IBM Work Light REDP 4372 00 User Manual
Draft Document for Review November 15, 2007 3:27 pm  
REDP-4372-00  
Tivoli Provisioning Manager  
for OS Deployment  
in a Retail Environment  
Specifically catered for IT professionals  
working in the retail industry  
Describes frequently used  
scenarios  
Cookbook for getting  
started  
Vasfi Gucer  
Leif Egeholm Nielsen  
David Kwock  
John Hardegree  
Redpaper  
ibm.com/redbooks  
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4372edno.fm  
International Technical Support Organization  
Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment in a  
Retail Environment  
January 2008  
REDP-4372-00  
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4372edno.fm  
Draft Document for Review November 15, 2007 3:27 pm  
Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in  
“Notices” on page vii.  
First Edition (January 2008)  
This edition applies to Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment Version 5.1 Fixpack 3.  
This document created or updated on November 15, 2007.  
© Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2008. All rights reserved.  
Note to U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP  
Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.  
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Contents  
Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii  
Trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii  
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix  
The team that wrote this paper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix  
Become a published author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi  
Comments welcome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi  
Chapter 1. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1  
1.1 Target audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2  
1.1.1 Definition of roles and skills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2  
1.2 The retail environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3  
1.3 The role and importance of IT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5  
1.4 Operating systems on Point-of-sale devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6  
1.5 Introducing Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . 6  
1.6 Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment in retail environments . . . 8  
1.7 Typical scenarios in a system life cycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10  
1.7.1 First-time installations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11  
1.7.2 Preparing a system for use as a master image. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11  
1.7.3 Deploying to multiple systems from a master image. . . . . . . . . . . . . 12  
1.7.4 Re-deploying to a specific system to resolve a problem. . . . . . . . . . 12  
1.7.5 Backing up and restoring an entire system to resolve a problem . . . 13  
1.8 Introducing the LAB environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13  
Chapter 2. First-time installations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17  
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18  
2.2 Creating an unattended profile for Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19  
2.2.1 Copying the media files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19  
2.2.2 Slipstream Windows XP Service Pack 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20  
2.2.3 Creating the unattended profile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22  
2.3 Adding drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31  
2.3.1 Downloading and unpacking the drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32  
2.3.2 Creating a software package for device drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36  
2.4 Deploying to a pristine system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43  
2.4.1 Creating a deployment scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43  
2.4.2 Modifying the unattended profile for a dynamic host name. . . . . . . . 48  
2.4.3 Client Machine Boot and Deploy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51  
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved.  
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Chapter 3. Mass-Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55  
3.1 Creating a cloned profile for Windows XP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56  
3.1.1 Preparing the donor system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56  
3.1.2 Capturing the system image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59  
3.1.3 Configuring the system profile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68  
3.2 Adding support for different hardware types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69  
3.2.1 The principle of device driver injection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71  
3.2.2 Software Bindings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71  
3.2.3 Deployment Scheme Parameter Wizard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72  
3.3 Deploying the XP cloning profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72  
Chapter 4. Redeployment scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83  
4.1 Reasons for redeployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84  
4.2 Redeployment from the local hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85  
4.2.1 Create a deployment scheme that supports redeployment. . . . . . . . 86  
4.2.2 Create a boot menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88  
4.2.3 Process for local redeployment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91  
4.3 Redeployment from the server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91  
4.3.1 Redeployment Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92  
Chapter 5. System image snapshots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95  
5.1 Introducing the POS plug-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96  
5.2 Installing the POS plug-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97  
5.2.1 Obtaining the POS package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97  
5.2.2 Installing the POS plug-in from the Windows GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98  
5.2.3 Installing the POS plug-in from the command line . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100  
5.2.4 Verifying the POS plug-in installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101  
5.3 Remotely controlling POS terminals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103  
5.3.1 Wake on LAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104  
5.3.2 Power off. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104  
5.4 Creating Backups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104  
5.4.1 Performing a POS terminal backup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105  
5.4.2 Managing the list of backups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110  
5.4.3 Restoring a POS backup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112  
5.5 Switching hardware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118  
Chapter 6. Real world deployment scenarios. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125  
6.1 Large environment considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126  
6.1.1 Managing development and production environments . . . . . . . . . . 126  
6.1.2 Expanding from one to multiple servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127  
6.2 Replicating software and configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127  
6.2.1 Built-in file replication service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128  
6.2.2 Command line method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129  
6.2.3 Profile migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130  
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6.3 Network Bandwidth Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132  
6.3.1 Unicast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132  
6.3.2 Multicast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132  
6.3.3 Multicast with synchronization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132  
Appendix A. Alternate boot sequence on POS systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . 133  
When to boot from hard drive and from network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134  
Forcing a POS system to boot into PXE mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134  
Preparing alternate boot sequence for Wake on LAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135  
Appendix B. Additional material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137  
Locating the Web material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137  
Using the Web material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137  
System requirements for downloading the Web material . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138  
How to use the Web material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138  
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139  
Related publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141  
IBM Redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141  
Other publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141  
Online resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142  
How to get Redbooks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142  
Help from IBM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142  
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143  
Contents  
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Notices  
This information was developed for products and services offered in the U.S.A.  
IBM may not offer the products, services, or features discussed in this document in other countries. Consult  
your local IBM representative for information on the products and services currently available in your area.  
Any reference to an IBM product, program, or service is not intended to state or imply that only that IBM  
product, program, or service may be used. Any functionally equivalent product, program, or service that  
does not infringe any IBM intellectual property right may be used instead. However, it is the user's  
responsibility to evaluate and verify the operation of any non-IBM product, program, or service.  
IBM may have patents or pending patent applications covering subject matter described in this document.  
The furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents. You can send license  
inquiries, in writing, to:  
IBM Director of Licensing, IBM Corporation, North Castle Drive, Armonk, NY 10504-1785 U.S.A.  
The following paragraph does not apply to the United Kingdom or any other country where such  
provisions are inconsistent with local law: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION  
PROVIDES THIS PUBLICATION "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR  
IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT,  
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Some states do not allow disclaimer  
of express or implied warranties in certain transactions, therefore, this statement may not apply to you.  
This information could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes are periodically made  
to the information herein; these changes will be incorporated in new editions of the publication. IBM may  
make improvements and/or changes in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in this publication at  
any time without notice.  
Any references in this information to non-IBM Web sites are provided for convenience only and do not in any  
manner serve as an endorsement of those Web sites. The materials at those Web sites are not part of the  
materials for this IBM product and use of those Web sites is at your own risk.  
IBM may use or distribute any of the information you supply in any way it believes appropriate without  
incurring any obligation to you.  
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from the suppliers of those products, their published  
announcements or other publicly available sources. IBM has not tested those products and cannot confirm  
the accuracy of performance, compatibility or any other claims related to non-IBM products. Questions on  
the capabilities of non-IBM products should be addressed to the suppliers of those products.  
This information contains examples of data and reports used in daily business operations. To illustrate them  
as completely as possible, the examples include the names of individuals, companies, brands, and products.  
All of these names are fictitious and any similarity to the names and addresses used by an actual business  
enterprise is entirely coincidental.  
COPYRIGHT LICENSE:  
This information contains sample application programs in source language, which illustrate programming  
techniques on various operating platforms. You may copy, modify, and distribute these sample programs in  
any form without payment to IBM, for the purposes of developing, using, marketing or distributing application  
programs conforming to the application programming interface for the operating platform for which the  
sample programs are written. These examples have not been thoroughly tested under all conditions. IBM,  
therefore, cannot guarantee or imply reliability, serviceability, or function of these programs.  
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Trademarks  
The following terms are trademarks of the International Business Machines Corporation in the United States,  
other countries, or both:  
Redbooks (logo)  
DB2®  
IBM®  
®
NetView®  
Redbooks®  
SurePOS™  
Tivoli Enterprise™  
Tivoli®  
The following terms are trademarks of other companies:  
Snapshot, and the Network Appliance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Network Appliance,  
Inc. in the U.S. and other countries.  
Java, JDBC, Ultra, and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United  
States, other countries, or both.  
Microsoft, Windows, and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States,  
other countries, or both.  
i386, Intel, Intel logo, Intel Inside logo, and Intel Centrino logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of  
Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States, other countries, or both.  
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.  
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.  
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Preface  
Retail environments, like many other industries, are continously seeking ways to  
reduce costs and improve their competitive advantages.  
One area where cost reduction is at play is with the IT deployed in the  
warehouses. Because this environment is so distributed, significant cost savings  
can be achieved if the hardware and software can be maintained without having  
to be physically present in the warehouse.  
This IBM® Redpaper presents the IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment software product as a solution to help customers reduce costs for  
deploying operating systems to point-of-sale devices in a highly distributed  
environment.  
Additionally, the Redpaper introduces a solution specifically developed for IBM  
Technical Support, to reduce the recovery time whenever a software or hardware  
failure requires a system to be re-deployed.  
The audience of the Redpaper are IT managers in the retail sector and technical  
support people in areas with point-of-sale or kiosk systems. Technical support  
people in other highly distributed environments may also benefit from the  
information herein.  
The team that wrote this paper  
This paper was produced by a team of specialists from around the world working  
at the International Technical Support Organization, Austin Center.  
Vasfi Gucer is an IBM Certified Consultant IT Specialist at the ITSO Austin  
Center. He started his IBM career as a Network Specialist in 1989.. He has over  
18 years of experience providing technical support across a variety of IBM  
products and technologies, including communications, network and systems  
management. For the last ten years Vasfi has been working for IBM ITSO, where  
he has been writing IBM Redbooks® and creating and teaching workshops  
around the world on a variety of topics. In this position, he has also worked on  
various Tivoli® customer projects as a Systems Architect and Consultant. He  
holds a Master’s degree in Engineering.  
Leif Egeholm Nielsen is a Certified IT Architect in Operations Architecture at  
IBM Denmark. He currently holds a position as account architect for the  
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Carlsberg account. He has 15 years of experience in the IT business and 10  
years with Tivoli and Software Distribution. He holds a bachelor degree in  
mechanical engineering. Leifs areas of expertise include operational  
architectures, systems management, software distribution, and Tivoli software.  
Leif has previously participated in several ITSO residencies related to IBM Tivoli  
Inventory and Software Distribution products.  
David Kwock is an IT Specialist in the United States. He has 7 years of  
experience in IT Service Management field. He has worked at IBM for 1 year. His  
areas of expertise include business automation, Service Oriented Architecture,  
System P and Linux®. He has written extensively on IT Service Management  
and Service Oriented Architecture. David has also spoken at IBM Executive  
Summits and Gartner conferences on the topics of IBM Service Management  
and Service Oriented Architecture.  
John Hardegree is a senior IT Specialist working for IBM Global Services in the  
US. He has worked with Tivoli products since 1993 and was Tivoli Enterprise™  
Certified in 1999. John holds a degree in A.S Degree in Electronics Technology  
and has over twenty years of experience in software/firmware design and  
systems management technical support. He spent almost four years with an IBM  
business partner as a Tivoli Professional Services consultant, has developed and  
taught several Tivoli courses and was the author of the TME10 List FAQ. He  
currently works on the midrange monitoring team for the State of Texas account.  
Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:  
Wade Wallace  
International Technical Support Organization, Austin Center  
Wayne Correa, Portfolio Manager, Retail Industry  
IBM Global Services, North Carolina, USA  
David H. Fritz  
Global Technology Services  
Technology and Business Integration, IBM Austin  
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Become a published author  
Join us for a two- to six-week residency program! Help write a book dealing with  
specific products or solutions, while getting hands-on experience with  
leading-edge technologies. You will have the opportunity to team with IBM  
technical professionals, Business Partners, and Clients.  
Your efforts will help increase product acceptance and customer satisfaction. As  
a bonus, you will develop a network of contacts in IBM development labs, and  
increase your productivity and marketability.  
Find out more about the residency program, browse the residency index, and  
apply online at:  
ibm.com/redbooks/residencies.html  
Comments welcome  
Your comments are important to us!  
We want our papers to be as helpful as possible. Send us your comments about  
this paper or other IBM Redbooks in one of the following ways:  
ꢀ Use the online Contact us review Redbooks form found at:  
ibm.com/redbooks  
ꢀ Send your comments in an e-mail to:  
[email protected]  
ꢀ Mail your comments to:  
IBM Corporation, International Technical Support Organization  
Dept. HYTD Mail Station P099  
2455 South Road  
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601-5400  
Preface  
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1
Introduction  
This chapter introduces the retail environment, the technical challenges retail  
environments pose and how Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment can  
be used to solve some of them.  
This chapter also introduces realistic POS provisioning scenarios and outlines  
the environment used to produce this paper.  
Readers already familiar with the retail environment may skip most of this  
chapter but for a full understanding of the scenarios it is recommended you read  
sections 1.7, “Typical scenarios in a system life cycle” on page 10 and 1.8,  
“Introducing the LAB environment” on page 13.  
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved.  
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1.1 Target audience  
This Redpaper is written specifically with IT people who work in the retail sector  
in mind. However, many of the topics and scenarios can easily be mapped to  
traditional workstation environments and therefore also be of benefit to IT  
professionals working with OS deployments outside the retail environments.  
Since most of the content is technical in nature, a minimum of technical  
understanding is required. Experience with automated deployment of operating  
systems is highly recommended but not required. Understanding the principles  
involved in automated software distribution will be helpful.  
Note: This Redpaper is based on Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment V5.1 with Fixpack 3. Some of the screenshots may look slightly  
different from the ones in previous ITSO publications because of this.  
1.1.1 Definition of roles and skills  
Throughout the scenarios and examples the following defintions are used for  
different roles.  
ꢀ POS user - or simply end user  
The POS user refers to the person using the POS system. For a cash register  
this will be the cashier, for self-checkout systems or kiosks this will be a  
customer. It is not assumed that the POS user will have any IT skills as such  
and normally this person will not be involved in any processes except  
experiencing a problem and notify someone of the problem.  
ꢀ Local super user - or simply super user  
Every store, warehouse or super market should have at least one person to  
fulfill this role. The super user is not an IT professional, but has some  
understanding about the underlying IT and is capable of communicating with  
the IT professionals in helpdesk etc.  
ꢀ Central IT  
Central IT refers the IT professionals located centrally at one location,  
physically distant from the production POS systems. There is no distinction in  
this Redpaper between IT professional at the helpdesk, server support,  
development etc.  
ꢀ Field Technician  
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This role covers an external IT professional that is called in to a store to  
perform on-site repairs of systems. This include a service technician from IBM  
Technical Support.  
1.2 The retail environment  
The retail environment comprises every type of store, from the apparel store with  
one or two cash registers, to a large super market chain with thousands of stores  
each having a variety of cash registers, self-checkout lanes and kiosk systems  
for various purposes.  
A typical IT environment for a department store is shown in Figure 1-1 on page 4.  
