User guide

A machine becomes ready for deployment after it boots to Acronis Snap Deploy 4 Agent from a

bootable media or a PXE server, and then connects to Acronis Snap Deploy 4 OS Deploy Server.

In addition, you can run any deployment task manually from the Deployment tasks view (p. 131).

A deployment task runs according to a deployment template (p. 80). When creating the task, you can

create a deployment template or specify an existing one.

10.4.1 Prerequisites

Before proceeding with the deployment, make sure that:

 You have installed the following components: Acronis Snap Deploy 4 Management Console,

Acronis Snap Deploy 4 License Server, Acronis Snap Deploy 4 OS Deploy Server, and (optionally)

Acronis PXE Server. All these components are already installed if you performed a typical

installation (p. 40).

 You imported a sufficient number of licenses (p. 16) to Acronis Snap Deploy 4 License Server.

 You created a master image by using either bootable media (offline imaging (p. 68)) or Acronis

Snap Deploy 4 Management Agent (online imaging (p. 68)).

Procedures in this section assume that you have performed these steps.

10.4.2 Deployment to specific machines

Deployment to a specified list of machines can run immediately, manually, or on a schedule.

When the deployment is about to start, the software uses the Wake-on-LAN (WOL) functionality of

the BIOS to wake up (turn on) the machines in the list.

Acronis Snap Deploy 4 wakes up each machine by sending a special packet, called the magic packet,

to all network adapters of the machine.

Machines in another subnet can be woken up through the Acronis Wake-on-LAN Proxy component,

which is delivered with Acronis Snap Deploy 4.

The woken up machines then boot into Acronis Snap Deploy 4 Agent.

You can manually boot machines that do not support Wake-on-LAN, before the task starts. Such

machines will also be deployed, provided that they are listed for deployment.

A best practice for this type of deployment is to use Acronis PXE Server for booting the machines.

Alternatively, you can boot the machines by using a bootable media.

10.4.2.1 Preparation steps

This section describes how to prepare deployment to a specified list of machines.

Getting MAC addresses

Media Access Control address (MAC address) is a 48-bit physical (hardware) address of a network

device. In Windows, the physical address can be obtained by running the command

ipconfig /all or by selecting Local Area Connection -> Status -> Support -> Details (in

Windows 7, you can access this option from the Network and Sharing Center).