User guide

Table Of Contents

7 Deployment tools

Before deployment, each target machine must boot into a dedicated bootable component of Acronis

Snap Deploy 5. An example of such component is Acronis Snap Deploy 5 Agent.

The machine can boot into the component in either of these ways:

 From a physical media (such as a DVD or a USB drive) that contains the component. Such media

is called a bootable media.

 Over the network, by using Acronis PXE Server with the component uploaded to it.

This section describes how to create a bootable media or configure the PXE server.

7.1 Bootable components

Acronis Snap Deploy 5 has a number of bootable components that can perform operations on any

PC-compatible hardware, including bare metal and machines with unsupported file systems.

 Acronis Snap Deploy 5 Agent boots on a target machine to enable deployment performed by

Acronis Snap Deploy 5 OS Deploy Server (p. 102).

 Acronis Snap Deploy 5 Master Image Creator boots on a master machine and creates an image

of the system (p. 74).

 Acronis Snap Deploy 5 Standalone Utility boots on a target machine and performs deployment

on its own (p. 116).

 Acronis Snap Deploy 5 Command-Line Utility provides a command-line interface (p. 134) for

performing imaging and deployment, and for sending e-mail notifications about deployment.

 Acronis System Report boots on a machine, collects information about the machine, and saves

this information to a removable USB drive (such as a USB flash drive). For details, see “Collecting

system information” (p. 145).

7.2 Creating a bootable media

You can create two types of bootable media:

 Acronis bootable media (recommended in most cases) is based on a Linux kernel and contains

bootable components of Acronis Snap Deploy 5. To create this type of media, use the Acronis

Snap Deploy 5 Bootable Media Builder wizard (p. 65).

 WinPE-based bootable media is based on Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) and

contains bootable components of Acronis Snap Deploy 5. To create this type of media, use the

Acronis Snap Deploy 5 PE Builder wizard (p. 68).

Both types of media provide similar graphical user interface but differ in the set of bootable

components they contain. Generally, you can use an Acronis media. You may want to use a

WinPE-based media if the machine’s hardware, such as network adapters, is not properly recognized

from the Acronis media, or if you need to use the command-line interface.

You can create a bootable media on a physical media, such as a DVD or a USB drive. Acronis PXE

Server with uploaded bootable components can also be thought of as a kind of bootable media. That

is why you can create a bootable media or upload bootable components to the PXE server by using

the same wizards. Alternatively, you can configure the PXE server directly (p. 71).