The main application servers are located in a data center, most likely with a  
redundant setup, possibly even made site-redundant. This is the backend system  
for all transactions and will normally have interfaces to other systems used for  
logistics, finance, payroll, ordering and so forth.  
In each warehouse is a local server that handles transactions from POS systems  
and forwards the transactions to the central server. This setup enables a  
warehouse to continue operation even if the network connections are interrupted  
for shorter periods of time. Typically, this server is also used for local  
customizations such as the text on the printed receipts, local discounts etc.  
Larger warehouses will probaly have this system setup in a redundant  
configuration. Even if the applications are configured to use the central server in  
case the local server is unavailable, there may be performance requirements that  
justify such setup.  
Alone in the area of providing a high level of availability for the application servers  
required for purchase transactions lies several technical challenges. These are  
mainly part of the network, servers and applications and are not the scope of this  
Redpaper. Much of this information can be found from other sources, including  
the IBM Redbook Enabling the On Demand Store with IBM Store Integration  
Framework, SG24-6698.  
Chapter 1. Introduction  
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Figure 1-1 A typical IT environment for a department store  
IBM POS systems are very much like standard Intel®-based workstations. There  
is a motherboard with an Intel x86 processor, memory, graphics adapter and  
network interface card. In addition there is also one or more USB interfaces.  
However, there are also some diferences: A POS system typically has several  
peripheral devices attached, including but not limited to;  
ꢀ A keyboard, specifically designed for the point-of-sale system  
ꢀ A touch screen  
ꢀ A barcode scanner  
ꢀ A scale  
ꢀ A sensor (to verify the customer puts the item in the bag)  
ꢀ A credit-card reader with signature type pad or pin code keyboard  
ꢀ A cash-drawer  
ꢀ A printer for receipts  
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These peripherals are connected via special connectors and via USB interfaces  
which may be carrying the standard 5 Volts or powered USB with 12 or 24 Volts.  
The system typically runs only one application which is developed and/or tailored  
specifically to serve the purpose of the system. Under normal operation the end  
user will only use the application and not think about or have access to the  
underlying operating system.  
By separating the point-of-sales systems from any traditional workstations in a  
store it is possible to limit the risk of infecting the point-of-sales systems with  
viruses, worms and other malware. The separation is done using VLANs, routers  
and/or firewalls depending on the required security level.  
The retail environment is highly distributed, especially large retail chains, which  
may have one or more data centers and a significant number of stores distributed  
across the country or the world. The IT skills in a store is limited, resulting in a  
strong focus on standardization and on remote managability.  
The typical lifetime of a point-of-sale system is five to seven years, which is  
somewhat more than a normal office workstation, be it a desktop or a notepad.  
During the lifetime of a point-of-sale system, the operating system is unlikely to  
change more than one or two times. Applications may be updated one or two  
times a year.  
1.3 The role and importance of IT  
For any store or warehouse, the point-of-sale system is essential for business.  
This is where goods are exchanged for money. Without the capability to handle  
these transactions automatically, a significant amount of back-office work is  
required and some parts of the transactions may not even be possible, such as  
payments by use of credit cards and printing out receipts.  
It’s easy to visualize what happens if a store suddenly has a limited capability of  
processing sales: The remaining lanes will have growing queues, causing  
reduced customer satisfaction, and if the situation happens more than once in a  
quarter, some customers will probably place their business elsewhere.  
For this reason, most larger warehouses have several layers of redundancy. First  
of all, there are usually more lanes than needed except for hollidays and  
seasonal occasions. Additionally, the network is typically kept isolated from  
networks used by regular workstations, and made redundant so half the POS  
systems are connected to one swtich and the other half to another. Application  
servers should also be set up for high availability, both with respect to  
independency in an individual store, and with the capability to fail over to a  
Chapter 1. Introduction  
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centrally located application server if the local application server fails. There are  
many wariations possible, however, they are not the topic for this Redpaper.  
It is important to note that most larger warehouses have a surplus of POS  
systems which reduces the effects of one or a few systems being out of order.  
Smaller stores or restaurants are more likely to be affected, even if one system is  
out of order, since they may only have a total of two or three POS systems.  
1.4 Operating systems on Point-of-sale devices  
Not all operating systems are suitable for point-of-sales devices. A typical POS  
system has a lot of special devices that require drivers which are not widely  
available on all platforms. Also, the IT department may want to prevent the user  
from getting access to anything but the POS application which require an  
operating system with lockdown features.  
The most common operating systems for point-of-sale systems include, but are  
not limited to:  
ꢀ Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional  
ꢀ Microsoft Windows 2000 Workstation  
ꢀ WEPOS; Microsoft Windows Embedded for Point-of-services  
ꢀ IRES; IBM Retail Environment for Suse Linux for POS  
Different distributions of Linux also exist.  
Older environments may also include systems running PC-DOS 2000.  
For the scenarios used throughout this Redpaper we will only use Windows XP.  
For information about deploying Windows 2000 and Linux, please consult the  
IBM RedBook Deployment Guide Series: Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment V5.1, SG24-7397.  
1.5 Introducing Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment  
The IBM Tivoli software products that have previously provided capabilities for  
installation of operating systems on bare metal systems include NetView®  
Distribution Manager and Tivoli Configuration Manager. These products have  
been suceeded by the IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager product which natively  
does not include similar features.  
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In 2006, IBM purchased a Swiss company called Rembo Technology SaRL. With  
this, IBM also acquired the Rembo software products to fill in this gap; Rembo  
Toolkit and Rembo Auto-Deploy.  
The Rembo Toolkit was added to Tivoli Provisioning Manager v5.1 to provide  
native image management. The Rembo Auto-Deploy product was rebranded to  
Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment.  
Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment is a software product that  
provides image management. It captures images of systems which have been  
prepared for mass-distribution, provides various ways of customizing and  
adjusting these images and provides a mechanism for distributing them to  
multiple systems.  
During the distribution of an image, Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment can identify the target system and automatically inject drivers that  
fits the particular system. A captured image can therefore be used for distribution  
to different hardware platforms. These processes are described in Figure 1-2 on  
page 8, which also clarifies some of the definitions used throughout the book:  
ꢀ Unattended profile  
Profile is the term used for an element containing an operating system that  
can be deployed. An unattended profile means the operating system is based  
on the original installation files and the deployment will perform a true  
installation, going through all the steps a normal installation would, but using  
a script to automate all or most of the process.  
ꢀ Cloning profile  
A profile is the term used for an element containing an operating system that  
can be deployed. A cloning profile means the operating system is based on  
an already installed system that has been prepared for mass distributions  
(cloning). For performance reasons this is the most often used method for  
mass distributions.  
ꢀ Software Package  
This must not be confused with software packages as defined in other  
software distribution products such as IBM Tivoli Configuration Manager. In  
Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment a software package can only  
be deployed as part of the deployment of an operating system in either an  
unattended or a cloning profile. A software package typically contains  
additional device drivers or files that need to be copied to the target, optionally  
executing a batch script or an executable file as part of it. Software packages  
can also be used to run unattended installations using MSI software  
packages.  
ꢀ Deployment Schemes  
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The deployment of a profile can be customized using a deployment scheme.  
The default deployment scheme will be suficient for most deployments, but in  
some cases there may be reasons to adjust the deployment to optimize  
network bandwidth.  
ꢀ Configuration  
Every profile has a configuration, which includes the attributes to apply when  
deploying the profile.  
Figure 1-2 The main processes for a Windows XP mass distribution  
1.6 Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment in  
retail environments  
From an architectural point of view, a point-of-sale system consist of different  
layers of software. This is illustrated in Figure 1-3 on page 9. With Tivoli  
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Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment it is possible to maintain the  
deployment and re-deployment of Operating System with suitable drivers, a  
Java™ Runtime environment and the applications to run directly on the operating  
system or on top of the Java Runtime environment. The applications should in  
this case be considered static, that is; the application will not during deployment  
receive any modifications to reflect the specific system it is installed to.  
Data updated at regular intervals, including for example weekly or daily pricelists  
or special content to print on receipts, are not suitable for deployment via Tivoli  
Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment. This would require frequent, perhaps  
weekly updates to the image. Instead, this should be automated using other  
systems or scripts (which may be part of the static data that can be deployed  
using Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment).  
Realtime dynamic data consist mainly of transactions. For obvious reasons,  
these should never be of concern to a specific point-of-sale system. Transactions  
should always be handled by an enterprise application server with capabilities to  
perform roll back and roll forward, and preferably be based on a messaging  
system between POS systems and transaction servers.  
Figure 1-3 Software on a POS system from an architectural point of view  
Chapter 1. Introduction  
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1.7 Typical scenarios in a system life cycle  
Much has been written about the system life cycle. Figure 1-4 on page 10 shows  
some of the elements that are part of the system life cycle. Some of these  
elements can be supported using the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment product while others will require additional software, tools and  
processes.  
Figure 1-4 POS System Lifecycle  
The remaining chapters of this paper will, through selected scenarios, show how  
the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment product can be used to  
accomodate the following system life cycle tasks that are carried out at regular  
intervals in any retail environment;  
ꢀ First time installations using unattended installation  
ꢀ Preparing a master image for mass distribution  
ꢀ Deploying to multiple systems from a master image  
ꢀ Re-deploying to a specific system to resolve a problem  
ꢀ Backing up and restoring an entire system to resolve a problem  
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1.7.1 First-time installations  
There are typically three situations where a first-time installation is required: One  
is when the initial environment is being established and another is when a  
solution already exists, but the current hardware is being replaced with new.  
These are commons situations in any IT environment and both cases can  
generally be managed in the same way. The third situation is when a new  
operating system is introduced, such as a change from Microsoft Windows to  
Linux, or an upgrade from Windows to Vista.  
In a traditional IT department with PCs, the obvious approach may be to insert  
the CD with the operating system and proceed from there. However, there are  
some pitfalls with this method in the retail environment:  
ꢀ Normally the point-of-service system does not have built-in floppy or CD-ROM  
drives. This can of course easily be fixed in the IT department via a  
USB-attached CD-ROM drive, but it does require some additional work.  
ꢀ Some of the systems require specific hardware drivers to be installed during  
the operating system installation. This requires modifications of the default  
installation media or network drive.  
ꢀ Without any additional automation method this approach will not be very  
practical with hundreds or thousands of POS systems in the production  
environment.  
This is where Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment comes at play.  
Adding a new hardware driver to an existing operating system is simply a matter  
of downloading the driver from the provider, unpack and create a software  
package with the drivers. Then the system is ready for initial deployment.  
1.7.2 Preparing a system for use as a master image  
Once a system has been prepared with the correct drivers and optionally had  
one or more applications installed and configured on it, it is ready to serve as a  
master image.  
Before the system can be captured as an image, a final set af tasks must first be  
completed. For a Windows system this typically includes some cleanup and  
deletion of user-specific data, followed by a special utility called sysprep, which  
prepares the system for mass-distribution. The sysprep is the very last step to  
complete because it includes shutting down the system in a special state that is  
intended for mass distribution.  
On Linux systems, there are similar cleanup activities but no special utilities to  
prepare the system for mass-distribution.  
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Once the installation has been prepared, the system must be booted from the  
network and connect to the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment  
server, From here, the installation can be used to create a new profile.  
1.7.3 Deploying to multiple systems from a master image  
Once the profile is on the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment server  
and necessary additional adjustments, scripts and drivers have been added, it is  
ready for deployment to other systems.  
Without any further changes, the master image can be used for deployments to  
systems with same hardware. In order to distribute to systems with other  
hardware, it may be necessary to inject new drivers. This is done by defining  
software packages with the drivers and define bindings or rules for which drivers  
to inject on which systems.  
1.7.4 Re-deploying to a specific system to resolve a problem  
Normally if a software or hardware related problem occurs, the IT organization  
will attempt to troubleshoot and fix the problem. This can be a time consuming  
effort. The retail environment varys significantly from the traditional office  
environments where PCs are used for administrative tasks. Imagine a small  
super market or store with three or four cash registers. If one POS station is not  
available during busy hours, the line of customers could quickly grow, resulting in  
unhappy customers and eventually loss of business when disgruntled customers  
leave the store without making their purchases.  
For the retail environment, it is therefore imperative that a failed system be  
brought back into operation as quickly as possible. Tivoli Provisioning Manager  
for OS Deployment provides several tools to assist in doing this, depending on  
the particular situation:  
ꢀ If the failure is a local software error, the quickest way to get a system back  
online is a local redeployment. This feature requires that a copy of the  
installed image exist in a hidden partition on the hard drive, and that any local  
dynamic data can be automatically retrieved from a central server after  
redeployment.  
ꢀ If the failure is the result of a malfunctioning hard drive, and a replacement  
drive is quickly installed, a new operating system can be deployed from a  
local Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment server within 20-30  
minutes. As in the previous case any dynamic data will need to be recovered  
or recreated after OS redeployment.  
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1.7.5 Backing up and restoring an entire system to resolve a problem  
If the system contains dynamic data, a new POS plug-in utility for the Tivoli  
Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment product can be used to create  
image-backups of individual systems for faster restores. Obviously a restore can  
only recover the data that were included in the backup. If the dynamic data are  
weekly or daily price updates this should be managed by running daily backups.  
The POS plug-in will be covered in Chapter 5, “System image snapshots” on  
page 95.  
1.8 Introducing the LAB environment  
In order to test realistic scenarios, a small environment has been established for  
the production of this Redpaper. The systems used throughout the scenarios are  
depicted in Figure 1-5 on page 13.  
Figure 1-5 The LAB environment used for this Redpaper  
The environment consist of two Intel based servers running Microsoft Windows  
2003 Server and Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment. One (BERLIN)  
represents a development and testing environment, while the other (NICE) is  
used to represent a production environment in a store. There is also an  
Chapter 1. Introduction  
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additiononal server (not shown) that provides DHCP services to our simulated  
environment.  
Four types of POS devices exist in the simulated environment as well, each of  
which is a unique model, which helps to demonstrate Tivoli Provisioning  
Manager for OS Deployment’s capability of identifying different types of hardware  
and injecting the right drivers for each. In a large super market, for instance, it  
would not be unrealistic to have different types of hardware performing the same  
functions. The IT department would then typically have at least one of each  
hardware type.  
The real-world IT environment that we are trying to simulate with the lab  
environment is depicted in Figure 1-6 on page 15.  
Note that the environment does not include any application servers or other  
management systems. There would most likely be at least one application server  
in each warehouse, and several centrally located application servers in an actual  
enterprise, but management of these servers falls outside the scope of this  
paper. Likewise, there would normally be servers for systems management, such  
as monitoring and remote administration, but these are also outside our scope.  
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Figure 1-6 A real-world retail IT environment  
Chapter 1. Introduction  
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2
First-time installations  
In this chapter we discuss and describe how we install the Windows XP  
Professional operating system in the point-of-sale environment. We include  
step-by-step instructions for getting bare metal working for Windows XP systems.  
