Issue

When testing in a VMware environment it is more efficient to revert to a snapshot of a base image than restore the entire image.


This TID details how to bypass restoration of the base image if the client machine is running within a virtual machine.


Requirements

  • VMware Workstation
  • Snapshot of base image

Solution

Zim will check to see if the machine is virtual and then prompt what restore type you would like to use.


Procedure

Done Task
 
1. Modify Zim.cfg file
 
2. Configure VMware machine
 
3. Test



  1. Modify zim.cfg file

    • Open the zim.cfg file with a text editor

    • Update the zim.cfg file with the following information:

      Find the section :
      If:Var,Ask_COMPUTERNAME,ne,"%COMPUTERNAME%"
Set:COMPUTERNAME,"%Ask_COMPUTERNAME%"
End:

Dialog:Ask,"", "Warning! All hard disk data on this machine will be erased.\n \nContinue?","_YesNo",red
If:Var,_ask,eq,"_No"
Menu:Return
End:
       Add the changes shown below in green text to the file:
      If:Var,Ask_COMPUTERNAME,ne,"%COMPUTERNAME%"
Set:COMPUTERNAME,"%Ask_COMPUTERNAME%"
End:

; If machine is a VMWare machine - prompt for base image to restore (allows for snapshot workaround)
If:Var,lookup_section,contains,"vmw"
; Launch a Form to display detected hardware and select machine type
Form:Start,"vmware","Select Base image to use","_OkCancel^_Ok",Blue
Form:Item,"Item1",StaticText,"VMWare Machine detected"
Form:Item,"Item2",Label,"Select Base Image type  :"
Form:Item,"Item3",RadioButtons,"","Restore Image, Snapshot"
Form:Display,"vmware"
If:Var,_Form,Eq,"_Cancel"
Menu:Return
End:
If:var,_vmware_item3,eq,"Snapshot"
set:base_image,""
End:
End:

Dialog:Ask,"", "Warning! All hard disk data on this machine will be erased.\n \nContinue?","_YesNo",red
If:Var,_ask,eq,"_No"
Menu:Return
End:


    • Save changes to zim.cfg and update file on the server.

  2. Configure VMware machine

     There are two options for configuring the VMware workstation

    1. Create the base image on the VMware machine. Prior to creating your image on the server create a snapshot of the virtual machine

    2. Restore an existing base image to the VMware machine. Once this image has been restored create a snapshot of the virtual machine

  3. Test

    • Revert to snapshot on virtual machine

    • PXE boot virtual machine to ZENworks imaging/Zim environment

    • Restore project as normal. You will see an additional prompt Select Base Image type: Restore Image, Snapshot

       Select Snapshot

       The base image will not restore, saving time (depending on the OS), however the normal project and driver files should restore as normal.

    • Repeat process selecting Restore image. All images should restore as normal

    • Repeat process on physical hardware, the virtual machine prompt should not appear