines / hosts and assign them to the appropriate group. In the group setup, I then choose the correct image and snapins for that group. This applies these settings to all associated hosts (ie. All current hosts that are associated with this groups now have the same settings.)
The only downside currently is if you need to assign a new host machine to this group, you need to re-apply the image and snapin settings for the group to apply it appropriately to this machine.Let me know if this helps and if there is anyone more experienced out there feel free to tell me if I am wrong.