We cover the case of a point-of-sale terminal build in a retail environment, where  
we may also have to consider special hardware configurations specific to the IBM  
SurePOS™ terminals.  
This chapter has the following topics:  
ꢀ Introduction  
ꢀ Creating an unattended profile for Windows XP  
ꢀ Creating software packages for drivers that need to be injected  
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved.  
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2.1 Introduction  
The first step is to choose what to deploy. With Tivoli Provisioning Manager for  
OS Deployment, you can either clone a machine or you can create an  
unattended setup profile. The former option copies the operating system together  
with the installed software from a source machine to a destination machine. The  
latter performs an automatic installation of an operating system as though you  
are at the machine with the installation CDs.  
We start this chapter with the steps to perform an unattended installation of a  
Windows XP profile with some associated device drivers that will be deployed on  
a bare metal machine. This scenario is most likely the way a retail’s IT  
organization would start their automated deployment of terminals unless they  
already had a template image suitable for cloning. Next, we describe the cloning  
process of a Windows XP machine and the customization process of the  
captured image to prepare for the mass deployment of the clone.  
For both the unattended set up and the cloning deployments, we use Windows  
XP, Service Pack 2. In terms of Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment  
we will do the following  
ꢀ Create an unattended Windows XP installation profile using Windows XP SP2  
installation CDs  
ꢀ Clone a machine having the Windows XP operating system  
For a target machine, we are using several different IBM SurePOS system types.  
They all meet the following minimum requirements listed below:  
ꢀ PXE-compliant bootrom, version 2.00 or higher  
ꢀ Minimal CPU: PentiumR type level  
ꢀ Minimal RAM memory: 128 MB  
ꢀ Video Electronics Standarts Association (VESA) release 2.0 or later,  
compliant Video BIOS to get high resolution (VGA fallback is always possible  
in case of incompatibility). However, Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment can also work on machines without a monitor attached.  
ꢀ Either a traditional Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) drive with Ultra™  
Direct Memory access (DMA) support if speed is required or any  
BIOS-supported hard drive.  
ꢀ Desktop Management Interface (DMI) support for collecting hardware  
information, such as model and serial number.  
The machines we used had at least 8 GB of diskspace since the Windows XP  
installation and the hidden partition used by Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
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Deployment during the deploy may have problems with hard disk of lower  
capacity.  
2.2 Creating an unattended profile for Windows XP  
In this section we describe how to create a profile for unattended installation of  
Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 included. The major steps to  
create this profile includes:  
ꢀ Copy the \i386 directory from the original installation media  
ꢀ Download and slipstream the service pack  
ꢀ Create the profile in Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment  
2.2.1 Copying the media files  
Copying the media files from the CD/DVD to a local disk allows us to customize  
the source depot for our installation of Windows XP. In our scenario we are using  
a Windows XP Professional CD for an Intel based 32-bit system.  
1. Copy the full i386 folder from the CD-ROM drive including all system and  
hidden files as shown in Example 2-1. If you decide to copy using the GUI,  
make sure all hidden and system files are shown, otherwise thse fiels will not  
be copied.  
Example 2-1 Copying the Windows XP installation files to a local drive  
xcopy /E /H D:\i386 X:\WinXPimg\i386  
2. Verify all files and folders are created in target folder as shown in Figure 2-1  
on page 20.  
Chapter 2. First-time installations  
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Figure 2-1 Files sucessfully copied from CD-ROM to target destination  
2.2.2 Slipstream Windows XP Service Pack 2  
Slipstreaming a service pack, is the process of integrating the service pack into  
the installation so that with every new installation the operating system and  
service pack are installed at the same time. It not only has the advantage that  
when you install your operating system you don’t have to apply the service pack,  
but also later, if you update any windows component, you will be sure that you  
get the correct installation files. This saves time for the installation process and  
saves space on the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment Server.  
Follow these steps to integrate the Service Pack 2 into the Windows XP  
Professional image on the hard drive:  
1. Download the full “Network Install” of the service pack and save it to a  
directory on your hard drive (in our example X:\winXPimg\SP2)  
Note: Do not use spaces in the folder name.  
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2. Locate your local copy of the Windows XP source files that were created in  
2.2.1, “Copying the media files” on page 19.  
3. Open a command prompt (start → run → cmd) and go to the folder where  
you copied Service Pack 2. Type the command as shown in Example 2-2  
Example 2-2 Unpacking and integrating Service Pack 2 into Windows XP  
x:\winXPimg\SP2\WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU /integrate:X:\winXpimg\i386  
After issuing the command above you should see the files being extracted and  
then integrated into the Windows XP files as shown in Figure 2-2  
Figure 2-2 Service Pack 2 unpack and integration in progress  
After the extraction and integration is completed you should get a confirmation  
that Windows XP Service Pack2 has now been slipstreamed into your original  
Windows XP files as shown in Figure 2-3  
Figure 2-3 SP 2 integrated successfully  
At this point the Service Pack 2 is integrated into the base code. This process is  
pretty much the same for all Windows operating system variants.  
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2.2.3 Creating the unattended profile  
The main purpose of creating an unattended profile is to allow for a native  
installation of Windows XP to occur without replicating a pre-existing reference  
system. In our scenario, we assume there is no existing reference system to  
utilize. Therefore, we are building the system through the unattended profile  
process which will become the reference system for future installations which we  
can utilize for mass distribution.  
We perform the following steps to create an unattended profile for Windows XP:  
1. Log in to the console, select OS Deployment → Profiles → Folders →  
System Profiles → Add a new profile, as shown in Figure 2-4.  
Figure 2-4 Launching the Profile Wizard  
2. In the first profile wizard window, choose the Unattended setup (scripted  
install), as shown in Figure 2-5 on page 23. This is because we want to  
install a new operating system using the installation CDs. Since one of the  
main purposes of Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment is to make  
the installation process simpler and faster, the profile wizard will continue  
prompting the installation parameters in order to avoid the manual  
intervention on the client machine after the deploy now command is  
submitted. All the parameters that are needed to install an operation system  
on a bare metal machine are automatically validated to the process without  
any user intervention at a later time. Moreover, Tivoli Provisioning Manager  
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for OS Deployment allows users to modify these configuration parameters  
after the completion of the wizard. This is shown in the RedBook Deployment  
Guide Series: Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment V5.1,  
SG24-7397 in section 4.3.1.  
Figure 2-5 Selecting unattended installation  
3. In the next profile wizard window it asks you the operating system that will be  
contained in the profile. In this case select “A Windows 2000/2003/XP  
system profile” option as shown in Figure 2-6  
Figure 2-6 Creating a Window XP profile  
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4. In order to select a location for the operating source files, it is required to  
either install the Web Interface extension, select a system that has the Web  
Interface extension, or import from the local import directory. This process is  
shown in Figure 2-7 on page 24.  
Figure 2-7 Connecting to the Web Extension  
5. The next step is to specify where the installation files are located. Tivoli  
Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment will copy the installation files into its  
own system. This way they will be protected from outside changes, plus Tivoli  
Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment can optimize disk usage by keeping  
files only once across all images. Since we have the files on a local hard  
drive, we will click on the browse button, as shown in Figure 2-8.  
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Figure 2-8 Browse to source location  
6. In our scenario we select the location where the files are located on the Tivoli  
Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment server as shown in Figure 2-9 on  
page 25.  
Figure 2-9 Source File Location Specified  
7. Next Tivoli Provisioning Manager validates the location that you specify as the  
source location and detects what installation software is available. In our  
scenario the profile wizard detects the correct Windows XP operating system  
and we select the Next button to move on to the next window in the profile  
wizard as shown in Figure 2-10.  
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Figure 2-10 Operating system source files detected  
8. Next we are prompted to define the partition size that will be used for the  
Windows XP installation. This can be defined as an absolute value or as a  
proportion of the available space. As you are unlikely to know the size of all  
target disks, we recommend that you specify to use 100% of the disk as  
shown in Figure 2-11 on page 26.  
Tip: If you prefer to keep certain files on a system even after a  
redeployment of the operating system, create a second partition and place  
those files there.  
Figure 2-11 Disk partition sizing question  
9. Next we specify NTFS as the filesystem type and to use the entire disk as  
shown in Figure 2-12  
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Figure 2-12 Specify filesystem type and size in percentage format  
10.Next we confirm that we have defined one NTFS partition using 100% of the  
disk as shown in Figure 2-13 on page 27.  
Figure 2-13 Confirm fileystem size and format  
11.In order for Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment to install  
unattended we must specify the product key for the unattended installation as  
shown in Figure 2-14.  
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Figure 2-14 Input product key  
12.Next we specify additional fixed properties to use for all machines that you  
deploy this system profile on. If left blank, these properties have to be set  
indivitdually for each host or Windows setup might ask for them interactively.  
In this case we set the fixed properties as shown in Figure 2-15 on page 28.  
Figure 2-15 setting fixed properties  
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13.Next we specify a custom unattended.txt for advanced settings that you want  
to use in your system profile. We leave this blank in our unattended  
installation as shown in Figure 2-16.  
For information about the unattended.txt file consult the help file ref.chm  
which is included in the Windows XP Deployment tools. A link is provided in ,  
“Online resources” on page 142.  
Figure 2-16 Specifying unattend.txt file or advanced settings  
14.Next enter a descriptive name and relevant comments as shown in  
Figure 2-17 on page 30. Note that only the name will be shown when  
chossing the profile during deployments, so make sure it is descriptive.  
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Figure 2-17 Entering name and comments for the profile  
15.Finally, we confirm the creation of the profile and finish the profile creation as  
shown in Figure 2-18.  
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Figure 2-18 Finishing the unattended profile creation wizard  
The above steps has now resulted in a profile for an unattended installation of  
Windows XP professional with Service Pack 2 integrated.  
2.3 Adding drivers  
In the point-of-sale environment the chances of having different types of  
hardware to deploy to is very high. In our case we had four different types of  
SurePOS systems, each requiring a different set of drivers. We found that it was  
critical to inject the proper system board drivers at a minimum during the  
installation process in order for the system to be usable after installation. This  
section will go through the process of importing a driver into the TPM for OS  
Deployment file repository and associating it with the proper type of device.  
Note: This procedure works only for PnP drivers. If you want to make an  
image with additional Mass-storage drivers then there is a Technote  
documenting the procedure. To find the Technote, search the Tivoli support  
site for incident 1260552.  
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2.3.1 Downloading and unpacking the drivers  
Drivers are prepared in Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment as  
software packages. The following steps show how a system board driver for a  
SurePOS system is downloaded, unpacked and created as a device driver  
software package that can be used during deployments.  
1. First, download the appropriate driver file from the relevant web site. The  
latest device drivers for IBM SurePOS systems can be found at  
http://www2.clearlake.ibm.com/store/support. In our case we are creating  
a driver package for the system board driver for the IBM SurePOS System  
type 4840-553. which are in the file intelinf-2kxp04101012.exe as shown in  
Figure 2-19.  
Figure 2-19 System board driver package  
2. Next, we run the executable for system board driver and select an extract  
location for the files and click the Unzip button as shown in Figure 2-20 on  
page 32.  
Figure 2-20 Select Extract location for driver package  
3. After the extract of the system driver completes sucessfully click the OK  
button to confirm the completion of the extract as shown in Figure 2-21.  
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Figure 2-21 Drivers unpacked  
4. Next go to a command prompt and extract the *.inf files for the system board  
drivers by running the command as shown in Example 2-3. The actual  
unpacking varies from one driver to the other so always consult the  
documentation or readme textfile.  
Example 2-3 Extracting the drivers  
c:\drivers\inf>setup -A -A -P c:\tmp\driverExtract  
5. The setup utility is launched as shown in Figure 2-22 on page 33.  
Figure 2-22 Driver setup wizard is launched  
6. Next Accept the license agreement as shown in Figure 2-23.  
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Figure 2-23 Accepting the license agreement  
7. The Readme Information will be displayed. Click the Next button as shown in  
Figure 2-24 on page 35.  
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Figure 2-24 Review Readme Information  
8. Verify that the files were extracted to the destination location as shown in  
Figure 2-25.  
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Figure 2-25 Display the extracted inf files  
2.3.2 Creating a software package for device drivers  
Once the inf files for the driver are exposed through a process as shown in 2.3.1,  
“Downloading and unpacking the drivers” on page 32, the drivers can be  
packaged in Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment. In order to package  
the driver follow the steps listed below:  
1. Login to the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment console and go  
to OS Deployment → Software Packages, and click the “Add a New  
Software package” button on the bottom left as shown in Figure 2-26.  
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Figure 2-26 Create a new driver software package  
2. Next, select the “Windows 2000/2003/XP” option and click Next as shown in  
Figure 2-27.  
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Figure 2-27 Select a software package for the Windows Platform  
3. Next, select “A Windows driver to include in a deployment” and click Next as  
shown in Figure 2-28.  
Figure 2-28 Select a driver software package to create  
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4. Next, select to look in the server’s import directory for the driver location as  
shown in Figure 2-29 on page 39.  
Figure 2-29 Select the local server import directory to get the driver files  
5. Browse the import directory and select the driver directory location as shown  
in Figure 2-30.  
Figure 2-30 Select the directory where the driver files are located  
Note: Point to the directory that contains the *.INF files. Most driver  
packages expand to several subdirectories.  
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6. After selecting the directory, click Next and you should see the following.  
Notice that there is a checkbox for “Automatically bind this driver to hosts,  
using PCI device identifiers.” as shown in Figure 2-31 on page 40. Select this  
checkmark.  
Figure 2-31  
7. Click Next, and you are presented with another chance to add your own  
comments to the driver package as shown in Figure 2-32.  
Figure 2-32 Naming of the software package and adding comments  
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8. Click Next, and you will be presented with where Tivoli Provisioning Manager  
for OS Deployment is storing the files and also at what stage the driver will be  
injected as shown in Figure 2-33 on page 41.  
Figure 2-33 Driver upload details  
9. Click Next and the import will begin as shown in Figure 2-34.  
Figure 2-34 Driver import progress  
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10.Once the upload of the driver is completed, Click the Finish button as shown  
in Figure 2-35 on page 42.  
Figure 2-35 Finishing the software package wizard  
You will now have the system board driver listed in the Software Packages  
section of the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment console as shown  
in Figure 2-36.  
Figure 2-36 Driver package sucessfully created  
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2.4 Deploying to a pristine system  
After creating the unattended profile as shown in 2.2.3, “Creating the unattended  
profile” on page 22, we create a deployment scheme and deploy the profile to a  
target IBM SurePOS client machine. In this section we cover:  
ꢀ The creation of a deployment scheme  
ꢀ How to modify an unattended profile for a dynamic host name  
ꢀ The process the client machine goes through during boot and installation  
2.4.1 Creating a deployment scheme  
Before deploying a profile on a target computer, you must specify how your  
profile is going to be deployed. In Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment, this is done through Task Templates → Deployment Schemes. In  
order to create a deployment scheme follow the step by step instructions below:  
1. First, login to the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment console and  
select OS Deployment → Task Templates → Deployment schemes. Right-  
mouse-click on Deployment Schemes and select New Deployment  
Scheme as shown in Figure 2-37.  
