@george1421 Yes - like deepfreeze. I am able to schedule an image deployment using FOG cron. Would I do:

• 5 PM backup of the golden image on the server
• 6 PM DEPLOY golden image at 6 PM (done through FOG task CRON scheduling)
• 7 PM use crontab to update/upgrade with the system running after the deployment, what/how do I run an upgrade and update (i.e. what single command could I run in CRONTAB to accomplish this?) I could run an Ubuntu system upgrade once per month or so. Or do all these updates and upgrades run automatically – how can I set the time?
• 7:50 PM do a CRONtab reboot 50 19 * * * /sbin/shutdown -r +5
• 8 PM CAPTURE new golden image (done through FOG task CRON scheduling)
• 9 PM DEPLOY new golden image to the entire computer lab (.done through FOG task CRON scheduling)

BTW, I have FOG on the client machine (at least it runs at boot, using PXE)

@pauleb We need FOG also to maintain the system already (sending out a current version of the image to eliminate student changes and stored files in a school) and would like to add in keeping the system up to date (updates and upgrades).

So, I was hoping to deploy an image, update it, capture an image, and then deploy the image to all machines. But I do not know how to accomplish this sequence.

Is there a way to use FOG to keep a room of Ubunutu clients updated? My thoughts were to update a machine, pull an image and then deploy it to the entire lab again. But how is this done in an automated fashion? (like at 3 AM on Monday morning - with no user interaction)

@george1421 Thank you for the further details. I am currently trying your suggestion.

You wrote “Also the sysprep process both before and after capture resets…” Are you saying that I should NOT run sysprep at all once I have the system setup the way I wanted and instead use C:\Windows\Panther\unattend.xml ? How can I know what and where to put into unattend.xml?

I am new to imaging and would like to copy a working machine with software installed onto 20 other machines with little or no intervention after the image has downloaded. My first attempts had me copying winload.efi onto the new drive and so I ran sysprep but then had to rebuild my user account. I’m not sure what to do with an answer file which is to be used with sysprep:

Here is the command I tried running before capturing the image

C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\sysprep.exe /oobe /generalize /unattend:%UserProfile%\Desktop\deploy.xml

but it does not succeed.

Any pointers on what I am not doing right? or how to proceed?
Thank you.