AOMEI Image Deploy Overview

Sometimes we need to deploy/restore Windows image files to multiple computers or clone system disk to multiple computers in a same LAN to install system on a batch of computers quickly.

Originally, if there are 30 computers, we only can use bootable CD/USB to deploy/restore computers one by one.

That would add much extra work because of computers’ different hardware configurations.

For example, some computers do not have CD-ROM drive, which will take a lot of time to install OS.

Under this circumstance, AOMEI Image Deploy can help you solve the problem easily.

AOMEI Image Deploy is an image deployment software and network clone software.

It supports you deploy (restore or clone) system image or system disk image to multiple computers through network in a LAN, which can solve the installation and configuration system problem of a batch of computers.

Supported operation systems

  • Microsoft Windows XP (all editions, 32-bit and 64-bit)

  • Microsoft Windows Vista (all editions, 32-bit and 64-bit)

  • Microsoft Windows 7 (all editions, 32-bit and 64-bit)

  • Microsoft Windows 8/8.1 (all editions, 32-bit and 64-bit)

  • Microsoft Windows 10 (all editions, 32-bit and 64-bit)

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and 2003 R2 (all editions, 32-bit and 64-bit)

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 (all editions, 32-bit and 64-bit)

  • Microsoft Windows Home Server (WHS) 2011 and Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2011

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2(all editions)

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (all editions)

Use of AOMEI Image Deploy

Preparation of client computers:

  • Check the cable connection between server and client computers, ensure that they are in the same network segment in a LAN.

  • Verify that the client computer connected to the LAN and the network card of client computer supports network boot (PXE boot).

  • Get into all client computers’ BIOS to open PXE function, set up the first boot as network boot.

  • Verify that the disk sequence number for installing system in client computers are same (for example, install systems to disk 0), to avoid the data loss caused by installing system to other hard drive (you’d better move out other disks and only keep the disk for installing system).

Preparation of server-side computer:

  • Before using AOMEI Image Deploy, you need to have a system image file or system disk image file. You can install AOMEI Backupper and use it to backup your system or your system disk to gain the image file (the backup system should be the system which you want to deploy to multiple client computers).

  • The system image file made by AOMEI Backupper should be put into a network shared folder or NAS, and the network shared folder or NAS should be on the same network segment with the client computers’ network segment.

  • Install and launch AOMEI Image Deploy. Attention: the server-side computer could be a common PC, or a server machine.

  • If your server computer is previous version of Windows 7, the program will prompt you to download and install Windows AIK/ADK so that you can create Windows PE. If you do not want to download AIK/ADK, we suggest you use Windows 7 or higher version as the server-side computer to install AOMEI Image Deploy.

AOMEI Image Deploy operation steps

Step 1

1. Use “Create Windows PE automatically” or “Create AOMEI bootable Windows PE ISO manually” to create Windows PE ISO file which has AOMEI Image Deploy program included.

Note:

  • Select “Create Windows PE automatically” and then click “Next”, the program will automatically create Windows PE ISO file in the installation directory of this program.

  • Select “Create Windows PE automatically” and then click “Make WinPE”, it will bring the interface where you can manually create Windows PE ISO. You can click “Add Drivers” to add device drivers into the Windows PE ISO if need be. Then finish creating Windows PE ISO step by step. When it is done, back to the main interface, and click “Browse” to select the ISO file created.

2. Check “Enable DHCP” if needed

  • Note:To make AOMEI Image Deploy work normally, there has to be and one only DHCP server within LAN, because many DHCP servers will lead to AOMEI Image Deploy client IP address distribution messed up. “Enable DHCP” is the built-in DHCP server setting function. If no DHCP server in your LAN, you can use this “Enable DHCP” function.

Step 2

Entering the second wizard page, AOMEI Image Deploy program will prompt “The service has started, waiting for connect…”, then you can walk to the client computers and start them up.

Note:

  • Client computers have to wait to boot till the prompt “The service has started, waiting for connect…”. Otherwise, client computers cannot boot successfully.

  • To boot client computers: must enter BIOS, set the Network Boot as the first boot device or directly let the client computers to boot from Network.

  • If your BIOS is UEFI mode, you should set “UEFI and Legacy” or “Legacy Only” to boot the client computers. (If your BIOS does not support UEFI, you can ignore the operation step).

Then wait for all the client computers to boot up successfully, namely all the status of the client computers in the AOMEI Image Deploy program display list is “Client computers connected”, and then check the option “I confirm all the client computers which need to be deployed are online.” and click “Next” to enter restore setting page.

Step 3

The “Select backup image file” option can only select the system image file or disk image file created by AOMEI Backupper with a filename “.adi” in the Network Shared folder or NAS. Click “Browse” to open the page to select an image, and click “Add share or NAS device” to add network share directory or NAS share directory, and select the system image file or disk image file with a filename “.adi” from there.