Figure 2-37 Creating a new deployment scheme  
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2. Select a name for the deployment scheme as shown in Figure 2-38 on  
page 44.  
Figure 2-38 Adding a descriptive name for the deployment scheme  
3. When the deployment starts, host-specific parameters can be modified  
interactively during deployment or taken from the unattended install. In  
addition, there are other deployment options that can be set. In this case we  
leave the default settings as shown in Figure 2-39.  
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Figure 2-39 Defining host-specific parameters during deployments  
4. Next, set the configuration for the data collection policy as shown in  
Figure 2-40 on page 45. In this scenario, we leave the default configuration  
and click Next.  
Figure 2-40 Data collection policy  
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5. Next, we select what to do after the deployment is completed. In our scenario  
we want the terminal to boot from the newly completed deployment; therefore,  
we select the second option as shown in Figure 2-41.  
Figure 2-41 Selecting action after completed deployment  
6. Next, we configure the network usage during deployment by selecting  
between unicast, multicast with synchronization, and multicast without  
synchronization. In this scenario we take the default of unicast as shown in  
Figure 2-42 on page 46 which will allow the system to not share bandwidth  
during the installation. Please refer to section 6.3, “Network Bandwidth  
Considerations” on page 132 for details on the different network options.  
Figure 2-42 Selecting network usage  
7. Next, we select the on-site redeployment features for the deployment scheme.  
In this scenario we take the default as shown in Figure 2-43. Redeployments  
are discussed in Chapter 4, “Redeployment scenarios” on page 83.  
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Figure 2-43 Optional selection of redeployment feature  
8. Finally, select the finish button as shown in Figure 2-44 on page 47 to  
complete the creation of the deployment scheme.  
Figure 2-44 Finish the deployment scheme wizard  
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2.4.2 Modifying the unattended profile for a dynamic host name  
Some organizations have very strict computer naming conventions while others  
are happy for a host to be assigned a number from a random pool. There is a lot  
to be said about the pros and cons of each naming style. However, some form of  
a naming standard is required in order to keep track of the different systems in  
the environment. This is especially true in a large retail environment with multiple  
locations and different types of machines. If a naming standard is not maintained  
it may become difficult to locate a particular machine that needs repair or  
determine what function the device provides. This problem only gets more  
complicated in a retail environment with a central IT department that manages  
several remote warehouses and stores each with many devices in each location.  
Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment offers a number of ways to  
register a hostname within the system:  
ꢀ Manually type a name into the Web console after a computer registers with  
Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment, but has not yet had an image  
deployed. This is fine for one or two computers but during a major deployment  
it can become very laborious.  
ꢀ Import a list of hostnames. This is a good way to populate the host database,  
especially if the computer naming convention does not rely on any  
characteristic of the actual computer. Each name however must be linked  
some way to a unique characteristic of a computer. This could be the MAC  
address, the UUID/GUID, the serial number, or a fixed asset tag. These could  
be acquired from the manufacturer with the hardware shipment. In short,  
Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment must have some way of  
uniquely identifying a computer to allow the match up with a pre populated  
host name. The import host button is at the bottom of the Host monitor  
panel.  
ꢀ Automatically generate a host name. Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment has a variety of keywords that will allow the extraction of all or  
part of a key hardware identifier and build it into the hostname according to a  
template. This means you could incorporate all or part of the computer’s serial  
number or asset number into its hostname.  
ꢀ Let Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment decide. Tivoli  
Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment will assign a random hostname.  
In our scenario, we used the ability for Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment to automatically generate a host name with the use of keyword  
variables. In order to achieve this the values in the Fixed Hosts properties can  
contain special keywords or variables that are replaced by dynamic information.  
This can be helpful when trying to dynamically create hostnames for systems.  
Below are the supported keywords:  
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Table 2-1 Fixed host properites keywords  
Variable  
Description  
Syntax  
IP  
Full IP address received by  
DHCP  
[IP]  
MAC  
SN  
hardware address  
[MAC]  
[SN]  
serial number as found in  
DMI (SMBIOS)  
BOMID  
unique host identifier in the  
Tivoli Provisioning  
Manager for OS  
[BOMID]  
Deployment server  
database  
AT  
DMI asset tag  
[AT]  
GRP  
deepest administrative  
group name to which the  
host belongs  
[GRP]  
DHCPNAME  
host name as known to the  
DHCP server  
[DHCPNAME]  
Every keyword supports a range extension if you want to include only part of the  
dynamic information. The range starts at value 0. [IP3] corresponds to the last  
byte of the IP address. [IP1-3] corresponds to bytes 1 to 3. [MAC3-5] is replaced  
by the last three bytes of the MAC address. For AT, GRP, DHCPNAME, the range  
corresponds to a substring. In our example, we will be using the last three bytes  
of the MAC address. Below are the step by step instructions to modify the profile  
to add a dynamic hostname:  
1. First, login to the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment console and  
select OS Deployment → Profiles and select the profile that needs the  
dynamic hostname. Select the configure button located at the bottom of the  
screen as shown in Figure 2-45 on page 50.  
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Figure 2-45 Select profile for editing  
2. Next, select the edit button on the Fixed Host Properties screen as shown in  
Figure 2-46. This will allow manual editing of the parameters.  
Figure 2-46 Select fixed host properties for editing  
3. Finally, add the variable into the “Hostname to set” field as shown in  
Figure 2-47 on page 51.  
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Figure 2-47 Adding a variable into the hostname  
2.4.3 Client Machine Boot and Deploy  
To start the boot process and deployment of the scheme, login to the Tivoli  
Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment console and select OS  
Deployment → Host Monitor. Right mouse click on the host that needs the  
deployment and select “Deploy Now” as shown in Figure 2-48.  
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Figure 2-48 Starting the actual deployment  
The Deploy Now feature should trigger that the client machine performs a  
network boot in order to load the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment  
mini operating system. This is a simple operating system that contacts the Tivoli  
Provisioning Manager of OS Deployment server and runs the deploy on the  
target machine. Below is the process the client machine runs in order to  
accomplish the deploy now function:  
1. Power On: A user or a wake-up event starts the client boot sequence.  
2. Network Boot: The BIOS configuration (boot order), a hot key (typically the  
F12), or wake-up event instructs the computer to boot on the network.  
3. IP address discovery: The client machine broadcasts a DHCP request for an  
IP address. Any DHCP server which knows the client or which has a pool of  
freely distrubutable dynamic addresses sends an IP address. The client takes  
the first answer and confirms it to the server. In addition to the IP Address, the  
DHCP server gives some other network parameters to the client, as well as  
information on the boot procedure.  
4. Boot server discovery: The client computer then proceeds to the discovery of  
the boot server. The boot server is responsible for delivering a network boot  
program to the client. It is not necessarily the same computer as the DHCP  
server. The client responds to the first boot server which replies and  
downloads a small program using a simple multicast protocol (MTFTP).  
5. Server connection: If the network boot program is the deployment engine, it  
establishes a secure (encrypted) connection to the Tivoli Provisioning  
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Manager for OS Deployment server and receives instructuions form the  
server to determine the name of the program to execute.  
6. The client determines that it is starting a new deployment and queries the  
server for relevant deployment configuration. The client performs hardware  
discovery through DMI and PCI system calls. If specified in the configuration,  
it prompts the user for additional deployment information. The client then  
queries the ODBC/JDBC™ database for all relevant information regarding the  
operating system and the software packages to be installed and dynamically  
generates a deployment script.  
7. The client partitions its hard disk according to the information retreived from  
the database. A small bootstrap is also written to the hard disk, so as to be  
able to take over any subsequent reboot on the hard disk. This is called the  
fake MBR.  
8. The client initiates a batch multicast transfer for all files needed during the  
deployment. The files are downloaded in the order which optimizes the  
efficiency of the multicast download. A virtual image of the wanted hard-disk  
state is built by merging the base operating system image and all incremental  
images and other software updates. The data is then written onto the disk.  
9. An answer file is dynamically generated, providing all necessary information  
for an unattended configuration of the operating system image. The client  
computer boots in the mini-setip, and completes operating system installation  
and executes unatteded setup command lines for the selected software  
packages. The client reboots and Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment takes control again. If the computer is still connected to the  
network, it automatically uipdates the deployment status in the database.  
10.When everything is done, the deployment process terminates by either  
turning off the computer, starting up into the operating system, restarting the  
computer, or displaying a green banner.  
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3
Mass-Distributions  
In this chapter we cover the typical mass distribution scenarios. We take a base  
point-of-sale system that we deployed with the unattended profile in previous  
chapter, and go through the steps for creating a cloning profile based on that  
unattended installation for mass distribution to a greater population of  
point-of-sale devices. The topics we cover include.  
ꢀ Preparing a system for being captured  
ꢀ Capturing the image and creating the cloning profile  
ꢀ Adding additional drivers and creating rules for different hardware types  
ꢀ Deploying the cloning profiles  
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3.1 Creating a cloned profile for Windows XP  
Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment’s native mode of operation is  
centered around cloning system profiles. Deployment through the cloning  
method is faster than an unattended installation. In this section we will explore  
the details and the steps required to clone a system.  
3.1.1 Preparing the donor system  
Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment does not perform any clean up  
on your machine. Before we can clone a Windows XP machine, we must  
therefore make sure that the system is as clean as possible. This includes the  
following cleanup activities:  
ꢀ Empty the system recycle bin  
ꢀ Delete the internet cached files - cookies and history  
ꢀ Delete temporary directories and files  
ꢀ Disconnect any network shares and remote printers  
After the cleanup process has been completed perform the following activities:  
1. Login to the system that is to be cloned.  
2. Before we can create a windows profile we have to run a Microsoft utility  
called sysprep on the system that will be our master image for future cloning.  
Sysprep places the operating system in a condition that is as though it was  
just installed on the systerm and before the inital windows setup occurs.  
Sysprep is available from Microsoft’s web site. A link is provided in the section  
“Other publications” on page 141. The sysprep file we used for this project  
was WindowsXP-KB838080-SP2-DeployTools-ENU.cab. Extract the cab file  
to c:\sysprep as shown in Figure 3-1 on page 57.  
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Figure 3-1 Sysprep files extracted  
3. Next, run C:\sysprep\sysprep.exe and click ok on the warning message as  
shown in Figure 3-2.  
Figure 3-2 Warning message for security modification  
4. Select “mini-setup”. Ensure that the Shutdown Mode is set to “Shutdown”,  
then click reseal as shown in Figure 3-3 on page 58.  
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Figure 3-3 Options for the System Preparation Tool  
5. Click ok on the warning dialog that appears and then after a short delay the  
machine will be shutdown and we are ready to capture the image as shown in  
Figure 3-4  
Figure 3-4 Warning for sysprep  
The system is now ready for system capture.  
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3.1.2 Capturing the system image  
1. Power on the Window XP System that is to be cloned and boot it to the  
network so that Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment can discover  
and manage it as shown in Figure 3-5 on page 59. After the TPM server  
identifies the computer and writes a basic hardware scan data into the Tivoli  
Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment database, the guest will display the  
following screen. If you do not see this screen within a 30 seconds of the  
splash screen then you may have some server communication issues.  
Tip: Forcing the IBM SurePOS system to boot from the network may  
require changes to the boot order. This is described in Appendix A,  
“Alternate boot sequence on POS systems” on page 133  
Figure 3-5 Booting the system to be cloned  
2. Login to the server Console and select the OS Deployment → Host Monitor  
in the left panel. Select the newly discovered system in the Host Monitor’s  
host view and choose Start admin toolkit from the left panel menu. Or,  
right-click on the discovered host and select Start admin toolkit from the  
pop-up menu as shown in Figure 3-6 on page 60.  
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Figure 3-6 Starting the admin tookit  
3. Next, take the default setting and click the OK button on the Start Admin  
toolkit options screen as shown in Figure 3-7.  
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Figure 3-7 Admin Tookit Options  
4. Go to client SurePOS system that is being cloned and the admin toolkit  
should be loaded. Select “Make a new image” as shown in Figure 3-8 on  
page 62.  
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Figure 3-8 Select make new image from the admin toolkit  
5. Next, select “Create a System Profile” as shown in Figure 3-9 on page 63.  
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Figure 3-9 Selecting create a system profile  
6. Click in the Description field and press the ESC key. That will clear out the  
text. Then type something like, “Retail SurePOS Master Image” as shown in  
Figure 3-10 on page 64.  
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Figure 3-10 specify a name for the image to be captured  
7. In the next panel, Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment has actually  
scanned the system itself and detected the specific version of the Operating  
System installed as shown in Figure 3-11 on page 65.  
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Figure 3-11 Verify the Operating system for capture  
8. In the next panel enter the model number to ensure that the profile is  
deployed only to the proper model. In this scenario the image is being  
captured for use across all of our different IBM SurePOS system models;  
therefore, we use the generic IBM SurePOS as the model as shown in  
Figure 3-12 on page 66.  
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Figure 3-12 Specify the model for the image  
9. Finally, click the Next button and the image will begin to be captured. The  
image build will take several minutes. This time will vary greatly depending on  
the size of the image, and the network between client and server, as shown in  
Figure 3-13 on page 67.  
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Figure 3-13 Capturing the OS image  
10.After the capture has completed successfully click ok to confirm the  
successful completion of the image capture as shown in Figure 3-14 on  
page 68.  
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Figure 3-14 completed image capture  
We now have an image on the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment  
server, that we can use for deployment to multiple systems. Before we do this,  
however, it is recommended to do some adjustments, including adding device  
drivers and define hostnaming standards.  
3.1.3 Configuring the system profile  
A significant characteristic about Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment  
is that we have not simply copied the disk sectors to create the clone image.  
Instead, we copied the files from the donor machine. This means that we can  
now browse and change the details of the profile after it is captured. From here  
you can do the following:  
ꢀ Add and delete files and directories from the image  
ꢀ Change the hard disk layout  
ꢀ Review the binding details for computer models  
ꢀ Change and view the system code page  
ꢀ Add additional user binding categories  
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If we edit the profile details, we can add system category information, which then  
allows us to associate this profile with specific software packages. After we finish  
with the profile details, we can modify the details of the disk partitions in the  
image. In the profile configuration summary we see that we can make custom  
additions to the sysprep.inf file. Remember that this file is used when the image  
is deployed to a new target. Such modifications are useful to allow us to run  
custom actions when the deployment is completed. They might include the  
following:  
ꢀ A script to update an associated Change Record  
ꢀ A script to send an e-mail notification to an Administrator  
The sysprep process is documented at the following web site:  
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/duplicatio  
n.mspx  
Details of the contents of the sysprep.inf file are documented at the following  
Web site:  
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/71b576bd-cca6-466  
f-a1db-16500be3098f1033.mspx?mfr=true  
If you want to do something simple like run a script after installation completes,  
then see Example 3-1, which gives you the critical but incomplete items from the  
sysprep.inf file that you will need. In this example, we run the  
c:\run_this_command.cmd file the first time that the target machine boots after  
installation.  
