Taking Os Snapshots; Os Snapshot Best Practices - Novell ADMINSTUDIO 9.5 User Manual

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Chapter 6: Managing Application Catalog Databases

Taking OS Snapshots

The OS Snapshot Wizard provides a simple way to capture your basic operating system configuration. Using the

OS Snapshot Wizard, you can scan your computer's operating system and record the files, INI files, shortcuts, and

registry entries present. The Wizard then creates an .osc file representing the system contents. You can import this

snapshot file into the an Application Catalog database to identify potential conflicts between Windows Installer-

based setups and your operating system.

To provide maximum flexibility during the OS Snapshot process, you can create an exclusion list (similar to the

Repackager exclusion list) that identifies files, INI files, shortcuts, and registry entries that the OS Snapshot Wizard

should disregard during the scan. Using this list, you can eliminate unnecessary files, shortcuts, or registry entries,

and reduce the time it takes to perform the OS Snapshot.

The following topics are included in this section:

Configuring OS Snapshot Analysis Options

Capturing an OS Snapshot

convert an OS Snapshot into an MSI package.

OS Snapshot Best Practices

Before capturing OS Snapshots, consider the following:

Table 6-14 • OS Snapshot Best Practices

Capture on a Clean

Applications

Snapshot for Import

into Application

OS Snapshots should only be used for comparison in ConflictSolver. You should never attempt to

For optimal OS Snapshots, you should only capture on a clean system. This

ensures an accurate baseline of files necessary for the operating system. This also

means that you should never attempt to capture other packages in addition to the

operating system. Use Repackager when you need to capture applications.

Shut down all other applications besides OS Snapshot prior to capture. Ideally, this

should be done from the Windows Task Manager. This ensures that files are not

locked during capture, and unnecessary temporary files are not inadvertently

Never attempt to convert an OS Snapshot file into a Windows Installer package to

install an operating system. AdminStudio does not support this use of OS

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