Step 4

"Select client computers”: select client computers that need deploying image file from the list. “Destination disk number”: specify which the disk of the client computer you need to deploy the image to (the disk number started from 0-256).

"Deployed computers”: specify the number of client computers will be restored or deployed at the same time, 1 at least, and 33 at most. If you set it as 3, it will restore every 3 computers at a time and then go for the next 3 computers.

Note:

  • Restoring/deploying will delete all partitions on the destination disk, so make sure the specified disk numbers are the same with the disks that need restoring on the client computers. Generally, if the client computer has only one disk, then the disk number is “0”.

  • The source data are transferred through the network, so it will increase the pressure of network if the “Deployed computers” are set too high, which will also slow down the transfer speed and restore/deploy speed. Therefore, you need to set the proper number based on the hardware devices such as network card and wire. The suggested number is 5.

  • If AOMEI Image Deploy Free is installed on Server OS, only a maximum of 20 computers can be selected; if AOMEI Image Deploy Free is installed on PC OS, an unlimited number of computers can be selected; if you do need to install AOMEI Image Deploy on Server OS, And the need to deploy an unlimited number of computers, AOMEI Image Deploy Technician is a better choice.

Step 5

Select “Setting” to configure restore settings.

“Set computer name”: set the client computer name after restoring/deploying.

“Set IP”: set the IP address and DNS server of the client computer after restoring/deploying.

Client computers’ name and IP can be quickly set as your decision.

“Universal Restore”: set whether use “Universal Restore” to proceed restore or not. If the hardware of client computers, like CPU, motherboard, are not the same as the source computer’s in the system image file, select “Universal Restore” which supports restoring/deploying image to a computer with dissimilar hardware and make sure the computer boots fine after recovery.

Note:

  • When setting computer name and IP address, try to avoid setting the already used computer name and IP address with LAN.

  • “Set IP” and “Universal Restore” are available only in AOMEI Image Deploy Technician.

Step 6

Click “Start Deploy” to enter the page to proceed the restore/deployment. You can use “Shut down PC” or “Restart PC” to set whether to shut down the computer or restart it after restoring the client computer. You can check deploy/restore progress from here. The deployed client computers can load system normally.

FAQ & Contact

AOMEI Image Deploy FAQ

  • Q:Why the “Local IP” and the “Server IP” showed in client computer have different network segment and also the connection status is “None”?

    A:Maybe there are multiple DHCP servers in the LAN. Please just keep one DHCP server and Disable others.

  • Q:Why you just can restore one disk of the backup image which has several disks?

    A:If the one disk backup image has multiple disks, the software just support to restore the first one of that disk backup image.

  • Q:Why the disk format of the client computer sometimes is changed from GPT to MBR or from MBR to GPT after restore?

    A:When you restore the backup image to the client computer, the software will delete all the data in the destination and then change the disk format of the client computer to be the same as the disk format of the backup image. For example, if the disk is MBR in the backup image but the target disk is GPT in the client computer, when the software does the restore, the disk in the client computer will be changed to MBR. If the disk format is same, the software will directly continue to create the partition to do the restore. Therefore, the disk format of the client computer must be same as the one in the backup image. If not, the software will change it automatically.

  • Q:How to ensure that the client computer is bootable after restoring the system image or disk backup image?

    A:1. Please check if the boot mode in BIOS is consistent with the restored disk or system. If the restored disk is GPT, the boot mode must be EFI/UEFI. If the restored disk is MBR, the boot mode is legacy.
    2. Please ensure that the computer name and the IP address you set for the client computer are not used by another computer in the same LAN. If they are used by another computer and this computer is on, when you boot the client computer you will get the error message that the computer name and the IP address conflict with another computer which is in the same LAN.

  • Q:Why the Windows PE ISO made with the AOMEI Backupper cannot be used by the AOMEI Image Deploy software to deploy the system?

    A:Because that only the Windows PE made with AOMEI Image Deploy software can communicate with the AOMEI Image Deploy server. Please use the AOMEI Image Deploy to do the Windows PE ISO file. In addition, the AOMEI Image Deploy cannot recognize the Windows PE ISO made with other software.

  • Q:Why the server shows that the client computer information is that “Respond to boot request” and the client computer is stuck in this page that “PXELINUX 6.03 lwIP Copyright (c)1994-2014 H.Peter Anvin et al -”all the time?

    A:Usually, you encounter this problem because you use the “Enable DHCP” feature but the IP address of client computer allocated by the DHCP server is same with (conflicts with) the one of another computer which is running in the same LAN. We advise you to turn off that running another computer or change the IP address of that computer. Then please reboot the client computer to do the operation again.

Technical Support

If you cannot find what you are looking for and need further help, please do not hesitate to send an email to[email protected], or visit www.aomeitech.com.