Assigning an Image to a Workstation

Three ways exist in which the workstation automatically discovers the workstation image that it should place onto its hard drive.

• The imaging server can choose an image when an unregistered workstation boots the Linux system and contacts the imaging server. The imaging server goes through its rules to determine the image to place on the workstation. (See Chapter 12.)

• The imaging server can choose the image when a registered workstation boots the Linux system and contacts the imaging server and the workstation has an associated Workstation Imaging policy. (See Chapter 9.)

• If the administrator has configured the workstation object to be associated with a specific image in the directory, when the Linux system is booted and contacts the imaging server, the server looks into the workstation object to determine whether it should be re-imaged. If so, it determines whether a specific image file has been specified and sends that file. Otherwise, it performs as described in Step 2.

Workstation Object

In the Workstation object properties, an Image page exists. Within this image page you have a couple of settings that you can administer in relationship to the imaging system. The following settings can be applied on the Image page of the Workstation object:

• Take an image of this workstation on the next boot This flag enables you to specify that on the next reboot of the workstation, the Linux boot system contacts the imaging server and is told to take an image of the workstation. With this field, you also get to specify the name of the image file. The image server saves the image to the specified filename.

• Put an image on this workstation on the next boot This flag enables you to signal that the workstation should receive an image on the next boot. When the Linux boot system contacts the imaging server, it is told that it should put down an image. In addition to this field you can specify the image object that represents the image you want put down on the workstation. Press the browse button to select the image object in the directory. If no image object is specified, the image server looks for any Workstation Image Policy that can be associated with the workstation. If no Workstation Image Policy is associated with the workstation and you specify no image, no image is applied to the workstation.

After the workstation reboots and performs the requested action (make or restore an image), these flags are reset so that upon the next reboot no work is done. If the action is not successful, these flags are not reset; they continue to request the action upon each reboot.