Example 3-1 running a script after deployment is completed  
[Unattended]  
[GuiUnattended]  
AutoLogonCount=1  
AutoLogon=Yes  
[GuiRunOnce]  
Command0=C:\run_this_command.cmd  
3.2 Adding support for different hardware types  
The cloning profile that we created in the previous section is currently perfect for  
exactly one type of hardware, namely the one we used to create the master  
image.  
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With Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment it is possible to use the  
same cloning profile for different types of hardware. During deployment, Tivoli  
Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment identifies the hardware and based on  
binding rules, the correct drivers are injected at the appropriate stage of the OS  
installation.  
In this scenario we go through the steps for creating additional drivers, specify  
binding rules and installation sequences, so the cloning image can be used for  
different types of hardware requiring different drivers.  
The steps for adding support for a new hardware type using an existing cloning  
profile are:  
ꢀ Download the appropriate devce drivers for the new type of hardware  
ꢀ Create device driver software packages for each new type of hardware  
ꢀ Validate the correct binding rules exist for the new hardware  
The process for adding support for new hardware types is illustrated in  
Figure 3-15.  
Figure 3-15 Process for adding support for new hardware types  
The creation of device drivers is described in 2.3, “Adding drivers” on page 31  
and will not be described further in this chapter.  
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3.2.1 The principle of device driver injection  
In the point-of-sales environment the chances of having different types of  
hardware to deploy to is very high. In our case we had four different types of  
SurePOS systems each setup needed a different set of drivers. This section will  
go over the principle of device driver injection.  
If a required device driver is not contained within the profile that is being  
deployed to a new target, then at best the hardware on the target will not be  
exploited, for example resulting in poor screen performance. At worst, the  
network cards will not initialize correctly, and the system will not have network  
access to correct the problem.  
Instead of having the cloned machine image contain all the possible device  
drivers, Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment adopts a different  
approach and allows to inject the required drivers into the image at deployment  
time. This means that you can always use the same image, and Tivoli  
Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment dynamically binds the hardware  
specific device driver to the deployment for your particular hardware. This  
process is accomplished through the uniquely set identifiers that exist on all PCI  
based devices.  
This principle is described in full details in the IBM RedBook Deployment Guide  
Series: Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment V5.1, SG24-7397.  
3.2.2 Software Bindings  
When a device driver software package is created, the binding rules are created  
automatically at the time of package creation as shown in Figure 3-16.  
Configuration and software bindings that are not the result of an automatic  
binding rule can be modified using the binding interface in the Host Monitor.  
Automatic binding rules are used to create bindings between configuration and  
hosts, or between software packages and hosts, without having to specifically  
bind a configuration or a software package to each host. Rules are created in  
configurations and software packages to determine which hosts will  
automatically be bound to the configuration or software package.  
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Figure 3-16 Device driver software package binding rules  
Rules are made for criteria and values. If a host has a matching value for all  
criteria in the rule, the configuration or software package will be bound to the  
host. The binding will be displayed with the rule in the configuration panel of the  
host properities that match the criteria.  
3.2.3 Deployment Scheme Parameter Wizard  
Deployment schemes allow an administrator to create different deployment  
methods. For example, you can ensure that the deployment user must specify  
the hostname for each deployment. Deployment schemes are explained in  
section 2.4.1, “Creating a deployment scheme” on page 43.  
3.3 Deploying the XP cloning profile  
The deployment is the process of installing an operating system on a computer,  
and configuring the operating system on a given set of hardware, which in our  
case is IBM SurePOS system. In Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment, a deployment is made of several steps that are executed in  
sequence without requiring user interaction.  
1. Partitions are created on the hard-disk, and then formatted according to  
information contained in the system profile to deploy.  
2. All deployment objects (system profile, partition files and software packages)  
are downloaded in a temporary storage location on the hard-disk.  
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3. Operating system files are written in the hard-disk partitions, thus creating a  
bootable operating system with files and applications configured by database  
bindings between the host and software packages.  
4. Host-specific configuration, like the hostname and the product key are  
gathered from the database to create a textual configuration file used by  
Microsoft’s System Preparation Tool (sysprep) for Windows deployment.  
5. The operating system is started, allowing sysprep to configure the operating  
system according to information stored in the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for  
OS Deployment database.  
6. Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment takes control again when  
sysprep has completed and rebooted the computer, in order to display a  
message indicating that the deployment was successful.  
Deployment step by step  
Now that we have captured an image, added applications, and added drivers, we  
are ready to deploy the Windows XP Image to a system that will be put into  
production after deployment:  
1. Power on the SurePOS target machine. Assuming there is no operating  
system on the system (the hard drive is blank), you can simply let it boot up  
and it will try to boot the network as part of the regular boot sequence. If there  
is an operating system, force the system to boot from the network, as  
described in Appendix A, “Alternate boot sequence on POS systems” on  
page 133. Once the network boot has completed you should see a screen as  
shown in Figure 3-17 on page 74.  
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Figure 3-17 A system booted from network and connected to TPMfOSD  
2. After the client completes the network boot, return to the server console and  
select Host Monitor from the left margin to ensure that the system is  
discovered. Right-click on the newly discovered system and select Deploy  
now as shown in Figure 3-18 on page 75.  
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Figure 3-18 Selcting deploy now from the server console  
3. The deployment wizard will be displayed as shown in Figure 3-19. Click Next.  
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Figure 3-19 The deployment wizard  
4. Next, keep the default option of Simple Deployment and click Next as shown  
in Figure 3-20 on page 77.  
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Figure 3-20 Selecting a simple deployment  
5. Select the deployment scheme that was created earlier similar to the  
deployment scheme created for the unattended installation, but in this case  
for the clone. In this scenario the deployment scheme is called “Unattended  
clone profile”. We select the deployment scheme and click Next as shown in  
Figure 3-21.  
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Figure 3-21 Selecting the deployment scheme for cloning  
6. Select the WinXP Image that we created in the previous section and click  
Next as shown in Figure 3-22 on page 79.  
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Figure 3-22 Selecting the Windows XP configuration  
7. Accept the remaining defaults and click Finish to Start the deployment as  
shown in Figure 3-23.  
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Figure 3-23 Finishing the deployment wizard  
8. The deployment process will now begin on the target SurePOS machine. You  
should see an image in the target SurePOS system as shown in Figure 3-24  
on page 81.  
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Figure 3-24 deployment progress on the target during deployment  
9. The system will execute several reboot cycles and you may notice that  
fundamental setup information will be automatically entered by the build  
process handled by Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment. When  
the deployment is completed you should see a green banner on the target  
system indicating the deployment was successful as shown in Figure 3-25 on  
page 82.  
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Figure 3-25 Green banner on the target after successful deployment  
With the above steps in this chapter, we have shown how to prepare and capture  
a cloning image from a master system, configure the profile, add additional  
drivers and finally deploy to a new target system.  
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4
Redeployment scenarios  
Redeployment is the process of quickly reinstalling a system configuration  
previously installed by Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment to its  
initial deployment state. There are two types of redeployments available. A server  
based imaging of the corrupted device by the same deployment scheme that was  
originally used to deploy the device or the use of a Tivoli Provisioning Manager  
for OS Deployment specific feature that is located on a local hidden partition of  
the device for recovery. This second redeployment feature of using a hidden  
partition to redeploy is especially useful for the retail environment since  
point-of-sale devices are used in a variety of locations that might not be easily  
accessible by central IT networks. This option gives local users or power users  
the ability to repair a corrupted device without the intervention of a central IT  
resources and brings business value by limiting the amount of downtime of the  
corrupt device. In this section we cover:  
ꢀ The reasons for implementing the local redeployment feature  
ꢀ Implementation and customization of local redeployment to a point-of-sale  
device  
ꢀ Server based redeployment  
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4.1 Reasons for redeployment  
We use the term redeployment for the situations where an existing POS system,  
that has already been deployed, in operation, and needs to be recovered to its  
original state as it was originally installed as a new system.  
There are different reasons for redeployments, depending on the environment  
and the situation.  
ꢀ After a hard drive failure  
This is probably the most obvious reason. If the hard drive fails it needs to be  
replaced with a new drive which then needs to be provided with operating  
system and software from the ground. Since the system itself is already  
known to Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment, the redeployment  
process is very simple.  
ꢀ After a software failure  
This scenario is a little less obvious. Normally the IT helpdesk will try to figure  
out what the actual problem is and try to resolve it. However, almost any  
software problem will take more than 15 minutes to resolve, which is enough  
to justify issuing a redeployment, which will effectively take around 20-25  
minutes, assuming a local server. The redeployment process can be speeded  
further up by keeping a redeployment image locally on the system’s hard drive  
in a hidden partition.  
ꢀ Performance and stability  
It is common experience that a computer always works the best and the  
fastest on the day it is installed. At that time, the system is completely clean,  
free of any undesirable CPU-consuming gadgets, and all programs are  
configured for their optimal use by the system administrator. If the systems  
are subject to many changes from different end users, but ideally the system  
should be clean for the next user, it may be advisable to configure the system  
to automatically redeploy itself at every system boot.  
The first two reasons are very valid in the POS environments and will be covered  
in this chapter. While the reasoning behind performance and stability are also  
valid, the typical use of a POS system does not include letting users do any  
customizations or even using the systems to other things than the POS  
application(s). This type of scenario is more relevant for workstations with public  
access, for example in libraries, hotel Internet cafés, schools and so forth.  
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4.2 Redeployment from the local hard drive  
The most efficient method for redeploying is to implement the on-site deployment  
feature during the initial deployment. Using this feature will create a hidden  
partition on the target system with a copy of the deployed system.  
Whenever the system is started, a boot menu is shown with a timeout value so if  
no selections are made, the system continues the normal boot of the installed  
operating system. If a redeployment is required, the normal boot process can be  
interrupted via the boot menu, and a redeployment can be issued.  
The process for setting up a system with local redeployment enabled is shown in  
Figure 4-1 and includes the following steps:  
ꢀ Create a deployment scheme that includes the redeployment feature.  
ꢀ Run an initial deployment specifying to preload the operating system as  
opposed to normal deployment.  
ꢀ Create a boot menu that will be used with the local redeployment feature.  
ꢀ Run the redeployment using the deployment scheme and the customized  
GUI.  
Figure 4-1 Process for setting up a system with local redeployment enabled  
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Using the local recovery is very efficient in terms of recovery time. However it  
must be noted that it will not help in the event of a hard drive failure, where the  
hidden partition will also be lost.  
It is recommended that the profile is customized to enable redeployment on  
point-of-sale devices that are not connected to the central IT network through  
high speed networks or have configurations that are easily damaged by user  
error. This minimizes the amount of time required by a power user or field  
technican to repair the device and put it back in service. In most cases the user  
of the local redeployment feature will be a power user like a warehouse manager  
or a field technican tha is sent to repair the terminal.  
4.2.1 Create a deployment scheme that supports redeployment  
The first step in preparing for redeployment is to create a deployment scheme  
that has redeployment enabled. To create a deployment scheme that supports  
redeployment follow these steps:  
1. To create a new deployment scheme, open the OS Deployment menu in the  
left panel and select Task templates. Then click the button New Scheme.  
This initiates the deployment scheme wizard. Start by giving the new  
deployment scheme a descriptive name, then click next and go through the  
panels and define deployment attributes as with any other deployment. When  
you reach the page for the On-site deployment features (Figure 4-2), select  
the support for quick redeployment.  
Figure 4-2 Enabling quick redeployment feature  
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2. On the next panel (Figure 4-3 ), select Yes to keep Tivoli Provisioning  
Manager for OS Deployment images in a protected partition, and enter  
the space that you want to allocate to this special partition. Enter a value at  
least as large as the total size of all system and software images to be  
deployed on the computer, as it will retain all these images. If you are unsure,  
start with approximately 800 MB for a Windows 2000 configuration, 1500 MB  
for a Windows XP configuration, or 1500 MB for a Linux configuration. If you  
want a more precise number, check the image sizes reported in a deployment  
log and round the sum up to accommodate the miscellaneous structures used  
for redeployment.  
Figure 4-3 Set the redeployment partition size  
Note: The space that you allocate to the redeployment partition is literally  
subtracted from the hard-disk total capacity, as seen by Windows or Linux. It is  
not simply a hidden partition, but instead a hardware-protected area, as  
defined in ATA-5 specification. If necessary, you can recover this space simply  
by running another deployment operation that does not include redeployment.  
3. Click Next, and then Finish to complete the customization process and  
obtain a deployment scheme ready for redeployment.  
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4.2.2 Create a boot menu  
To create a new menu for the local POS system, follow these steps:  
1. In the web console, open the OS Deployment menu in the left panel and  
select Host Monitor. Then right-click the host you want to deploy to and  
select Deploy now.  
2. Go through the deployment wizard, but make sure to select Redeployment  
preload and not Simple deployment. This enables the option to use the  
deployment scheme we just created (Figure 4-4).  
Figure 4-4 Selecting the new deployment scheme for redeployment  
3. Proceed through the wizard, selecting the profile and relevant software  
packages.  
4. When the wizard comes to a page with an option to Customize GUI as  
shown in Figure 4-5 select this option. This opens a new window as shown in  
Figure 4-5.  
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Figure 4-5 Launching the customization gui  
5. After you get the GUI customization screen, you can add menu items,  
sub-menus, edit text displayed on these menus, time outs, passwords and so  
forth. In our example we create three menu items for the following:  
– Booting directly to disk (time out 3 seconds)  
– Redeployment using fast redeployment (password protected)  
– Redeployment using full format (password protected)  
Figure 4-6 shows how the redeployment GUI can easily be customized.  
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Figure 4-6 Customizing the redeployment GUI  
In Figure 4-6, you can see three entries:  
– The first entry uses Boot on OS item action and has a time out value set  
to three. This is the default action if no other menu item was selected, and  
it will cause the machine to boot to the operating system installed on the  
hard disk.  
– The second option is used for quick redeployment. Its item action is set to  
Quick restore, and the password is set. This menu item aims to fix  
changed/deleted/added files without touching unchanged files. The icon  
was changed from Default to lock64.jpg.  
– The third menu item does a full format of the disk and then restores all  
files. This requires more time than the second option. Its item action is set  
to Format and Restore, and the password is set. The icon was changed  
from Default to lock64.jpg.  
6. After you finish the GUI customizations, save the changes. The changes are  
bound to the configuration.  
