Creating Master Image: Domain vs. Workgroup

[doxenberg]

In a large and distributed environment it is not practical to touch each machine you want to capture a Master Image from. According to the Snap Deploy user guide, Acronis recommends creating a Master Image using boot media which requires being at the computer to insert the CD from which to boot.
Today I tried to capture an image remotely from one of our Workstations before joining it to the Domain, and I can connect to the Workstation via Remote Desktop in either configuration (Domain member or Workgroup) provided the machine is up and running.
In Workgroup configuration I was not able to browse to the Network location of our image repository (which resides on a Domain member Server) where I wish to store the image. When I expand the Microsoft Windows Network node all I see is our current Workgroups, but none of our Windows Domains. I even tried using the UNC path but that did not work either.
After joining the target Workstation to the Domain and again attempting to remotely image the computer I was then able to see all the Domain nodes in the browse list.
Imaging the machine as a Domain member presents a problem, as any seasoned Windows professional knows, where users will not be able to log in to the Domain after the image is deployed to another machine.
I suspect I may have a workaround, but in the meantime I was wondering if anyone can tell me for sure whether adding the appropriate entries for the Server name (where the image repository resides) and IP address as well as the Domain name to the lmhosts file will work???
Thanks for sharing your experience or any ideas regarding this issue.

[doxenberg]

I tested remote image creation today and was successful in capturing an image from one of my Workstations configured as a Workgroup member. I wanted to share my results with other users here in the forum in the hope it may help should someone run into a similar situation.
I edited the LMHOSTS file on the target Workstation with entries appropriate for our Network environment. As I was stepping through all the dialogue boxes for the remote image creation process in the SD Managment Console, when I was prompted for a location to store the image all I saw in the browse list on the left were the Workgroups, not Domains. However, in the file name box I began to type the UNC path to the Network image repository and I immediately received a Network logon box asking for my user name and password. After entering my Domain credentials (it goes without saying you must have Domain Admin privileges to accomplish this) I finished entering the path to the image repository and from that point it was smooth sailing.
So, I hope this information is useful, and encourage others to share their nuggets as well.

[Acronis Support]

Hello doxenberg,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Complete System Deployment Software (http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/snapdeploy/).

Sharing your experience is very much appreciated.

If you have any further experience to share, please feel free to post it on this forum.

Thank you.
--
Kirill Omelchenko

[bobcrotch]

How frustrating, I just went through the same process today. You saved me more searching! I didn't really think that typing in the full UNC would work for the save location, I thought it was only for what you wanted to name the file.


BOOOO@Acronis for this bug! fix your bootable image, it shouldn't be that hard.

[deb0]

Good Stuff, thanks for sharing.