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OS Deployment
BigFix OS Deployment, which is part of the BigFix Lifecycle Management suite, provides a consolidated, comprehensive solution to quickly deploy new workstations and servers throughout a network from a single, centralized location. This solution saves time and money, enforces a standardized and approved image, and reduces risks associated with non-compliant or insecure configurations.
Bare Metal deployments
You can install and manage BigFix for OS Deployment servers and create profiles for bare metal deployments.
Deploying a bare metal profile from the target binding menu

OS Deployment
BigFix OS Deployment, which is part of the BigFix Lifecycle Management suite, provides a consolidated, comprehensive solution to quickly deploy new workstations and servers throughout a network from a single, centralized location. This solution saves time and money, enforces a standardized and approved image, and reduces risks associated with non-compliant or insecure configurations.
- Product overview
- Configuring the OS Deployment Environment
  To start working with OS Deployment, run the configuration Fixlets and tasks listed in the Setup Node.
- Managing MDT Bundles and Deployment Media for Windows targets
  To perform OS Deployment of Windows operating systems, you prepare your deployment environment and resources using the Bundle and Media Manager Dashboard.
- Managing Drivers for Windows Deployments
  The Manage Images and Drivers node includes tasks to prepare and import drivers for deployment to Windows targets.
- Managing Linux OS Resources and Deployment Media
  You can import Linux OS Resources needed to create network boot media and to capture and deploy Linux images
- Managing Images
  The Manage Images and Drivers node includes tasks to capture, import and manage images for deployment to targets.
- Upload Mode
  By default, the OS images are permanently stored in the BigFix root server.
- Reimaging
  Reimaging is the process of saving the user state on a computer, installing a new image on it, and then restoring the user state.
- Installing Windows 10 or Windows 11 using in-place upgrade
  To upgrade your existing Windows systems to Windows 10 or Windows 11 you can use the in-place upgrade fixlets.
- Bare Metal deployments
  You can install and manage BigFix for OS Deployment servers and create profiles for bare metal deployments.
  - Creating bare metal profiles
    Create Bare Metal profiles from the Image Library dashboard, which you can then upload to the server.
  - Working with Bare Metal Profiles
  - Deploying a bare metal profile from the target binding menu
  - Deploying bare metal profiles based on target properties
  - Deploying a bare metal profile from the BigFix console
    You can deploy bare metal profiles to targets that are connected to Bare Metal Servers that have the Management Extender for Bare Metal Targets plug-in installed.
  - Capturing and restoring user state of Windows targets
    When you complete an operating system migration on new hardware, you can restore previously captured user settings on the new system.
  - Tuning WinPE TFTP settings for bare metal deployments
    You can tune WinPE download speed during Bare Metal deployments by running task 360.
  - Managing Bare Metal Targets
- Monitoring Deployment Activities
  You can track and monitor all deployment activities in your Endpoint Management network.
- Maintenance and troubleshooting
  You can monitor deployment activities, correct exceptions and adjust configuration settings specific to your environment through dashboards and tasks available for these purposes.
- Setting up OS Deployment in an air-gapped network
  You can choose to configure your OS Deployment and Bare Metal Imaging site in an air-gapped network.
- Deprecated and Superseded functionalities
  This topic lists the functionalities that are still present in OSD, but are deprecated.
- Create Ubuntu OS Resources manually

Deploying a bare metal profile from the target binding menu

To deploy a bare metal profile on your target, you must reboot the target from the network by pressing a hot key, for example, F1 or F12. For information about which hot key to use, see your computer manual. Before you run the reboot from the network, ensure that the DHCP server is configured.

Important:

If you are deploying a bare metal profile on a UEFI target, you must place the hard disk before the EFI shell in the boot sequence, otherwise the deployment does not complete successfully.
On VMware targets, when the deployment completes, the target is powered off. See Bare Metal Deployment behavior of VMware ESXi.

During the target reboot, the following window is displayed to download and install a Windows operating system according to the information of the bare metal profile that is created from the BigFix Console:

In the displayed menu, you can choose to install any of the available profiles. If an auto-deploy profile is displayed in the list, a countdown is started and the profile is automatically installed. To install a profile different from the one with the timeout, you must select it and press enter. Any protected profile is installed only after you enter the required password.

If you click Cancel Binding Menu and reboot the target, the menu is refreshed with the updated list of profiles available on the server. Use this option and reboot your target if no bare metal profile is displayed in the binding menu list.

Note: All profiles available on the bare metal server are displayed in the binding menu, regardless of whether they are compatible with the target machine. Deployment tasks of images that are not compatible end in error (for example, deployment of a 64-bit image on 32-bit hardware, or deployment on a UEFI target of an OS image that is not supported on UEFI machines).

If you click Reload (Automatic every 5 mins), you check whether there are pending activities on the server for that target. If there are no activities, the same binding menu is displayed again. If you clear a profile ready to be installed because of a timeout, even if you stop its installation by clearing it, after 5 minutes a task to install this profile is reloaded.