7. If you want to proceed with the deployment of this profile click the Ok button;  
otherwise, click Cancel.  
Every time the system is started, it presents a menu with three entries. If none  
are selected, the system automatically boots to disk after three seconds. If one of  
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the other options is selected, the user is requested to provide a password. If the  
password is correct, the operating system partition is redeployed, and the user  
data on the second partition will not be touched.  
4.2.3 Process for local redeployment  
The process for recovery after a software error, using the local redeployment, is  
shown in Figure 4-7. As can be seen, it is effectively a self-service, there is no  
need for Central IT to get involved.  
Figure 4-7 Process for local redeployment  
Central IT is able to contribute to the redeployment process if the point-of-sale  
device has remote control capabilities though an ethernet KVM. However, in  
most cases the local redeployment is utilized by a power user or a field  
technician dispatched from central IT.  
4.3 Redeployment from the server  
Redeployment from the server involves re-running the same deployment scheme  
to the device. In the case of server redeployment you are leveraging the  
inventory and other database information that is stored about the device on the  
Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment server that is captured at the  
time the machine was originally deployed. This information can then be reused to  
redeploy the same configuration to the same device. This is different from local  
redeployment which uses the local information in the hidden partition rather than  
the server database information.  
It is recommended that local and server redeployment be used as part of a  
combined strategy to repair a device. A local redeployment should be used when  
possible; however, if a hardware failure cause the need for a server based  
redeployment the data in the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment  
database should be leveraged to ensure the device is restored.  
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The process for recovery after a disk failure is shown in Figure 4-8.  
Figure 4-8 Process for redeployment after a failed hard drive  
The major difference between a server redeployment and simply doing a new  
deployment from a clone is the options that are selected at the time the “Deploy  
Now” function is launched. By using the server redeployment feature, the  
configuration will have the exact same settings as the original distribution. When  
issuing a new deployment there is a risk that one or more settings are different.  
4.3.1 Redeployment Process  
Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment addresses the challenge of  
redeployment with the following steps:  
1. At the end of the deployment, Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment  
creates a reference image of the computer, and saves it into a protected  
redeployment partition (invisible to the user and to the operating system  
itself). This only adds a minute or so to the deployment process, as most of  
the files are already present as file archives on the disk at that time.  
2. Every time a computer starts, Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment  
hooks the boot process before the operating system starts (using PXE or  
using a special Master Boot Record).  
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3. If configured to do so, Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment  
authenticates the user of the computer against the server database, to restrict  
the use or the maintenance of the computer to authorized persons.  
4. If configured to do so, Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment offers  
the choice of several configurations available on the computer (multiboot),  
and of several levels of cleaning.  
5. Using the reference image saved during deployment, Tivoli Provisioning  
Manager for OS Deployment resynchronizes the hard-disk content to its  
reference state. This usually takes a few seconds in the normal case, and can  
take up to a few minutes if everything has been destroyed on hard disk by the  
previous user.  
The local redeployment is very versatile. The redeployment can be fully  
automated and mandatory, or it can be based on a menu with for example a  
five-seconds timeout, after which the existing system will start up without any  
redeployments. Redeployments can also be protected by a user-authentication  
mechanism, thereby limiting the access to authorized persons.  
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5
System image snapshots  
In this chapter we introduce the point-of-sale (POS) plug-in for Tivoli Provisioning  
Manager for OS Deployment. and describe its essential functionality. Using the  
deployment environment outlined in previous chapters as our starting point, we  
describe and demonstrate the procedure for installing the plug-in.  
We introduce each of the capabilities provided by the plug-in, discuss each one’s  
usefulness for provisioning IBM POS terminals and demonstrate how we used it  
in our mock production environment.  
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved.  
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5.1 Introducing the POS plug-in  
Previous chapters described factors that differentiate the management of POS  
terminals in a retail environment from those generally applicable to computer  
systems in offices, laboratories, schools and many other settings. However, the  
IBM POS systems we have been working with in this paper are very similar in  
most respects, to standard office PCs. The hard disks, CPUs, printer ports,  
memory chips, USB ports, etc. are, in most cases, identical and interchangeable.  
Likewise, these terminals run standard versions of Microsoft Windows® XP  
Professional as well as some other common operating systems that are outside  
of our scope. Indeed, we used the very same media to create our POS operating  
system images, that are used for server and desktop OS installs.  
The main hardware differences between POS terminals and desktop PCs are the  
additional I/O devices that POS terminals are designed to interact with. These  
include things like cash drawers, touch screens, customer displays and operator  
proximity sensors. Some of these devices - such as magnetic card readers - are  
built-in but many others are connected to the terminals using the same standard  
interface technologies, like the Universal Serial Bus (USB) for example, as their  
office based counterparts.  
This means that Tivoli Provisioning Manager for Operating System Deployment,  
with its rich set of features and capabilities, is ideally suited to managing POS  
devices even without the POS plug-in. The question then is: what value does the  
plug-in add?  
There are two major capabilities available after installing the POS plug-in.  
ꢀ Backup/Restore the current state of a machine.  
ꢀ Perform a “Hardware Switch” of an ailing POS terminal with an identical  
machine.  
The POS backup function makes it easy to accurately capture complete backups  
of the operating system, programs, data, device drivers and software settings of  
a POS terminal at a specific point in time. This includes any dynamic data that  
may have been created or changed since the POS was originally deployed.  
Note: CMOS/BIOS settings are not captured by the POS backup function.  
The hardware switch function facilitates the process of quickly replacing an ailing  
POS terminal device with new hardware, by allowing an administrator to restore  
backups that were originally created from the old hardware, onto the new.  
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With these two core features and a couple of other helpful utilities the POS  
plug-in bridges the gap between initial POS terminal deployment/redeployment,  
and management of POS on a “steady state” basis.  
5.2 Installing the POS plug-in  
Installing the plug-in is quite easy, requiring only three simple steps:  
ꢀ Stop the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment server service.  
ꢀ Copy the POS plug-in module into the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment packages directory.  
ꢀ Restart the server service.  
The Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment server service is called  
“Rembo Server”. The plug-in file is called “pos.pak”  
The POS plug-in can be installed from the Windows graphical interface (GUI) or  
from a command prompt. We installed the plug-in on our “production” server  
(NICE) using the Windows GUI. We used the command line to install it on our  
“development and test” server (BERLIN).  
.
Note: You must be logged in to Windows as a member of the administrators  
group in order to install the POS plug-in.  
The POS plug-in requires Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment  
Fixpack 3 to be applied.  
5.2.1 Obtaining the POS package  
The POS plug-in module is available to IBM customers who are using Tivoli  
Provisioning Manager for Operating System Deployment. At the time of this  
writing, the distribution channel for the POS module has not yet been  
determined. Readers are encouraged to check IBM’s web site or contact their  
IBM service representative to obtain the latest version. General information  
about IBM POS terminals is available on IBM’s web site at:  
http://www.ibm.com/products/retail/?cm_re=masthead-_-products-_-pos  
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5.2.2 Installing the POS plug-in from the Windows GUI  
We performed the steps below using the Windows graphical desktop to install the  
POS plug-in on NICE.  
Stop the Rembo server service (GUI)  
To stop the service, first login to the server as an administrator and perform the  
following steps as shown in Figure 5-1 on page 98.  
1. Open the windows Services dialog by clicking:  
Start → Control Panel → Administrative Tools → Services  
2. Stop the service by right clicking Rembo Server in the list of services and  
selecting Stop.  
3. Minimize, but do not close the Services dialog.  
Figure 5-1 topping the Rembo Server service from the GUI  
Copy the POS plug-in module to the packages directory (GUI)  
To copy the POS plug-in module into the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment executable folder perform the following steps as shown in Figure 5-2  
on page 99.  
1. Open the temporary folder containing the plug-in file, pos.pak, by clicking:  
Start → My Computer  
and entering the pathname of the your temporary folder in the address bar.  
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Note: In our test environment the temporary folder location was:  
C:\tmp  
2. Open the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment packages folder by  
clicking:  
Start → My Computer  
and entering the pathname of the folder in the address bar.  
Note: In our test environment the packages folder location was:  
C:\Program Files\Common Files\IBM Tivoli\packages  
3. Copy the pos.pakfile by dragging it from the temporary folder to the packages  
folder while holding down the Ctrl key.  
Figure 5-2 Copying the pos.pak file  
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Restart the Rembo Server service (GUI)  
Restart the server by right clicking Rembo Server in the Services dialog again if  
necessary (as in, “Stop the Rembo server service (GUI)” on page 98) and  
selecting Start.  
5.2.3 Installing the POS plug-in from the command line  
We performed the steps below using the windows command prompt to install the  
POS plug-in on BERLIN.  
Stop the Rembo server service (CMD)  
To stop the service, first login to the server as an administrator and then perform  
the following steps as shown in Figure 5-3.  
1. Open a windows command prompt by clicking:  
Start → Run  
then typing:  
cmd  
and pressing Enter.  
2. At the command prompt enter:  
net stop "Rembo Server  
Figure 5-3 Stopping the Rembo Server service from the command line  
Copy the POS plug-in module to the packages directory (CMD)  
To copy the POS plug-in module into the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment executable directory perform the following steps from the command  
prompt as shown in Figure 5-4 on page 101.  
1. At the command prompt type:  
cd <package folder path>  
and press Enter.  
2. Copy the plug-in package file by typing:  
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copy <temporary folder path>\pos.pak  
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and pressing Enter.  
Figure 5-4 Copying the pos.pak file  
Restart the Rembo Server service (CMD)  
Restart the server as shown in Figure 5-5, by typing:  
net start "Rembo Server"  
and pressing Enter.  
Figure 5-5 Starting the Rembo Server service  
5.2.4 Verifying the POS plug-in installation  
Once the POS module has been installed, and the server service restarted, you  
can easily verify that the new functions are available by logging in using the web  
console.  
First, open a web browser and navigate to the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment login page. The easiest way to do this from the server, is to click:  
Start → All Programs → IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager → Web Console  
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After entering your login credentials you will be presented with the Tivoli  
Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment console similar as usual, but with the  
“POS” section added (Figure 5-6 on page 102.)  
Figure 5-6 The web console with POS plug-in added  
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5.3 Remotely controlling POS terminals  
The POS plug-in provides two useful functions (Figure 5-7 on page 103) for  
controlling POS terminals remotely. These can be accessed from the context  
menu, which is displayed when the user right-clicks on the POS terminal’s entry  
in the POS list.  
Figure 5-7 Context menu for POS devices  
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5.3.1 Wake on LAN  
Selecting this option causes a Wake on LAN (WOL) “magic packet” to be sent to  
the terminal causing it to power up and beging the boot process. If the terminal is  
already running then the packet has no effect.  
Note: WOL support may also need to be enabled in the POS terminal’s BIOS  
to support this function.  
5.3.2 Power off  
If a POS device is booted into PXE mode, then this function can be used to turn it  
off. This can be used in conjuction with the Wake on LAN function to reboot the  
machine.  
5.4 Creating Backups  
Chapters 2-4 discussed in detail the processes for creating and installing initial  
software loads for POS terminals when they are initially deployed or redeployed.  
The information in those chapters is mainly concerned with getting “bare metal”  
machines into the “ready to use” state.  
The backup facility added by the POS plug-in on the other hand, is useful for  
periodically capturing the state of a POS terminal - which may differ from when it  
was first put into service - so that it can be restored to that state should it  
experience some sort of malfunction. The key difference here is that the POS  
backup operation is optimized for speed, not for general applicability and a  
backup produced by it is only intended to be restored on the single POS terminal  
against which it was taken.  
Note: See section 5.5, “Switching hardware” on page 118 for an exception  
that applies when replacing an entire POS terminal in the field with an  
identical unit.  
The POS backup function is therefore very useful for capturing dynamic data,  
configuration changes and so forth, that occur after a POS device is first  
deployed. If used regularly it provides the capability to restore a terminal to a  
state that is very near, if not identical, to when a malfunction first occurred.  
Indeed, in cases where a virus or a software misconfiguration has caused the  
system to fail, the most recent POS backup might actually be more accurate than  
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is desirable, since it might have captured the state of the machine after the  
infection or misconfiguration occurred. However, since the POS plug-in allows  
multiple backups to exist at the same time, and allows them to be restored in any  
order, it is possible to go back to a point prior to the advent of the problem  
providing that enough backups have been retained.  
5.4.1 Performing a POS terminal backup  
POS backups are not interdependent and it is not necessary to retain a “full”  
backup to be used in conjunction with later “incremental” backups. Nevertheless,  
it is good practice to perform an initial POS backup immediately after the  
machine is first deployed. This will provide at least one known good restore point  
which can be retained indefinitely and used to restore the machine if subsequent  
backups have all been tainted by a problematic change.  
In our lab environment we performed the following steps to create a POS backup  
of POS01, from our production server (NICE).  
1. Boot the POS terminal into PXE mode from the LAN (Figure 5-8).  
Figure 5-8 POS system booted up in PXE mode  
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Note: The procedure for booting a POS terminal into PXE mode can vary  
depending on the model of the terminal and the configuration of the DHCP  
and PXE servers. In the case of our POS01 terminal, we found it  
necessary to manually interrupt the boot sequence and change the  
primary boot device to LAN, while on POS02 it was possible to initiate a  
boot from LAN by simply pressing F12 during bootup. See Appendix A,  
“Alternate boot sequence on POS systems” on page 133 for more  
information on this topic.  
2. From the web console, right click the terminal’s entry in the POS list and  
select Backup. This will start the POS backup wizard where you can enter a  
name for this backup (Figure 5-9 on page 106). Type a name and click Next.  
Figure 5-9 Enter a name for the backup  
3. In the next window, choose the state you want the backup to attempt to leave  
the POS terminal in after the backup has been performed, and click Next.  
(Figure 5-10).  
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Figure 5-10 Selecting an action to perform after completing the backup  
Note: In our lab environment the actual state that the POS terminal was left in  
after the backup was not always the one chosen. Settings such as BIOS boot  
options and Wake on LAN must also be configured to support the chosen  
option.  
4. Select the action the backup should take to attempt to start the POS terminal  
backup and whether the backup should be scheduled for a future date or  
started immediately. Click Next (Figure 5-11 on page 108).  
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Figure 5-11 Schedule the backup and optionally Wake on Lan or reboots  
Note: In our lab environment we observed that the backup operation would  
sometimes start, once initiated, without the terminal first rebooting.  
5. Finally, the wizard displays a summary of the options selected. Confirm that  
the options are correct and then click Next to schedule the backup and  
dismiss the wizard (Figure 5-12 on page 109).  
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Figure 5-12 Confirming the backup options  
When the backup operation starts the POS terminal will display a status screen  
showing the progress of the backup operation (Figure 5-13).  
