Snap Deploy Tips Not Covered In User Manual

Thanks a lot, Jason! I'll make this topic sticky at the top :)

Dear Community members, you're welcome to share your best practices here!

Automated Self-Deployment via USB

Acronis doesn't have a built-in way, but if you have a WinPE .WIM loaded with Acronis, you can use asdcmd.exe to deploy images automatically. You can use the Create PE Media wizard that Acronis comes with to make this WIM. You'll need the Windows 10 ADK installed for this.

Simply add a command to startnet.cmd that automatically images the drive. Startnet.cmd is run automatically on WinPE boot. You can also add commands to reboot or shutdown the machine afterwards.

Add the following line to startnet.cmd:

"x:\Program Files\Acronis\SnapDeploy\asdcmd.exe" /deploy /filename:d:\[whatever_image.tib] /harddisk:1 /target_harddisk:1

Then simply make a USB thumb drive with the WinPE WIM:

copype amd64 C:\WinPE_amd64

Copy your WIM fileto in C:\WinPE_amd64\media\sources\boot.wim. Rename your WIM to boot.wim if it isn't so named.

MakeWinPEMedia /UFD C:\WinPE_amd64 V:

V: is the thumb drive

Then booting from the drive, it will automatically load up WinPE and run your startnet.cmd which will run your asdcmd.exe imaging command.

Automated Self-Deployment via Network:

Follow the instructions above, but use the asdcmd.exe command with network options:

"x:\Program Files\Acronis\SnapDeploy\asdcmd.exe" /deploy /filename:\\[LAB_SERVER\image.tib] /net_user: [username] /net_password: [password] /license_server:[license_server] /harddisk:1 /target_harddisk:1

Then just upload the PE to Acronis PXE server or whatever PXE server you are using.

WinPE reference:

Just for reference, here are the commands for use with DISM:

To mount:

Dism /Mount-Image /ImageFile:"C:\WinPE_amd64\media\sources\boot.wim" /index:1 /MountDir:"C:\WinPE_amd64\mount"

To dismount and save:

Dism /Unmount-Image /MountDir:"C:\WinPE_amd64\mount" /commit

Startnet.cmd is located in 'mount/Windows/System32'

nvdev, thank you for the useful information! 

Acronis Snap Deploy 5 Update 3 doesn't support using the latest Win ADK. You must use version 1607 if you want Acronis to create the WinPE WIM for you or even if you want to provide your own WIM for Acronis media builder to slipstream. This applies for the non-official builds as well (1755, 1761, 1780, 1808).

If you need absolutely need a newer WinPE (like we do, as there are quite a few new features since 1607), you can create the WinPE WIM using the newest ADK on a separate machine (or preferably in a VM) via copype (use the boot.wim inside the sources folder). Then on your machine with Acronis and Win10 ADK 1607 installed, you can select the boot.wim you generated earlier and it will slipstream all the Acornis binaries and configs into it.  We have tested this and it is working with WinPE 1607, 1703, 1709, 1803 and 1809.

Then you can upload that WIM into your Acornis PXE Server or to your custom PXE server (we use WDS).

nvdev wrote:

Acronis Snap Deploy 5 Update 3 doesn't support using the latest Win ADK.

Just wanted to post an update that the latest build 1924 supports Windows ADK 1703, 1803, and 1809  https://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/updates/changes.html?p=31032

Checklist for a successful Win 10 remote install shared by Iain Barlow

• Disable firewall, or edit it appropriately
• Enable file/printer sharing & network discovery
• Connect with the local admin username and password you created when you installed Windows
• Enable the admin share (saves having to enable the built in admin and means you can leave UAC enabled)
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System.
  • Create a new entry by right-clicking System and then selecting DWORD (32-bit) Value.
  • Choose LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy as name for the new entry.
  • Set the value of LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy to 1 by right-clicking the new entry.