Virtual Environments and Cloning

UIU version 4.x fully supports imaging within VMware's virtual environment, both in Physical-to-Virtual (P2V) and a Virtual-to-Physical (V2P) environments.  Please refer to UIU's Setup Requirements and Recommendations found in the UIU Setup Guide.  BRI and Big Bang recommend the use of VMware version 6.x or later.

Benefits of using VMware with the UIU

• Restoring a VMware session to a Base Image (V2P) is very efficient (fast).
• VMware sessions, by default, are compliant with the UIU recommendation "...you will not need to install drivers associated with specific hardware components, particularly drivers that invoke software applications."
• As VMware sessions (VMDK files) are portable to most host machines, it is not necessary to preserve/maintain specific machine hardware.
• Regression testing is more efficient through the use of VMware Snapshot technology.

Best-Practices 

• VMTools enhance your VMware experience and will decrease the overall time required to operate in a VMware session.
• For best performance, run your UIU VMware session on a non-production PC as VMware sessions are memory intensive.
• Utilize VMware’s Snapshot technology frequently to preserve a Base Image and maintain iterations of your Base Image during regression testing (when adding/modifying applications and updates) of your UIU Image.