Figure 5-13 Progress of the state backup  
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When the backup has sucessfully completed, a screen similar to the one shown  
in Figure 5-14 will be displayed on the POS terminal  
Figure 5-14 Backup successfully completed  
5.4.2 Managing the list of backups  
The list of backups that have been taken against a POS terminal can be  
displayed by right-clicking the POS terminal’s entry in the POS terminal list and  
selecting “View point of sales details” (Figure 5-15 on page 111).  
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Figure 5-15 POS context menu, selecting POS details  
We created four backups of POS04 from our development/test server (BERLIN)  
(Figure 5-17 on page 112), making minor changes to the terminal’s desktop  
between each in order to illustrate the state of the machine at the time of each  
backup.  
Notice that for each backup in the list, there are two actions that may be  
performed: “Restore” and “Delete”. We have highlighted the “delete” action  
(Figure 5-16). Clicking on a backup’s delete action will cause that backup to be  
permanently removed from the list. The restore action is the subject of the next  
section.  
Figure 5-16 Actions for individual backups  
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Figure 5-17 Point of sale details for a selcted system  
5.4.3 Restoring a POS backup  
We performed the following steps to restore a POS backup to POS04:  
1. Login to the web console and click on “Point of Sale” (Figure 5-18 on  
page 113).  
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Figure 5-18 Selecting the Point of sale features from the left panel  
2. Right-click on the entry for the terminal you want to restore and from the  
context menu and select Restore (Figure 5-19).  
Figure 5-19 Selecting restore now from the context menu  
The restore wizard will start.  
3. Choose whether to restore the most recent backup, or to specify a specific  
backup (Figure 5-20 on page 114) and click Next.  
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Figure 5-20 Choosing most recent or specific backup  
4. If you chose to select a specific backup in the previous step you must now  
select the backup you wish to restore (Figure 5-21) and click Next.  
Figure 5-21 Select a specific backup  
5. Choose the state that you would like the POS terminal to be placed in after  
the restore operation has completed (Figure 5-22 on page 115) and click  
Next.  
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Figure 5-22 Select after-restore action  
6. Indicate if Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment should attempt to  
power on and/or reboot the target POS terminal in preparation for the restore.  
Also, specify whether the restore should begin immediately or at a future date  
and time (Figure 5-23) and click Next.  
Figure 5-23 Schedule the restore  
7. Review the restore options in the confirmation dialog and then click Next  
(Figure 5-24 on page 116).  
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Figure 5-24 Review the restore options  
8. At this point, the restore operation will have been scheduled, and if scheduled  
to begin immediately it should now start. Click Finish to close the restore  
wizard (Figure 5-25).  
Figure 5-25 Close the restore wizard  
9. We specified that Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment should  
wake the POS terminal in order to do the restore and our terminal (POS04)  
was turned off when we scheduled the restore. After we confirmed the restore  
settings, Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment did, indeed send a  
Wake on LAN packet to POS04 which caused it to power up and begin  
booting (Figure 5-26 on page 117).  
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Figure 5-26 POS system booting up from the network  
10..After POS04 had booted into PXE mode, the restore operation began  
(Figure 5-27).  
Figure 5-27 POS system connected to Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment server  
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11..The restore operation ran for several minutes and then, as we had specified,  
it booted POS04 into the operating system (Figure 5-28 on page 118).  
Figure 5-28 POS system up and running  
5.5 Switching hardware  
When a POS device experiences a hardware malfunction it can potentially have  
a major impact on a store’s ability to provide service to its customers. Therefore,  
it is a good idea to have at least one spare POS device availabe that can be used  
to replace a malfunctioning device either permanently, or temporarily while the  
ailing device is being repaired.  
If the hard drive of the affected POS device is okay then, in theory, it might be  
possible to install it into a different device of the same model in order to obtain a  
working machine with the same software state as the broken one. However, this  
would not generally be practical at a retail outlet because of the expertise needed  
to perform the change, and the time that would be spent waiting for qualified  
personnel to be dispatched to perform it. The POS plug-in provides another  
alternative—the “Hardware Switch” function.  
In section 5.4, “Creating Backups” we discussed the fact that backups created  
with the POS plug-in are intended to only be restored to that same machine.  
However, by using the “Hardware Switch” function, we can get Tivoli Provisioning  
Manager for OS Deployment to logically substitue a different terminal in place of  
one that currently exists. Once this substitution has been performed, the backups  
that were made against the old terminal, may be restored on the new hardware  
which will then function in place of the original.  
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Attention: It is important to emphasize that when performing a hardware  
switch the replacement unit must be exactly the same model and configuration  
as the machine it is replacing.  
In our lab environment we used the hardware switch function to replace POS01  
with POS02. Unfortunately, we did not have two machines of exactly the same  
model available to us and therefore, once the switch and restore had been  
completed, the newly configured POS01 (formerly POS02) would not boot the  
operating system sucessfully. This should serve to emphasize the warning  
above.  
Note that in the POS list, the machine with the serial number: 41W8197, has the  
name POS01 (Figure 5-29). This is the original POS01 which we have taken  
several backups against. The machine with serial number: 41A2041, is labeled  
“POS02” and will become the new POS01.  
Figure 5-29 List of POS systems  
We performed the following steps on our production server (NICE) to accomplish  
a hardware replacement of POS01 with POS02:  
1. Boot the replacement terminal (POS02) into PXE mode.  
2. Right-click the the entry for POS01 in the POS terminal list, and select  
“Hardware Switch” from the context menu (Figure 5-30).  
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Figure 5-30 Selecting the Hardware switch function  
The hardware switch wizard will start (Figure 5-31). Click Next.  
Figure 5-31 Hardware switch wizard  
3. From the list of other POS terminals known to Tivoli Provisioning Manager for  
OS Deployment, select “POS02” (Figure 5-32) and click Next.  
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Figure 5-32 Select the new system to replace the old one  
4. At this point, the POS plug-in recognizes that we have chosen to replace  
POS01 with a different model of POS terminal and it displays a warning  
(Figure 5-33 on page 122).  
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Figure 5-33 Warning that the POS systems are not identical  
In our case, we will click Next to continue, but in a real-world sceneario this  
would likely be a bad idea.  
5. Now the plug-in has all of the information it needs to perform the switch, so it  
prompts us for confirmation (Figure 5-34 on page 123).  
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Figure 5-34 Confirming the hardware switch  
6. Now click Next and the plug-in performs the switch. Once it has finished it  
displays one last window reporting the result (Figure 5-35).  
Figure 5-35 Hardware switch completed  
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7. Click Finish to exit the wizard. You will note that in the point of sale list, the  
machine with serial number: 41A2041, is now known to Tivoli Provisioning  
Manager for OS Deployment as “POS01”, while the original POS01, with  
serial number 41W8197, is no longer listed (Figure 5-36).  
Figure 5-36 Veryfying the hardware switch from the POS overview  
In the real world, we would now be able to restore backups that were created  
against the original POS01, to the new machine that has assumed that name  
so that the new machine could function in its place.  
However, since we have - against the advice of the hardware switch wizard -  
substituted a machine of a different model, we end up with a terminal that  
won’t boot its operating system.  
This example serves to underscore the importance of using exactly the same  
model of POS terminal hardware when performing a hardware switch. In this  
case, only half of the screen is visible on the terminal because, among other  
things, the video driver is not the correct one for this machine.  
Note: After the excercise above, we were able to perform another hardware  
switch and two backup restores to return POS01 and POS02 to their original  
configurations.  
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6
Real world deployment  
scenarios  
In a real-world environment, there will normally be (at least) a development  
environment and a production environment. Depending on network capacity  
between sites, and requirements for deployment and restore-time, it may prove  
more practical with one production server for each site.  
This chapter provides information about setting up an environment consisting of  
a central environment for development and testing with several production  
servers distributed to local sites. It is also explained how newly created profiles,  
software packages and deployment schemes are staged from development/test  
to production servers.  
In this chapter we also discuss implementation, architecture, and common  
challenges of the point-of-sale environment. Subjects such as server sizing and  
placement, distributions using unicast and multicast, firewalls, and security  
considerations are discussed.  
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6.1 Large environment considerations  
The target organization for our enterprise design is a growing point-of-sale  
organization based in multiple locations including stores, warehouses and a  
central IT location. Each facility has between 50 and 100 point-of-sale devices  
and 4 to 10 servers. The organization want the implementation to be global in  
nature, for example a central database for the deployment history and inventory.  
A central database also provides backup server capability. As is IT best practice,  
the organization wants the design to include a test facitliy for the creation and  
testing of profiles and packages. The test facility will include a development  
environment and a pre-production environment. This environment will allow for  
the capture and testing of profiles, deployment schemes, and the export/import  
process between environments. The following are the high-level requirements of  
the system:  
ꢀ To develop a low-risk methodology of rolling out the new POS systems  
ꢀ To reduce the cost and complexity of rebuilding a POS system  
ꢀ To make the rebuild process no touch  
6.1.1 Managing development and production environments  
Below are some definitions for three typical types of environments in an  
enterprise IT infrastructure.  
Test environment  
The test facility is being installed as two separate systems. First the development  
environment, then the pre-production environment. Both of these environments  
are linked by a physical network and processes to migrate profiles from test to  
pre-production.  
Pre-production environment  
The pre-production environment is a representative subset of the production  
environment. It consists of a master server, a slave server and where possible  
one of each production target systems. Depending on the actual production  
topology it may be prudent to incorporate a simulated or real slow network link  
between the master and slave servers.  
Production environment  
The production environment, shows five sites sharing the one RDBMS with the  
central IT location acting as the master. The master server hosts the RDBMS for  
the implementation and is a dedicated server. The four slave servers represent  
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the different warehouse and store locations that the master sychronizes with to  
allow for distribution of images across the enterprise.  
6.1.2 Expanding from one to multiple servers  
The general architecture for Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment is a  
two-tiered architecture consisting of a Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment master server and multiple clients slaves that synchronize with the  
data on the master. There are two primary methods for expanding the Tivoli  
Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment architecture from a single server to  
mulitple servers. The first approach is to have a single instance of the database  
which all masters and slave Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment  
servers connect to via ODBC or JDBC. The second approach is to utilize the  
netclnt command on each slave server to synchronize with the master server.  
In the first approach, a central multiuser database like DB2® is created on a  
server that the master and slave Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment  
servers have access to. Once the database server is setup then an ODBC/JDBC  
connection is configured prior to installation of the Tivoli Provisioning Manager  
for OS Deployment product is installed, using the same name that would  
normally be created during installation. Once the ODBC/JDBC connection is  
created on each server that will be either a master or a slave then install the  
server product. Once the product is installed go into the server → server  
parameters → server synchronization panel to assign the roles of master and  
slave to each Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment server.  
In the second approach, each Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment  
server is installed as a standalone server with an independent database. In order  
for the slaves to synchronize their data with the master the netclnt command  
must be scheduled on each slave which establishes a connection to the master’s  
database. In this scenario, the relationship between master and slave are not  
visualized in the GUI as in the first approach.  
In both scenarios, a Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment server can  
be both a master and a slave depending on how they are configured.  
6.2 Replicating software and configurations  
There are three methods you can use to replicate images between Tivoli  
Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment servers:  
ꢀ Automated, using built-in replication service between two servers  
ꢀ Manual, using the command line tool  
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ꢀ Manual, using the console  
Each method is described in the next sections.  
6.2.1 Built-in file replication service  
In a multi-tiered implementation, one server is designated as the master server.  
This is usually the server at the master site, but must be the server where profiles  
are inserted into the system. The other servers in the environment are  
designated as slave servers.  
When replication starts, the new table of contents files are all sent to the  
receiving server or servers. Each receiving server then compares those table of  
contents files with the table of contents files it has and builds a list of all the files it  
requires to be up-to-date. It then sends that requirements list file back to the  
master server. The master server then builds an RAD file of all these required  
files and commences replicating it to the receiving server using no more than the  
bandwidth specified in the replication setup panel. As the file repository only ever  
stores one copy of any specific file, subsequent to the initial replication of a  
particular OS, all that should ever traverse the network is the delta between the  
existing profiles and the new profiles. This feature saves a large amount of  
network bandwidth. The data flow is shown in Figure 6-1 on page 128.  
Figure 6-1 Using the built-in file replication between several servers  
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In a multi-server environment with automated replication, the replication setup  
has to be given some consideration as it is done on a schedule. It is important  
that enough time is given between scheduled instances for the replication to  
complete. In the instance of three-tiered architecture, each predecessor must be  
completed prior to the successor starting. Into this equation you must factor the  
bandwidth limitation you place on the replication.  
The built-in replication method is recommended for automated distribution in the  
production environment.  
6.2.2 Command line method  
Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment offers a command line interface  
called RbAgent. RbAgent can be run from any workstation that has connectivity  
to the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment server. When executed  
the RbAgent command connects back to the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment server and runs the command.  
Note: Running the command requires that the necessary sync.pac file is  
present on the server, by default in the directory  
C:\Program Files\Common Files\IBM Tivoli\packages directory.  
This command line capability offers excellent integration opportunities with  
preexisting tools for file transfer and configuration management, such as those  
Table of Contents files sent to slave server at a scheduled time. The command  
syntax is explained in the users guide.  
The principle for manual replication using the command line is illustrated in  
Figure 6-2.  
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Figure 6-2 Manual replication using the command line tool  
The command line method is recommended for copying or staging profiles and  
software packages from development to pre-prod and from pre-prod to  
production environments.  
6.2.3 Profile migration  
The separation of development, test, and production environments is a long  
standing IT best practice. Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment  
incorporates functions that allow for the export and import of developed profiles,  
software packages, and deployment schemes. This allows these objects to be  
moved between environments easily and quickly.  
Export  
Use the following steps to export a profile, software package, or deployment  
scheme:  
1. Go to the OS Deployment screen.  
2. Select one of the following: system profiles screen, the software deployments  
screen, or the deployment scheme screen.  
3. At the bottom of the screen select RAD Export. This starts the RAD Export  
Wizard. You will be guided through a series of screens allowing you to select  
the items you want to export. The server will analyze the objects you want to  
export and approximate the size of the export file and give you the following  
three options for how to deal with the file:  
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4. You could download it directly to the computer you were accessing the Tivoli  
Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment server from. This would allow you  
to use it as a staging point.  
5. You can export to a directory on the Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment server. This may be the option you use if you have physically  
separate environments and need to load the file onto a removable device to  
move it. Or you had another tool that was going to do the physical move for  
you.  
6. You can move the file directly to another machine that is running the Tivoli  
Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment Web extension, RbAgent. With this  
option, if the importing system is accessible in the network you are connected  
to, you could move the file directly to that computer.  
Import  
1. At the importation end, it is almost a reverse of the export.  
2. Navigate to the OS Deployment screen.  
3. Select one of the following: the system profiles screen, the software  
deployments screen, or the deployment scheme screen.  
4. At the bottom of that screen select RAD Import. You are presented with the  
following three options for the location of the .RAD file for import:  
5. The local computer you are working from.  
6. The Import directory of the importing server. You may recall that one of the  
export options was to export to the importing server.  
