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Chapter 1. Introduction 7
Draft Document for Review November 15, 2007 3:27 pm 4372ch01.fm
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