OS Deployment - Installing images remotely

Usage and Config OSD
1

Hi All,

I have a request coming from customer like below, and I’m trying to understand if it is possible.

They have a lot agencies around the world where we enabled BigFix agent connection through internet. Now customer is changing this to a VPN solution where the endusers will connect to customer network through VPN clients. They asked me to enable the OS Deployment to these end users through VPN instead of getting their laptops to headquarters to fix in case of any issues.
The flow in our mind is like having a small image already included in the OS drive (like WinPE - preinstallation environment) that will enable the VPN communication to customer network. There will be also the BigFix agent installed, that will connect to the main infra when this WinPE is started. And then the OS image can be installed through network automatically.

IBM has the lifebooat install for example - we can boot our laptops using CD / USB and we can download the rest of the image through network - it also has the AT&T client.
https://w3.ibm.com/help/#/article/04117

Do you have any information for this scenario ? Have you seen such an implementation in any account ?

I’d be glad if you can provide your inputs.

Thanks

2

the built in option to reimage from the console should be able to accomplish this, although circumstantial. As long as the machine is still in working order and able to boot properly, and able to communicate with the BigFix environment. It downloads all of the data necessary to reimage to the local device before kicking off the process. I’ve had limited success with the process failing to download all of the data and finish the process, but you should test it out.

3

Thanks Entaille, theoretically it seems possible. Still we need to test it, I agree with you. Let me try to simulate it. It can take some time. Still I’ll update here when I have some news.

4

Dear @hasibegoculu

Only concern is your VPN is need to be capable of handling the OS Deployment, If its have limited bandwidth then OSD transfer time take a while.

Regards
Vicky