Lenovo ThinkPad SL300 - Manual (Page 15)

Chapter 1. ImageUltra Builder capabilities
The ImageUltra Builder program provides new methods of creating, deploying, and installing custom images.
This chapter provides information to help you understand the concept of building images and the various
types of images that the ImageUltra Builder program supports.
Understanding images
An image consists of several components: an operating system, applications, device drivers, and other
related files needed to successfully run a computer. In most cases, information technology (IT) departments
within corporations or system integrators create images on source computers, extract the images and store
them in a central location. Then, they deploy the images to multiple computers either across a network or
from a set of image CDs. This enables an IT department to develop standardized images and control the
versions of software and device drivers used throughout the company.
Developing and deploying images in this way ensures that every computer within a company maintains a
high level of image consistency. However, because images created by this method are hardware dependent,
a significant amount of time is spent creating, testing, and transferring images from multiple source (donor)
computers to accommodate various hardware configurations and variations of supported software. In many
cases, in order to accommodate specific software requirements, a base image is deployed and specific
application programs are added manually on a system-by-system basis after the image has been installed.
As a result, IT departments often have multiple images to manage. Whenever a change is required to
accommodate new hardware, an operating-system update, a device-driver update, an additional language,
or a new or changed application program, many images must be rebuilt.
The major challenges most IT departments face are as follows:
• Reducing the amount of time spent creating and testing images.
• Finding a way to build and deploy images that provides increased flexibility to meet specific software
requirements that might vary from department to department.
• Finding a way to build and deploy images across a wider range of hardware.
• Reducing or minimizing the total number of images that have to be maintained.
The purpose of the ImageUltra Builder program is to provide IT departments with the tools needed to develop,
deploy, install, and maintain a variety of images efficiently. Through new tools and techniques, the ImageUltra
Builder program enables you to break down images into reusable subcomponents (called modules) and use
maps to construct Smart Images that can be deployed across a broad range of hardware platforms.
Definition of a Smart Image
The ImageUltra Builder program enables you to store a variety of image-related files as reusable modules in
a repository. Typically, there is a module for each operating system, application, and device driver. These
modules are organized by maps to meet the needs of specific users, groups, or an entire enterprise. A single
basemap can contain multiple operating systems and applications, as well as variations based on language.
A single driver map can contain device drivers for a single hardware platform, or through the use of filters,
device drivers for a variety of hardware platforms.
Delivering the maps and modules to a target computer involves two steps: deployment and installation. At
the beginning of the deployment process, the installer selects which base map and driver map to use. The
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