Hardware Considerations with Base Layers

You can create generic base layers for use on hardware families with the Mirage driver library feature. You can maintain a minimum number of generic base layers and use driver profiles to apply the appropriate hardware drivers.

Virtual Machine Support

A common Mirage situation is reassigning a CVD from a physical machine to a virtual machine, and the reverse. You can then download a CVD to a workbench virtual machine at the data center for troubleshooting purposes.

Most virtualization platforms include integration components to enhance the experience of working on a virtual machine, for example, VMware Tools. These components are also part of a virtual machine base layer.

Use a separate base layer for the virtual machine, especially if the integration features are part of the base layer, for example, VMware Tools.

Special Case Hardware Drivers

Certain hardware drivers include installation programs that make them incompatible for pre-installation in a base layer, for example, Bluetooth Driver installation and Wireless-over-USB. You can install these drivers using a special script that Mirage starts after a base layer is applied. Mirage then reports failures to the management service at the data center.