Imaging menus

Applies to: Medulla – Imaging
Version:5.4.3 or later
Environment: On-Premise / Private SaaS with imaging relay.
Category: Usage

This document focuses on the management and generation of imaging menus.

What is an imaging menu?

An imaging menu is a collection of services and masters associated with a machine, which can be used during a machine’s (network) boot sequence.
During a PXE boot, the machine requests its menu from its server. Several scenarios are possible:

• The machine has no associated menu: the server assigns it a default menu
• The machine is part of a group of machines: the server sends it the menu associated with that group.
• The machine is not part of a group and has an associated menu: the server sends it that menu.

The rest of the imaging process depends on the contents of this menu. 

There are different levels of menus:

• The imaging server menus
  • The register menu
  • The default menu
    
• The machine menu
• The Groups menu

The imaging server menus:

• The register menu:

This menu is fixed. It consists of the following services:
- continue: This service allows you to start the machine normally.
- register: this service allows you to register a machine in the imaging system.

• The default menu

Each imaging server receives a default menu. This menu consists of the following services:
- `continue`: This service allows you to boot the machine normally.
- `backup`: creates a copy of the machine's disk in the imaging system.

• Modifications

This menu can be modified via the MMC interface.

Changes to the default menu do not affect the menus of machines or groups. For machines to benefit from changes to the default menu, it is necessary to perform a "reset" of the entity's menus.

• Add / Remove a Service

Several services that can be added to the menu are available.

The page defining the services available in a menu is as follows:
MMC > Imaging > Manage Menu Services.

On this page, services are associated with the selected entity. Changing the entity modifies the list of services associated with that entity.

• Add / Remove a Master

This section does not cover how to convert an image into a master.

Masters present on the imaging server can be associated with the default menu.

The page for associating masters with the default menu is as follows:
MMC > Imaging > Manage Masters.

• Change the order of services and masters
  

The various services and masters associated with the default menu can be viewed on the following page:
`MMC > Imaging > Default Startup Menu`.

On this page, you can change the order of menu items. You can also modify settings specific to the associated items.

• Minimum services for a menu
  

Currently, a menu must contain at least one service (or one image). Generally, the `continue` service is required for the menu to function.

The minimum service must have the following options enabled:

- Default enabled so that this service is selected by default
- Visible enabled so that this service is visible in the startup menu
- Default WOL enabled to prevent a traceback, even though I don’t know what this option is for.

A fix is being considered to prevent the removal of the last service from a menu.

• The machine menu
  

A machine's menu is accessible from the following page:
MMC > Machines > action:Imaging Management.

This page is organized into three tabs:
- Startup Menu: This tab allows you to view and edit the menu.
- Menu Services: This tab allows you to associate services with the machine menu.
- Images and Masters: This tab allows you to associate masters with the machine menu.

A machine menu should not be empty. If it is, there are several possibilities:
- The machine copied an empty default menu (unlikely, since copying in this situation usually generates a traceback).
- An administrator has deleted all items from the machine's menu.

• The group menu

Basically, a group menu is similar to a machine menu. However, it is associated with an imaging group, not a specific machine.

To access it, go to the following page:
MMC > Imaging > All Imaging Groups > action:Imaging Management.

A group menu takes precedence over a machine menu. When you view a machine’s menu page, you may **not see** the header line indicating that the machine is part of a group.

In this case, the machine displays its own custom menu, not the group’s menu. This can cause confusion for the administrator.