Rdeploy: Creating a Self-Extracting Executable (.EXE) Image

When you create an image file, you can save it as either a regular image file or a self-extracting executable file.

A Regular (.IMG) file works well for networked computers as you can distribute them using the Deployment Server.

Why do you want to create a self-extracting image file (.EXE)?

Well for this very reason, if you have users who are always away from the office, in a different country and not reachable via the corporate network to deploy your normal (.IMG) image file via Deployment Server. Examples are Laptops, production critical workstations which only function is to keep the production systems going and some LAB (Pharmaceutical) environments which are totally separated from the corporate network.

Copy the (.EXE) file to a bootable DVD, USB stick, etc and remote users can use the “portable” image to configure their computers at any time. (2 Methods)

Method 1: To create a self-executing (*.exe) image file.

From the Deployment Server eXpress share, browse to the following location: \\servername\eXpress\Rdeploy\Windows\Rdeploy.exe

This will launch the RDeploy wizard which will show the following Selection Menu:

• Under the Imaging Modes, Select “Create an Image File” and click on “Next”
  
  

  Click to view.

  The following page where you can enter the image name and various other properties will be displayed:

• “Short Image File Name” is the location where the image file will be stored, either use the “Browse” button to browse to the location or just type it in the textbox.
• Underneath this textbox is a “Checkbox” called “Make this a self-extracting .EXE. By default this is unchecked. To make the image file a selfextracting .EXE, check this box.
• The “Description” box is there for you to enter any text that will describe the sort of image that you created. Can contain the type of OS, Apps installed and what this image might be used for.
• Next to the “Description” box is a “Compression” section, which contains the following compression scenarios:
  • “Optimize for Size”
    • This option will compress the image file to the smallest size possible on disk. While this may be usefull if you want to save on disk space (DVD, USB-key), it will also slow down the imaging process when executed.
  • “Balance Size and Speed”
    • This option will balance between speed and size of the image file. Tries to keep the image file small but also want to keep a reasonable speed during the imaging process. Used in most cases
  • “Optimize for Speed”
    • This option will have the lowamount of compression and is aimed at giving you the fastest imaging processing.
  • “No Compression”
    • With this option selected there will be no compression applied to your image file. Size on disk is the actual size of the Image.
• The “Password Protection” section can be used to protect the image file with a password that you specify in the password box. Can be usefull for DVD’s that will be travelling to remote sites or locations where the media might get lost or stolen.
  • If you do not wish to set a password, then uncheck the “checkbox” “This image file is password protected”
• The “Spanned Media Field Size” section is used to span the image over multiple files/disks if your disks are to small and image files are big.
  • Example: If you have a 10GB image file, this would then break up the 10GB file into 2048MB each and instead of 1 large file you would now sit with 5 smaller files containing the image.

More on Spanned Media

RDeploy lets you “span media” or store images across multiple media. For example, you can store one image across several CD-RWs or other removable media.

Spanning is accomplished by splitting the image into multiple files.

For example, if you named your image file XPBase.img, and the image is split into four files, the following files are created:

• XPBase.img
• XPBase.002
• XPBase.003
• XPBase.004

You can set the split image file size to be between 1-2040 MB.

You can span an image in the following ways:

• Save the image file directly to removable media
• Save all of the image split files to a file server directory and then transfer them to the media later

When all options are configured, click on “Next”, to continue with the wizard.

Click to view.

Click to view.

The “Local Harddrive Selection” page will appear asking you to specify the source of the image.

• If multiple harddrives are installed they will all be displayed on this page.
• When a single hard drive is selected, the different partitions on the hard drive will be displayed in the box on the right. But nothing can be changed there as it is grayed out and only displays the the partitions.

When you have made your selection of which disk drive will be the source of the image file, you can click on “Next” to continue the wizzard process.

The next page will display “Select the partitions” on the local source.

• If you have selected Hard Drive 1 with 1 Partition as below then you will only have the one option and it is selected by default.
• If there are more than 1 partition on the Hard Drive, all of them will be displayed on this page where you can make the selection of which partition to create your image file from.

When you have made all your selections you can click on the “Finish” button to start the self-extracting image file creation process.

Click to view.

Method 2: To convert a current (.IMG) image file to a self-executing (*.exe) image file.

From the Deployment Server eXpress share, browse to the following location: \\servername\eXpress\Rdeploy\Windows\Rdeploy.exe

This will launch the RDeploy wizard which will show the following Selection Menu:

• Under the Imaging Modes, Select “Convert an .IMG image file to a self-extracting .EXE image file” and click on “Next”
  
  

  Click to view.

  The following page where you can enter the image name and various other properties will be displayed:

• “Short Image File Name” is the location where the image file is located, either use the “Browse” button to browse to the location or just type it in the textbox.
• Select the (.IMG) image file that you want to create an self-extracting (.EXE) image file from and click on the “Finish” button to start the conversion process.
  
  

  Click to view.