Operating system images

Aug 14, 2017

AppDNA comes with a set of default OS images that you can use. However, importing your own images enables AppDNA to base its analysis on the images used in your environment.

You can import more than one image for an OS family, such as Windows Server 2012 or Windows 10. Storing more than one image is useful when your organization has two (or more) standard corporate builds of the OS – one for laptops and one for desktops, for example. When more than one OS image has been imported into AppDNA for an OS, you can choose which of those images to use when you view a report. For an overview of how OS images are used in AppDNA, see Operating systems.

Use the following general steps to import an OS image:

  1. To open the Operating Systems screen, choose Import & Analyze > Operating Systems.

    The Operating Systems screen lists all of the OS images that have already been imported.

  2. To import a new OS, click Download Snapshot Manager. Use Snapshot Manager to create an MSI based on the clean corporate image or a clean virtual machine. For more information, see Create an MSI for your OS image.

  3. After Snapshot Manager creates an MSI file, click Import from MSI. For more information, see Import an OS image.

  4. To configure the relationships between your OS images, click OS Image Relationships. For more information, see Configure OS image relationships

    You must configure each OS image to define its relationships with any other OS images with which you want it compared. For example, suppose you are preparing for a Windows 10 migration and you import your standard corporate desktop and laptop OS images for both Windows 10 and Windows 7. You need to set the relationship between the Windows 10 and Windows 7 desktop images and between the Windows 10 and Windows 7 laptop images. You can do this as you import each image. Alternatively, you can set the relationships of all the images after you have imported them.

    Note: After importing multiple OS images, you can define which one is the default for each report in Edit > Settings > OS Image Configuration.