Driver Management

Deployment drivers are injected offline into the Windows image during Phase 11 of the deployment process using dism /Image:W:\ /Add-Driver /Recurse. These are full driver packs for the target OS, covering all hardware categories.

Driver Categories and Priority#

Drivers are injected in a strict priority order to ensure critical hardware is configured first:

Uploading Drivers#

Manual Upload#

On the Drivers page, under the Windows pill, click Upload CAB/ZIP on the Installed tab to add a driver package as a ZIP or CAB archive. Specify:

• Name - Descriptive name for the package
• Category - Select from the priority categories above
• Supported Windows Versions - Which Windows versions this pack supports
• Manufacturer / Supported Models - Optional fields for Auto driver matching

The upload limit is configurable in Settings > Security > Upload Limits (default 5 GB).

Only .cab and .zip archives are accepted. An .exe is refused straight away, before anything is transferred, because FluxDeploy never runs programs that were uploaded. If your vendor ships an installer, run it on a workstation to extract the drivers, zip the result and upload that. When an upload is refused, the message tells you why (wrong file type, a damaged archive, a missing name or category) and nothing is left behind on the server. If the server does not have enough free disk space for the file, the upload stops before it starts and the message says how much is needed and how much is free; free some space on the data drive and try again.

OEM Catalog Download#

The faster approach is using the built-in OEM catalog integration (see OEM Catalogs). HP, Dell, and Lenovo driver packs are browsed and downloaded directly, with manufacturer and model auto-populated from catalog metadata.

Managing Packages#

• Contents - Every row says what the package actually holds, for example 255 drivers - 1,204 files - 1.8 GB ("drivers" counts the .inf files). It is measured when the package is registered - upload, catalog download, backup restore, or a relay site's sync - and packages from before this existed are measured in the background shortly after the server starts, when the row says Not measured yet. Files not found means the package's folder is missing from the driver store; the server log names the folder. Delete the package and register it again.
• No drivers in this package - A package with no .inf file installs nothing on a machine, however normal its name looks, so its row is shown in red. If it came from a vendor catalog, Re-download removes the empty package and downloads it from the vendor again (checked against the SHA-256 recorded the first time); the recipes and relay groups that used it get the new package when it finishes. Follow it under Activity > Jobs. A package you uploaded yourself has no download address: delete it, extract the vendor's driver pack on a PC (a Dell or HP .exe unpacks to a folder of .inf files), and upload the .cab or .zip again. The same action is POST /api/drivers/{id}/redownload (202 with the job id; 409 with the reason for a package uploaded by hand, a built-in one, or one that does hold drivers).
• View INF Files - Click a package to see the individual INF driver files it contains
• Delete - Removes the package from the database and optionally deletes files from disk. Deletion is blocked if the package is referenced by an active deployment recipe.
• Disk space - A downloaded OEM pack is deleted as soon as its drivers are registered, because deployment only needs the extracted drivers (a restore downloads the pack again from the recorded address). If extraction fails the download is kept for 7 days so Retry does not fetch it again. Deleting a package removes its whole folder. A daily cleanup also removes leftover installers from older versions and records the space reclaimed in the audit log.
• One copy per deployment driver - A deployment (Windows) driver package is stored once, as the package.zip that deploying machines and relay sites download, with its SHA-256 recorded when it is registered. The extracted files are removed once that archive has been checked to hold every one of them. Packages stored by an older version are moved to this layout by the daily cleanup (the first pass runs shortly after the server starts, on Core and on relays); if a package's archive cannot be verified, its files are left exactly as they were, it keeps deploying, and the server log says why. WinPE drivers keep their folder, because it is copied into every boot image.
• Edit - Update the name, category, supported versions, and model associations

When a catalog download fails#

• No drivers found. If a downloaded pack unpacks but contains no driver (.inf) files, the download is marked Failed with a message saying so, and no driver package is created. That pack type is not supported or the vendor changed it. Download the pack by hand, extract it, and upload it as a .zip or .cab.
• Retry. If unpacking fails, the downloaded file is kept for 7 days, so Retry does not download several gigabytes again. After 7 days it is removed.
• Vendor. The vendor of a catalog download is taken from the address it comes from. A package that an earlier version saved under the wrong manufacturer, or with a padded name, is corrected automatically when the server starts, and the correction is logged.

Relay group assignment#

A relay site receives the drivers of its relay group's active recipes plus the group's additional drivers. Every new Windows driver - uploaded, or downloaded from a vendor catalog - joins the default relay group as an additional driver, so relay sites in that group receive it.

The Relay groups button on a Windows driver's row (and the dialog that opens after an upload or download) shows the relay groups the driver is already in. Tick a group to send it there; untick one to stop. A driver you take out of a group stays out. Group membership can also be managed on Relay sites > Relay groups. See Relay groups.

Important: Deployment drivers (InjectionMode = Offline) are distinct from WinPE drivers (InjectionMode = WinPeLive). They cannot be used interchangeably. Deployment drivers are downloaded by the agent during deployment; WinPE drivers are embedded in the boot image at build time.

Path Security#

The API never exposes internal driver folder paths. All driver endpoints return a DriverPackageResponse DTO that omits the FolderPath field. Filesystem access is validated with path containment checks against the configured driver storage directory.