Features added in previous versions

• Bare Metal Server Manager
• Image Library
• Health Checks
• Bundle and Media Manager

Improved Usability and Serviceability

Support of Windows 10 to Windows 10 in-place upgrade deployments

Multicast support for in-place upgrade deployments

• In the bare metal profile.
• With the corresponding task (354).
• At the target computer with a dedicated user interface.

You can specify custom client settings during Linux Reimage and Bare Metal deployments

You can define custom client settings that can be used for running other tasks when deploying Linux targets.

Linux Partition editor in the Bare Metal Profile creation wizard simplifies partitioning.

You can specify partitions and logical volume layout (LVM) for Linux deployments for both BIOS and UEFI targets.

You can capture a Linux reference image for bare metal deployments

A new task is available to capture Linux images that you can use for bare metal deployments.

Linux Boot media

You can create Linux network boot media for targets that do not use PXE.

Multicast deployments

You can deploy Linux bare metal profiles using multicast for both captured and setup images.

Windows 10 in-place upgrade

You can complete an in-place upgrade to Windows 10 of your existing Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 Update your clients by using the corresponding task (202).

You can choose a BigFix Client version to be installed during a Bare Metal deployment of a manually captured Windows Image

If you are deploying a manually captured Windows image that does not contain a BigFix client, you can choose which version to install from the Wizard tab of the Bare Metal Profile. If the captured image already contains a BigFix client, the dashboard selection is ignored.

New tasks to capture and restore user state (USMT) on Windows targets, independently of deployments

Depending on the operating systems in your environment, two pairs of tasks are available. Captured data is stored on a network share. The tasks can be customized to include additional file extensions and content to be captured and restored on the target system.

• You can customize Bare Metal Profiles for multicast deployments
• You can create reimaging profiles for both captured and Setup (ISO) images for multicast deployments

New Check Drivers Tab in the Driver Library

You can select an image and computer model, or all images and all computer models in your environment and check if all the needed device drivers are available before you begin deployment. Based on the resulting table, you can import the missing drivers selectively and bind them to the computer models and images that you plan to deploy.

Non_PCI drivers can be bound to WinPE engines

You can now bind non-PCI drivers to WinPE engines from the Bindings tab.

VMware

This release adds the support of VMware ESXi 6 for Bare Metal deployments.

Windows 10 support for capturing, imaging, and Bare Metal deployments (Version 3.8.1)

OS Deployment 3.8.1 adds the support of Windows 10 and related tools (WADK 10 and MDT 2013 Update 1). To deploy Windows 10, you must create an MDT Bundle using the new tools.

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) Version 12
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) Version 12

• Upload the Bare Metal deployment logs from the Bare Metal Server to the BigFix server for Linux and Windows deployments
• For Windows, LiteTouch and Windows deployment logs are uploaded from the target to the Bare Metal Server at the end of the deployment for both successful and failed deployments.
• You can view the deployment activity end time in the activity details
• During the reimage of a Windows target you can enable real time logging of the LiteTouch phase on a user-defined network share for debugging purposes
• BigFix client installation during a Bare Metal Deployment is completed through the network instead of from stored setup files in the MDT Bundle.

• Import images for Windows deployments from ISO installation media:
  • in archived format by specifying the file name (.iso)
  • by selecting an ISO folder containing the uncompressed image files.

The new import from ISO feature enhances the reimaging capabilities for Windows platforms. You can now perform reimaging and Bare Metal deployments choosing between two different sources: from a captured image of a reference machine, or by deploying an image created from ISO. In the latter case, you can choose between different flavors of the operating system (if available) from the ISO image that you imported.

• Install the MDT Bundle Creator and all its prerequisite software.
• Create a MDT Bundle with or without OS resources.
• Create OS resources only
• Create CD, DVD, or USB bootable media for deployments to targets when PXE-boot through the network is unavailable.

The new Bundle and Media Manager dashboard simplifies the bundle creator installation and the bundle creation process by checking for installed prerequisites and helping you to make the correct choices for the operating systems you plan to deploy. The version of the User State Migration Tool (USMT) included in the bundle is displayed on the dashboard.

You can capture, reimage, or perform bare metal deployments on Windows 2012 R2 targets. You can also install a Bare Metal Server on this operating system. Deployment of Windows 2012 R2 requires a new version of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT 2013) and of the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (WADK) 8.1, which includes Windows PE 5. These new versions can also be used for earlier supported operating systems.

• You can define a timeout when you are creating or editing a bare metal profile. This value defines the maximum time the LiteTouch script that installs the WIM image is allowed to run.
• You can set a time limit for the caching of an image on the relay (Bare Metal Server) during a deployment.
• You can start, stop, restart, or view the status of Bare Metal server services.
• You can view if errors were recorded on server logs.
• For any given image linked to a system profile, you can view whether the corresponding WIM image is cached on the relay.
• You can customize the boot partition in the partition mapping for reimaging and bare metal deployments

You can capture, reimage, or perform bare metal deployments on Windows 8.1 targets. You can also install a Bare Metal Server on this operating system. Deployment of Windows 8.1 requires a new version of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT 2013) and of the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (WADK) 8.1, which includes Windows PE 5. These new versions can also be used for earlier supported operating systems. When you create a new MDT Bundle, you can choose the version of the tools that best suits your needs. A matrix of supported combinations is available.