Kaspersky Security Center

Deployment by capturing and copying the hard drive image of a device

April 17, 2023

ID 92460

If you need to install Network Agent on devices on which an operating system and other software also must be installed (or reinstalled), you can use the mechanism of capturing and copying the hard drive of that device.

To perform deployment by capturing and copying a hard drive:

  1. Create a reference device with an operating system and the relevant software installed, including Network Agent and a security application.
  2. Capture the reference image on the device and distribute that image on new devices through the dedicated task of Kaspersky Security Center.

    To capture and install disk images, you can use either third-party tools available in the organization, or the feature provided (under the Vulnerability and Patch Management license) by Kaspersky Security Center.

If you use any third-party tools to process disk images, you must delete the information that Kaspersky Security Center uses to identify the managed device, when performing deployment on a device from a reference image. Otherwise, Administration Server will not be able to properly distinguish devices that have been created by copying the same image.

When capturing a disk image with Kaspersky Security Center tools, this issue is solved automatically.

Copying a disk image with third-party tools

When applying third-party tools for capturing the image of a device with Network Agent installed, use one of the following methods:

  • Recommended method. When installing Network Agent on a reference device, capture the device image before the first run of Network Agent service (because unique information identifying the device is created at the first connection of Network Agent to the Administration Server). After that, it is recommended that you avoid running Network Agent service until the completion of the image capturing operation.
  • On the reference device, stop the Network Agent service and run the klmover utility with the -dupfix key. The utility klmover is included in the installation package of Network Agent. Avoid any subsequent runs of Network Agent service until the image capturing operation completes.
  • Make sure that klmover will be run with the -dupfix key before (mandatory requirement) the first run of the Network Agent service on target devices, at the first launch of the operating system after the image deployment. The utility klmover is included in the installation package of Network Agent.

If the hard drive image has been copied incorrectly, you can resolve this problem.

You can apply an alternate scenario for Network Agent deployment on new devices through operating system images:

  • The captured image contains no Network Agent installed.
  • A stand-alone installation package of Network Agent located in the shared folder of Kaspersky Security Center has been added to the list of executable files that are run upon completion of the image deployment on target devices.

This deployment scenario adds flexibility: you can use a single operating system image together with various installation options for Network Agent and / or the security application, including device moving rules related to the standalone package. This slightly complicates the deployment process: you have to provide access to the network folder with stand-alone installation packages from a device.

See also:

Network Agent disk cloning mode

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