Creating a USB device for an OSD project

Creating a USB device for an OSD project

Client Management allows you to create a self-sufficient USB device for operating system deployment. It provides you with the following two modes for this:

• Offline Mode
   This mode assumes that the target device does not have an Internet connection and no possible way to contact the OSD Manager. It stores all data that is necessary for a successful deployment, that is, the WinPE and the complete project data, setup or WIM image (including sysprep).
  Should the target device have access to a network and a network boot listener can be found by the device, the OS installation first tries to see if more recent data are available via the network before using the data stored on the USB device. If yes, the new data is downloaded and the installation effected with the most recent data, if not the installation is launched using the project data stored on the device.
• Online Mode
   This mode assumes that the target device does have an Internet connection and a connection with the OSD Manager. The data required to launch the deployment are stored on the USB device, and all other, further required data, such as the actual image to be installed, are then downloaded from the OSD Manager.

The default file system for the USB key to create is NTFS. However, specific tablets, such as Surface 2, and possibly other older UEFI hardware, cannot boot on an NTFS partition. The OSD functionality therefore provides you with both choices when creating the USB device:

• NTFS
   Most more recent device allow booting from an NTFS partition. This has the advantage that the full disk space of a USB device larger than 32 GB can be used and WIM images can also be stored on the device. Before selecting this option, make sure your targets support booting from NTFS.
• FAT32
   The FAT32 file system allows to boot every device, but it has a number of limitations and should therefore only be used if absolutely necessary; either when creating a USB device for offline mode, or when creating a USB device for on-line mode. The FAT32 system is limited 32 GB partitions and a maximum file size of 4 GB. The base image for a WIM image is approximately 3.5 GB for Windows 8.1 update 1, and easily passes the 4 GB size limit if the system was customized with large software, such as Microsoft Office, before the capture.

A USB device can be created on OSD Manager level or at project level, however, the USB device must be connected physically to the OSD Manager for both cases.