A new way to completely install and configure your systems and servers—from OS
installation to application deployment, patching and configuration—using a single task.
Benifits of Provisioning with LANDesk®
- Offers repeatability and predictability using a consistent,
template-based approach.
- Enables full system configuration
with control and customization in
a single continuous operation.
- Saves time by reducing total
configuration time-to-readiness.
- Lets you perform configuration
prep work before hardware
arrives on-site.
- Supports full machine provisioning,
simple configuration and single
application deployment.
- Enables flexible OS deployment
using images or scripted installs.
- Gives deployment teams maximum
flexibility by supporting PXEbased
boot or local media boot.
What is Provisioning with LANDesk Management Solutions?
It’s a way to define the optimal baseline configuration for each of your servers, desktops
and laptops. And to then easily deploy and maintain that baseline using the power of
LANDesk® management solutions.
You define individual configuration tasks as building blocks, then sequence them in a template
that can be used for both initial system deployment and ongoing maintenance. You gain the
flexibility to install only what you want and need on individual systems and servers and shorten
the time it takes to make new systems ready for use and to update existing systems.
Provisioning with LANDesk® management solutions breaks traditional OS imaging into operational
phases that use a sequence of reusable predefined actions, then performs those actions as part
of a single, continuous task. You can even perform complex hardware configuration and setup,
including BIOS and RAID configuration, prior to deploying an OS and needed applications.
Instead of applying a single large image with a lot of information that may not apply to the
system you’re provisioning or maintaining a complex library of machine-specific images, you
install only what you need on each system using an optimized template. And you do it all
quickly in one step.
How Does Provisioning With LANDesk® Management Solutions Work?
Provisioning with LANDesk® management solutions is founded on configuration actions you use as
building blocks. Predefined actions include download, execute, reboot, agent configuration, software
distribution, registry entry and more. Combine actions to build templates that can be used individually
(for instance a small, single-purpose template for driver installation) or combine multiple task templates to
build modular templates—or to create a final master template.
LANDesk even provides a set of predefined templates optimized for specific server hardware and
common deployment tasks through LANDesk® Updates. Use them as-is, as part of a master template or
modify them to suit your company’s specific standards and needs.
With LANDesk® provisioning, you combine individual actions, templates or modular templates within
your master template as needed to create optimal configurations for individual machines. You can either
copy component templates into your master template or you can insert source templates as references
so that any changes made to a source template are automatically updated in your master template. This
makes updating your baseline configuration as easy as updating a source template.
When you schedule your master template for delivery to a target device, all included templates are
condensed and the file is locked into a master XML file of executable tasks. The master file is stored for
permanent reference. You can then reschedule it at any time to bring a system back into compliance
with the baseline configuration. You can also copy a master template to create a new master template
that you can edit as needed to accommodate new hardware or new configuration standards.
How does provisioning perform tasks—is there a client agent?
LANDesk® provisioning is enabled by an agent that runs on the target system. You can create a bootable
image on CD or USB media or use PXE services to load a preconfigured preboot environment that
contains the provisioning agent. LANDesk® provisioning includes all the tools you need to create that
bootable image and provides a simple user interface for downloading the boot image from either the
Web or Windows management consoles.
Because provisioning is controlled by an agent on the target system, if the system has to be rebooted
your provisioning template continues from exactly the point where it left off. And if a system crashes
during provisioning, you can immediately identify the exact point in the process where the crash occurred
to more easily troubleshoot the problem and create a fix.
Can the provisioning process be audited?
Provisioning with LANDesk® solutions saves a log file of every event that happens during the provisioning
process. You can check the status of a recent task, see how a particular system or server is provisioned
and see which systems or servers were provisioned using a specific template. With a history of what’s
happened, you can easily rerun a template if you need to put a system back to a known state. And you
can redeploy a template regularly—either manually or as a recurring scheduled task—to ensure that
systems or servers are kept within your established standards.
Does provisioning with LANDesk® management solutions require PXE?
Provisioning with LANDesk® management solutions can use PXE as a boot medium, but doesn’t require
it, even to provision bare metal systems. To provision your systems without PXE, simply boot them
using a LANDesk provisioning CD or USB boot media that includes the LANDesk provisioning agent.
On startup, the agent contacts your core server and executes the scheduled provisioning template. The
agent then notifies you when to remove the media and reboot the target system.
What are the advantages of scripted provisioning installations versus deploying OS images?
Creating templates using LANDesk’s provisioning capabilities is faster and easier than creating images.
Say you have to create 30 unique configurations for your environment. Creating 30 templates is
faster, easier, and more customizable than creating 30 images. Since templates are formatted as XML
documents, and actions can be shared between templates, you can easily review and edit templates for
consistency rather than rebuilding or recapturing 30 unique images. Templates can also be created and
scheduled in advance. And because each system is unique, sharing a general image between systems
can lead to performance and compatibility issues. Templates can quickly and easily be customized to
meet a system’s exact requirements.
Does provisioning with LANDesk® management solutions
give administrators the ability to control who has rights to
provision systems?
Provisioning with LANDesk® management solutions includes role-based administration to let
administrators decide who has the right to schedule provisioning tasks as well as who has the
right to edit provisioning templates.
Which operating systems is provisioning with LANDesk® management solutions compatible with?
LANDesk® management solutions can provision systems to run either Windows or Linux.
LANDesk supplies both Linux-based and Windows PE-based preboot environments to give you
maximum flexibility and control of each target device.
How does provisioning with LANDesk® management solutions compare to OS deployment with LANDesk management solutions?
The main difference is that while OS deployment relies on creating and maintaining often large,
fairly generalized images and applying one image to many machines at once, provisioning
lets you create highly customized, easily editable scripts using actions and other component
templates as building blocks. Currently, these scripts are optimized for deploying one script
to one server or to a few desktops in a unique desktop environment. While image-based
deployment is currently faster and less bandwidth intensive, it doesn’t offer the customization
or absolute control that provisioning does. For bare-metal machines, image-based deployment relies on a PXE server to boot the target system into the correct preboot environment, while
provisioning can work either with or without a PXE server in the environment.
Does provisioning with LANDesk® management solutions offer predefined content?
Yes. LANDesk works with server vendors to provide you with predefined vendor-specific
templates. You get access to the optimal hardware configuration based on the server vendor’s
recommendations, for example a Dell 1850. LANDesk maintains this content, keeps it up-to-date
and makes it available to you via LANDesk® Updates. In the future, LANDesk also plans to make
predefined desktop configurations available along with common meta templates (for example, for
deploying Vista) in a generic framework that lists out all components.
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Download a trial version of LANDesk or contact us for pricing.
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