# Golden Images

### Overview

Golden image deployment provides pre-configured virtual machine images with FormSG already installed. This approach offers the fastest path from procurement to production while ensuring consistent deployments.

### Why Golden Images

* **Speed**: Boot a VM and have FormSG running in minutes instead of hours
* **Consistency**: Identical configuration across all your deployments
* **Air-gapped friendly**: Single image file works in isolated networks
* **Reduced setup**: Pre-configured components eliminate manual setup steps

### What's Included

Golden images will provide a complete, ready-to-run FormSG environment:

* **Operating System**: Ubuntu LTS with FormSG dependencies
* **FormSG Stack**: Application and MongoDB pre-installed
* **Basic Operations**: Monitoring, logging, and update mechanisms configured

### Exploring Deployment Options

We're investigating which deployment formats would provide the most value, potentially including cloud images (AWS AMI) and virtualization templates (VMware OVA).

### Customization vs Convenience

Golden images provide a **generic FormSG configuration** optimized for rapid evaluation and standard deployments. For organizations requiring customizations (identity providers, branding, workflow changes), see our source deployment guides.

### Current Status

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🚧 Under Construction
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Golden image deployment is currently in exploratory development. We're investigating the feasibility and requirements for pre-built FormSG images.