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This article contains information about creating a golden image store to be used as the destination for golden image creation and the source of golden image deployment.
Golden image stores are predefined storage areas that are used as destinations for the golden image creation and the source for golden image deployment; they are functionally similar to the repositories found in Site Manager in this way. Each golden image store contains information including the storage location, the network access information, credentials required to access the resource, and other basic storage management.
There is no limit on the number of golden image stores that you create, however, each golden image store must have its own unique network path. This means that golden image stores cannot be configured to use the same folder as an existing repository, however, a subfolder can be created within the share the repository is using, which can be used for the golden image store.
There are three types of golden image stores that can be created:
Network Share - Any Windows or SMB network share may be used as a golden image store.
Amazon AWS Storage Gateway - If an AWS Storage Gateway is available, it can be used as a golden image store backend.
Azure Storage Account - If Azure storage is exposed as an SMB share in Azure, it can be used as a golden image store directly.
Creating a Golden Image Store
To add a golden image store to SiteDeploy®, select the ‘Golden Image Stores’ heading, in the ‘Deployment’ section of the Site Manager.
In ‘Golden Image Stores’ a list of the existing golden image stores will be displayed. To add a new golden image store, select ‘Add.’
On the first page of the 'Add Store' wizard, select the type of golden image store that you want to create.
Once this step has been completed, the next step will depend on the type of store that is being created. Below is the next step for each of the golden image store types.
Network Share
When ‘Network Share’ is selected, on the second page of the wizard, you can specify a share using a UNC path, the credentials required to authenticate against the share should also be entered:
The user that is specified in the ‘Authentication’ section requires read and write access to the share that has been specified so that the golden images may be created. If the field is left blank anonymous access will be used.
To avoid problems at the client end, it is recommended that the domain part of the authentication is always filled in. If the share is on a computer or NAS which is not joined to a domain, the hostname of the computer or NAS should be used instead.
Amazon Storage Gateway
See Configuring AWS Storage Gateway for information on configuring an on-premises gateway to Amazon cloud storage.
When ‘Amazon AWS Storage Gateway’ is selected, you will be prompted to enter the Access Key ID and Secret Key ID.
Once the Access Key ID and Secret Key ID of the Storage Gateway have been entered, press 'Validate' to get a list of gateway names and volumes to select.
Once the correct gateway name and volume have been selected, press 'Next' to move to the next page of the wizard, where the details for the network share on the iSCSI volume can be entered. The share entered must be mapped to the AWS Storage Gateway volume selected.
The user that is specified in the ‘Authentication’ section requires read and write access to the share that has been specified so that the golden images may be created. If the field is left blank anonymous access will be used.
To avoid problems at the client end, it is recommended that the domain part of the authentication is always filled in. If the share is on a computer that is not joined to a domain, the hostname of the computer should be used instead.
Azure Storage Account
See Backup to the Cloud with Azure File Shares for information on configuring Azure to enable share access.
This repository type connects to an Azure storage account which has been configured to be accessible using the SMB protocol.
Azure shares use the SMB version 3.0 protocol. This requires that the deployment media accessing the share is WinPE10 based, as WinPE3.1 does not support SMB3.0. The Site Manager server will also need to be installed on a version of Windows that supports the SMB3.0 protocol. Versions of Windows which support SMB 3.0 are:
- Windows 8 or later
- Windows Server 2012 or later
The wizard page has fields for the share path, username, and password of the Azure share. These can be filled in directly, or the net use command generated by the Azure portal can be pasted directly into the box below to extract the share information and automatically fill in the other fields.
Creating a Golden Image Store Final Steps
The final page of the ‘Add Store’ wizard is the same for all golden image store types. On this page, additional options can be specified. These options are shown below:
- Automatically retry golden image store connection for user credential errors - This option will cause Site Manager to treat credential failures like normal network errors and retry the golden image store connection on credential failures. This can be useful as Windows can incorrectly report network issues as credential failures. By default, Site Manager will not retry credential failures automatically to prevent the possibility of locking accounts due to an incorrect password.
- Allow X simultaneous deployments from this golden image store - This value sets the number of deployments that can be performed from backups in this golden image store simultaneously. The default value is 5, but it can be increased up to 60. More than 60 simultaneous deployments can take place if more than one golden image store is being used as the source for the deployment.
- Custom name - A name that will be displayed in the Site Manager interface for this repository. If left blank, it will default to the network path of the repository.
Once the golden image store configuration has been completed, select ‘Finish.’ SiteDeploy® will then attempt to connect to the golden image store using the settings that you have specified. If SiteDeploy® is unable to connect to the golden image store, an error will be displayed and can be corrected.
Once the golden image store has been added successfully, it will be shown in the list of existing golden image stores along with information about the golden image store:
If Macrium Image Guardian is enabled on the volume where the share is located, Image Guardian can be enabled for the golden image store by expanding the store and then selecting 'Configuration'. This article contains more information about using Macrium Image Guardian.
Golden Image Store Folder Structures
Once the golden image store has been created, the folder structure can be viewed using Windows File Explorer. The share that was used to create the golden image store will now contain the 'DeploymentImages' folder.
Inside this folder are three subfolders:
| Folder | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Import | The import folder can be used to import existing images into the golden image store. Currently, only full images can be used as a golden image, as a result, only full images should be copied into this folder. Once the golden image has been imported, it will be moved to the 'Store' folder. |
| Staging | This acts as a staging area for images that are being imported into the store. This folder should not be used to store images. |
| Store | This is where the golden images for this golden image store are located. |