7. The IP address of a server running the Web extension where the file is  
located.  
8. Which ever option you choose, the next step is to identify the .RAD file at the  
location you selected for importation. Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment will then analyze the file and import the parts of it that it requires.  
Remember that it is just the files that are not already stored on the server that  
it will import.  
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6.3 Network Bandwidth Considerations  
Depending on the number of computers you are deploying simultaneously and  
on your infrastructure, you should select one of the following networking modes:  
6.3.1 Unicast  
Use unicast if you are deploying computers one by one, or if your network  
administrator does not allow you to use multicast.  
Note: that when deploying several computers simultaneously in unicast, the  
deployment time will tend to increase dramatically with the number of clients,  
as the result of network saturation  
6.3.2 Multicast  
Use multicast without explicit synchronization to use Tivoli Provisioning Manager  
for OS Deployment soft-synchronized multicast protocol. Using this protocol,  
every client will independently start downloading images at soon as it is ready,  
and continue with the deployment as soon as it has downloaded all required  
material. But when two or more hosts (using the same deployment scheme) are  
downloading files in parallel, they will automatically share the same bandwidth  
using a multicast protocol. The fastest client will have the priority for the choice of  
the next shared files that will be sent by the server, but the slower clients will also  
be able to receive them if they need them. This is a scalable solution that  
nevertheless allows for a rolling deployment scenario.  
6.3.3 Multicast with synchronization  
Multicast with synchronization to use a classical synchronized multicast method.  
This mode is adequate when you want to install computers by batches. You must  
then enter the synchronization parameters, e.g. the number of hosts to wait for  
before starting the download, and the maximum timeout before starting anyway.  
You can also select an upper bound to the peak network bandwidth used by the  
file downloads. It may be useful to set a limit in case the network is used for other  
services or to avoid the saturation of old routers. The bandwidth limitation  
boundary value is indicative. Depending on the hardware of the server, the client  
and the network components, the exact throughput may change. You can choose  
between no bandwidth limitation and limitations down to 2 Megabits per second.  
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A
Alternate boot sequence on  
POS systems  
Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment relies heavily on the capability of  
booting the target system from the network in order to catch the PXE server.  
Traditionally, on Desktop PCs, laptops and Intel servers, the normal boot  
sequence can be interrupted just after POST by pressing F12 or similar. Here,  
POS systems are different. First off, they do not necessarily have a keyboard with  
F12 attached, secondly, not all systems have support for the alternate boot  
sequence.  
This appendix explains the principles to be applied using some practical  
examples from the environment used during the writing of this document  
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When to boot from hard drive and from network  
For normal operation, the boot sequence should include boot from hard drive  
before boot from network. A normal boot sequence could look something like  
this:  
ꢀ Floppy  
ꢀ CD-ROM  
ꢀ Hard drive  
ꢀ Network  
The actual naming may be different from one system to another.  
Assuming there are no floppy or CD-ROM, The system will normally just boot on  
the hard drive. If the hard drive does not have a master boot record, MBR, that  
makes it possible to boot from the hard drive, the system will try to boot from the  
network. This means that if the system has just been delivered (with no  
preinstalled operating system), or the hard drive has been replaced due to a  
failure, the system will boot on the network and connect to the Tivoli Provisioning  
Manager for OS Deployment server.  
This is an ideal situation for the deployment scenario, but there are situations  
where it is necessary to force the system to boot in PXE mode. This includes the  
following scenarios:  
ꢀ To take a system image backup of a working system (in order to be able to  
perform a system image restore at a later point in time if needed).  
ꢀ To start a re-deployment after a hard drive has been replaced, and the new  
hard drive is preloaded with an operating system.  
ꢀ To start a re-deployment because the system has been left unusable, but it  
still seen as a bootable device.  
Forcing a POS system to boot into PXE mode  
On traditional workstations and laptops this can normally be achieved by  
pressing the F12key or similar during system startup. This will either prompt the  
user for an alternate boot device or simply try to boot from the network.  
On POS systems, however, this is not always possible. Instead, the boot  
sequence must be changed so the system tries to start from the network before  
trying to start from the hard drive.  
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To invoke the BIOS configuration, either press the Delkey or tap the touch  
screen twice when prompted during system startup. There are two ways to  
navigate through the configuration menus. Either use the keyboard if available, or  
use the touch screen and the keyboard that is displayed.  
Navigate to the advanced BIOS features.  
Navigate to the first boot device and change it to the network.  
Once the boot sequence has been changed, press F10to save and exit. The  
system should now boot and try the boot devices in the sequence specified.  
Note: In some situations, the network boot server may not answer fast  
enough, which may cause the POS device to timeout and continue to next  
boot device. If this happens, a workaround is to remove any other boot device  
than the network, so it cannot proceed the boot process with another device.  
After completing the tasks that required excplicit boot into PXE mode, make sure  
the boot sequence is changed back to normal (for example: floppy, CD-ROM,  
Hard Disk and Network). Otherwise the system will continue to boot from the  
network.  
Preparing alternate boot sequence for Wake on LAN  
Some of the POS systems support wake on LAN technology. If this is the case,  
the Wake on LAN can be combined with the alternate boot sequence, so the  
system will always try to boot from the network first, when it is started from a  
wake on LAN command.  
Appendix A. Alternate boot sequence on POS systems  
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B
Additional material  
This paper refers to additional material that can be downloaded from the Internet  
as described below.  
Locating the Web material  
The Web material associated with this paper is available in softcopy on the  
Internet from the IBM Redbooks Web server. Point your Web browser at:  
ftp://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/REDP4372  
Alternatively, you can go to the IBM Redbooks Web site at:  
ibm.com/redbooks  
Select the Additional materials and open the directory that corresponds with  
the IBM Redpaper form number, REDP4372.  
Using the Web material  
The additional Web material that accompanies this paper includes the following  
files:  
File name  
Description  
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Zipped animations  
Redp4372.zip  
System requirements for downloading the Web material  
The following system configuration is recommended:  
Hard disk space:  
????MB minimum????  
Operating System: ????Windows/Linux????  
Processor:  
Memory:  
???? or higher????  
????MB????  
How to use the Web material  
Create a subdirectory (folder) on your workstation, and unzip the contents of the  
Web material zip file into this folder.  
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Glossary  
BIOS Basic Input/Output System. This is the  
firmware code that runs when the computer is  
powered up, as the first step in the power-on selftest.  
WOL Wake on LAN. A technology that enables a  
system to be powered up via a “magic packet” that is  
send over the network from an administrative  
system.  
MBR Master Boot Record, the first sector on a  
partitioned hard drive. After power-on Selftest is  
completed, the code in MBR is executed and will  
normally bootstrap the operating system on the first  
primary partition on the hard drive.  
MSI Windows Installer, previously known as  
Microsoft Installer. A solution defined by Microsoft  
for handling installation and uninstallation of  
software on Windows operating systems.  
POS point-of-sale when referred to in IBM context.  
Can also be point-of-service in context of Microsoft  
Windows Embedded for POS or Suse Linux for  
POS.  
POST Power-on self-test. Covers the pre-boot  
sequence when the PC is powered-up, until control  
is handed over to the operating system boot. This is  
typically part of the BIOS or system firmware.  
PXE Preboot Execution Environment. A  
technology that enables a system to be booted via  
the network interface card from a remote server.  
This process requires a DHCP server and a server  
with the bootstrap code, called a DHCP Proxy. The  
DHCP Proxy is in this Redpaper the  
VLAN Virtual LAN. A technology that enables  
systems connected to different switches to  
communicate as if they were all on the same hub,  
while other systems connected to the same switches  
may use another VLAN to connect as they were all  
on the same hub. The VLAN technology makes it  
possible to separate systems connected to the same  
switch into two or more networks.  
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved.  
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4372bibl.fm  
Related publications  
The publications listed in this section are considered particularly suitable for a  
more detailed discussion of the topics covered in this paper.  
IBM Redbooks  
For information about ordering these publications, see “How to get Redbooks” on  
page 142. Note that some of the documents referenced here may be available in  
softcopy only.  
ꢀ Deployment Guide Series: Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment  
V5.1, SG24-7397  
ꢀ Deployment Guide Series: IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager Version 5.1,  
SG24-7261  
ꢀ Retail Solutions: Technology Innovation that Matters, REDP-4087  
ꢀ Deploying Linux Systems with Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS  
Deployment, REDP-4323  
ꢀ Architecting a Highly Efficient Image Management System with Tivoli  
Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment, REDP-4294  
ꢀ Vista Deployment Using Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment,  
REDP-4295  
ꢀ Enabling the On Demand Store with IBM Store Integration Framework,  
SG24-6698  
Other publications  
These publications are also relevant as further information sources:  
ꢀ IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment, User’s guide,  
SC32-2582  
ꢀ IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment, Developer’s guide,  
SC23-6137  
These product manuals can be downloaded from the Tivoli Library at  
http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/library  
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved.  
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Online resources  
These Web sites are also relevant as further information sources:  
ꢀ IBM Point-of-sale and self-service offerings  
http://www.ibm.com/products/retail/products/pos  
ꢀ IBM Retail Store Solutions Support  
http://www2.clearlake.ibm.com/store/support  
ꢀ Retail Store Solutions Technical Software Support  
http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/retail/support  
ꢀ IBM Retail Enviroinment for SUSE Linux, IRES  
http://www-03.ibm.com/products/retail/products/software/ires  
ꢀ Microsoft Deployment Tools for Windows XP  
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3E90DC91-AC  
56-4665-949B-BEDA3080E0F6&displaylang=en  
How to get Redbooks  
You can search for, view, or download Redbooks, Redpapers, Technotes, draft  
publications and Additional materials, as well as order hardcopy Redbooks, at  
this Web site:  
ibm.com/redbooks  
Help from IBM  
IBM Support and downloads  
ibm.com/support  
IBM Global Services  
ibm.com/services  
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4372IX.fm  
Index  
GUID 48  
A
application servers 3  
ATA-5 specification 87  
H
hardware discovery 53  
hidden partition 85  
B
host name, dynamic using variables 48  
host naming 48  
binding rules 71  
BIOS advanced features 135  
boot order 52  
boot sequence 134  
I
import a profile 131  
INF files 39  
inject device drivers 31  
IRES 6  
C
changing a captured image profile 68  
cleanup before capturing a system image 56  
cloning profile, defined 7  
configuration, definition 8  
create a System Profile 62  
customize GUI 88  
L
lifetime of POS systems 5  
local redeployment 12  
M
D
MAC address 48  
data collection policy 45  
DB2 127  
Master Boot Record, MBR 92, 134  
master server 127  
MBR, fake 53  
minimum hardware requirements for clients 18  
multicast 132  
multicast with synchronization 132  
multiple servers 127  
delete a backup 111  
deployment scheme 43  
deployment schemes, defined 7  
deployment wizard 75–76  
device drivers  
create software packages 36  
downloading 32  
inject new drivers 12  
injection 41, 71  
dynamic host names 48  
N
naming standard 48  
naming the profiles 30  
netclnt command 127  
network usage during deployment 46  
E
export a profile 130  
O
on-site deployment feature 85  
F
operating systems for point-of-sale systems 6  
file replication service 128  
P
G
partition size, profile wizard 26  
green banner 53, 81–82  
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved.  
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partition sizes for local redeployment 87  
PCI device identifiers 40  
point-of-sale system architecture 8  
POS backup wizard 106  
POS backups 105  
POS plug-in GUI 102  
POS plug-in utility 13  
POS plug-in, installing 97  
pos.pak 98  
server roles 127  
slipstreaming Service Pack 2 20  
software binding rules 71  
software package, defined 7  
software packages 36, 42  
stage at which software packages are injected 41  
sync.pac file 129  
sysprep 11, 56  
sysprep.inf 69  
power off 104  
system life cycle 10  
pre-production environment 126  
process  
system preparation tool 57  
enabling local redeployment 85  
local redeployment 91  
redeployment from server 92  
processes  
overview of main processes 8  
product key, adding 27  
production environment 126  
PXE mode 106, 117  
T
table of contents files 128  
task templates 43  
test environment 126  
Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment  
admin toolkit 59  
database 59  
deployment process 72  
trigger state backup 109  
PXE server 133  
R
U
RAD Export Wizard 130  
RAD file 128  
unattended installation, create profile for 19  
unattended profile 22  
unattended profile, defined 7  
unicast 132  
USB interfaces 5  
user roles  
RbAgent 129  
reboot cycles 81  
Redbooks Web site 142  
Contact us xi  
redeployment  
Central IT 2  
boot menu 88  
Field Technician 2  
Local super user 2  
POS user 2  
deployment scheme 86  
from the server 91  
user-authentication 93  
redeployment features 46  
redeployment, reasons for 84  
Rembo  
UUID 48  
W
Wake on LAN 104  
wake on LAN 135  
Web Interface extension 24  
WEPOS 6  
Auto-Deploy 7  
Rembo Technology SaRL 7  
RemboToolkit 7  
Rembo server service 98  
replication service 128  
restore a POS backup 112  
roles 2  
Windows XP  
copying to a local drive 19  
Service Pack 2 integrate switch 21  
slipstreaming a service pack 20  
sysprep 56  
S
script, running a script after installation completes  
69  
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®
Draft Document for Review November 15, 2007 3:27 pm  
Tivoli Provisioning Manager  
for OS Deployment in a  
Retail Environment  
™
Redpaper  
Retail environments, like many other industries, are  
continously seeking ways to reduce costs and improve their  
competitive advantages.  
INTERNATIONAL  
TECHNICAL  
SUPPORT  
One area where cost reduction is at play is with the IT  
deployed in the warehouses. Because this environment is so  
distributed, significant cost savings can be achieved if the  
hardware and software can be maintained without having to  
be physically present in the warehouse.  
ORGANIZATION  
BUILDING TECHNICAL  
INFORMATION BASED ON  
PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE  
This IBM® Redpaper presents the IBM Tivoli Provisioning  
Manager for OS Deployment software product as a solution  
to help customers reduce costs for deploying operating  
systems to point-of-sale devices in a highly distributed  
environment.  
IBM Redbooks are developed by  
the IBM International Technical  
Support Organization. Experts  
from IBM, Customers and  
Partners from around the world  
create timely technical  
Additionally, the Redpaper introduces a solution specifically  
developed for IBM Technical Support, to reduce the recovery  
time whenever a software or hardware failure requires a  
system to be re-deployed.  
information based on realistic  
scenarios. Specific  
The audience of the Redpaper are IT managers in the retail  
sector and technical support people in areas with  
point-of-sale or kiosk systems. Technical support people in  
other highly distributed environments may also benefit from  
the information herein.  
recommendations are provided  
to help you implement IT  
solutions more effectively in  
your environment.  
For more information:  
ibm.com/redbooks  
REDP-4372-00  
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