I've had good success by trying to break out most of the update process to outside of the image itself. For example, moving most image updates to be pushed through software deployment tools for b...
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I've had good success by trying to break out most of the update process to outside of the image itself. For example, moving most image updates to be pushed through software deployment tools for both updates and new software. We also try to leverage environment management solutions (e.g. AppSense Environment Manager/Application Manager, if available in the environment) to keep the golden image as barebones as possible. That way, we can power up the golden image, push everything through our ESD console, and then have to do very little to the image itself manually, thus reducing manual errors and making the re-build (if necessary) fairly painless. Also, keeping the golden image count down as low as possible is always a goal worth striving for, as you hinted at.