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Title
About the difference between K-Image and WIM -
Description
This purpose of this article is to describe the difference between Microsoft's Windows Image Format (WIM) and KACE's K-Image technologies. -
Resolution
WIM
When capturing an image with WIM, all files are compressed into a single WIM file per volume. This is captured locally, then uploaded to the K2000. This means that when planning a WIM image capture, one must be careful of how much space remains on the volume, the rules being to have at least 50% of free space for the compression. The reverse happens when deploying, the full WIM file is copied to the target then the WIM is extracted locally.
WIM
- It does not allow modification once copied to the K2000.
- Requires the image master to have enough free space to capture the image locally.
- Uses more K2000 disk space for multiple images than K-Image.
- It is generally faster to capture than K-Image.
- In most cases is faster to deploy than K-Image.
- It is able to be used with Multicast (single partition only).
K-Image
K-Image is proprietary to KACE
Files are captured and deployed one-by-one to and from the K2000 and use a de-duplication algorithm. This means that image are generally slower to be created and deployed than WIM. Image creation speed is lower at first but as more de-duplication is done, the Image Creation will be faster. The more files the systems captured have in common, the lower the amount of space required.
K-Image
- It can be modified in the K2000 Management Console. Files and folders can be renamed, added, and removed.
- It can be used to perform a delta deployment, which is useful for system refreshes.
- Uses much less K2000 disk space for multiple images than WIM.
- It does not have any additional space requirements when capturing or deploying.
- It is not able to be used with Multicast.
WIM and K-Image are managed in the same manner on the K2000.
Practical Use
WIM is a great solution when trying to deploy a high number of systems in a short amount of time via Multicast. Even on a one-by-one basis, WIM can be several times faster than K-Image deployments
K-Image is the superior solution if the goal is to capture a large amount of System Images, as the de-duplication will prove invaluable where WIM would rapidly eat all available space.
K-Image can be used to perform a very useful delta deployment. To do this, you would not format or partition the hard drive and leverage the "Remove files not in image" option to 'refresh' the system.
- Files that are in the K-Image but aren't on the target are copied down
- Files that exist in both the target and the K-Image but are different than the K-Image are replaced with the file from the image
- Files that are on the target but aren't in the K-Image are deleted
This can make the process much faster and more efficient than re-deploying from WIM, especially for large image deployments.
System Images captured with K-Image can be configured and customized, later on, allowing more flexibility.
Note
- WIM and K-Image are complementary solutions that should be used in collaboration.
- Testing which solution is more adapted to your setup is recommended.
- All Systems Images needing to be re-deployed on different devices need to be prepared via Sysprep previous to capture