Image Management

About image.XO

The Image Management module is an extended implementation of Hashicorps Packer and enables administrators to create standardized and consistent images across multiple platforms.

The main benefit of image.XO is that you do not need to write JSON based configurations for multiple infrastructure images. Everything is done with a simple to use frontend.

Features

With image.XO you have a modern and easy to use tool at your fingertips that lets you use your custom installation scripts and extends the Packer implementation through the following features:

  • Create Provisioner Groups
  • Create Provisioner Roles
  • Use PowerShell DSC configurations during image build (hosted and standalone with config.XO).
  • Use PowerShell AppDeployment Toolkit packages, groups and roles (with application.XO).

Use Cases

  • Continuous Delivery
  • DEV/ACC/PRD alignment
  • Demo creation
  • Golden images

Why should I use an automated image management process?

Manual image installations are error prone and cost a lot of time. They even do not fulfill any standards of documentation because in most cases there is none.

Therefore the Image Management module:

  • allows you to launch completely provisioned and configured machines in minutes, on repeat and consistently. Create different images for development, acceptance or production environments, or use one for all stages.
  • defines pre-baked developer images or is usable in Citrix environments to create golden images. Because it creates identical images for multiple platforms, you can run production in AWS, staging/QA in a private cloud like OpenStack, and development in desktop virtualization solutions such as VMware or VirtualBox.
  • installs and configures all the software for a machine at the time the image is built. If there are bugs in these scripts, they will be caught early rather than in production.
  • implements Pester scripts (or similar) to test your machines against a defined state.

Public Cloud support

Currently we are supporting the following public cloud providers:

Amazon AWS

We support Amazon AWS with EBS volumes and the operating systems shown below:

  • Windows Server 2016

  • Windows Server 2019

  • Windows Server 2022

  • Ubuntu 18.04 Server

  • Ubuntu 16.04 Server

  • CentOS 7 Server

Microsoft Azure

  • Windows 10 (pro, enterprise, multisession)

  • Windows 11 (pro, enterprise, multisession)

  • Windows Server 2016

  • Windows Server 2019

  • Windows Server 2022

  • Ubuntu 18.04 Server

  • Ubuntu 16.04 Server

  • CentOS 7 Server