Modernize and Simplify OS Imaging for Windows & Linux Endpoints with Tanium Provision

Although the process of operating system imaging hasn’t changed much in 20 years, the requirements have. Today’s IT administrators need a more modern solution, one that empowers them to respond quickly to security incidents, fight ransomware, add new locations, and manage a workforce that is mostly remote. They also need the ability to image systems on both Windows and Linux endpoints.

Unfortunately, many current imaging solutions fall short. They’re difficult to set up and maintain. They require dedicated hardware with time-consuming setups. And they’re unable to remotely image internet-connected devices.

All that changes with Tanium Provision. It’s a solution that modernizes, simplifies and expands operating system (OS) imaging to meet these new challenges. With the addition of Tanium Provision, the Tanium Converged Endpoint Management (XEM) platform now supports bare-metal provisioning and re-imaging needs for both on-premises and remote devices. That can help organizations consolidate and remove costly tools, improve their operational efficiency, and boost the productivity of IT employees.

Here are just some of what organizations can do with Tanium Provision:

• Rapidly Image and Re-Image systems without the need for additional hardware
• Provision endpoints for managing bare-metal services such as network boot with PXE
• Provision internet-connected devices
• Deploy the services needed to perform bare-metal imaging
• Identify and report on the status of any OS deployment

Tanium Provision is different

With Tanium Provision, an IT administrator can enable any Tanium endpoint to provide imaging services to devices on the local network. The process is as simple as adding a new Provision endpoint:

Admins can also use Tanium Provision to provide bare-metal provisioning for both Windows and Linux endpoints through an OS bundle:

In addition, Tanium Provision can refresh an existing computer over the network, giving it a freshly installed OS in a matter of minutes. Tanium Provision can also track the progress of bare-metal installations and refresh deployments at speed and scale:

Because Tanium Provision was built with internet-connected devices in mind, it can both remotely image a bare-metal device and refresh an existing computer.

Additional functionality

When using Tanium Provision, you’ll never need to set up a separate build server again, as Tanium Provision does not require it. This can save you considerable time. One of our customers reports that with Tanium Provision, they’ve cut the time needed to image a machine from 2 hours to as little as 15 minutes.

Tanium Provision can also help your organization consolidate and replace tools. That’s especially true for tools that, unlike Tanium Provision, can’t provide both initial and refresh imaging.

Tanium Provision can also be used for end-to-end lifecycle management. It can lighten your help desk’s workload by helping them quickly re-image a system and reset it to its original specs — without the need for either source media or manual steps.

Tanium Provision is built on top of Tanium’s XEM platform. This means all other Tanium functionality — such as OS patching, third-party software installation and policy management — can apply as part of the imaging process. And because Tanium Provision can leverage existing Tanium functionality, it has been optimized for speed. Admins can use Tanium Provision to image a machine in just a few minutes, then let Tanium take over its management.

Tanium Provision is available now as part of the Client Management solution. If you’d like to test Tanium Provision for yourself, schedule a demo with us and discover how Tanium Provision can help your organization.