OS Snapshot Best Practices
AdminStudio 2021 | 21.0 | OS Snapshot Wizard
Edition:OS Snapshot Wizard is included with AdminStudio Professional and Enterprise Editions.
Before capturing OS Snapshots, consider the following:
|
Guideline |
Description |
|
Capture on a Clean System |
For optimal OS Snapshots, you should only capture on a clean system. This ensures an accurate baseline of files necessary for the operating system. This also means that you should never attempt to capture other packages in addition to the operating system. Use Repackager when you need to capture applications. |
|
Exit Other Applications |
Shut down all other applications besides OS Snapshot prior to capture. Ideally, this should be done from the Windows Task Manager. This ensures that files are not locked during capture, and unnecessary temporary files are not inadvertently captured. |
|
Only Use OS Snapshot for Import into Application Catalog |
Never attempt to convert an OS Snapshot file into a Windows Installer package to install an operating system. AdminStudio does not support this use of OS Snapshots. |
|
OS Snapshots Take Time |
Depending on the operating system configuration, OS Snapshot often takes a significant amount of time to capture the base OS state. Consider that many typical OS installations exceed 500MB and contain tens of thousands of files, translating into a lengthy operation of cataloging and converting the files into an OS Snapshot file. |
|
Take Multiple OS Snapshots |
If your environment contains either multiple operating systems, or variations on the same operating system, take snapshots of each OS or variation. You can store all of these in your Application Catalog, allowing you to make comparisons between MSI packages and each OS. |
|
OS Snapshots and Repackaging Are Not the Same |
OS Snapshots, as the name implies, is for snapshots of the operating system only. Repackaging is only for traditional installation packages. These operations, although similar, are still very specialized and should only be used for their respective purposes. |