Life-cycle of a Golden Image

Typically a Golden Image is captured from one server and later used to deploy a number of servers. In between, the Golden Image can be transferred between one or more Image Streamer deployment servers as a compressed copy of the Golden Image by download and add processes. It can also be included in an artifact bundle and then transferred by download and extract of the artifact bundle.

A Golden Image can be added to the Image Streamer deployment server by using one of the following operations:

Add
Create
Import

The image in the appliance is a ready to use form of a Golden Image, and can be used for deployment, download, and export. The following figure describes the different ways to add a Golden Image to the appliance.

Phases of a Golden Image

Golden Image life-cycle sequence of events
Sequence	Operation	Description
1	Add	Obtains Golden Image from an administrator’s laptop.
1	Capture	Obtains a Golden Image either from a deployed server or from an OS Volume.
1	Import	Adds the Golden Image to the appliance from an imported artifact bundle.
2	Deploy	Deploys a Golden Image on a server, using a Deployment Plan.
2	Redeploy	Redeploys an image on a server.
3	Export	Copies the Golden Image to the artifact bundle, which can be later imported on another Image Streamer appliance.
3	Download	Downloads a Golden Image to the administrator’s laptop as a simple compressed file having the block-for-block copy of the generalized OS Volume content.