job submission once a request comes from any client 376 through the web service 374 web service 374 is a single point of communication with the system for the clients to communicate with controllers 368 370 or database 384 data access layers for machine management and job workflow components may be employed to enable the communication fsm controllers 368 370 may communicate with the database 384 through the web service 374 so that the database can be physically decoupled from another machine the system may accommodate several fsm server controllers as shown provided for scalability the system may also accommodate several loosely coupled fsm clients that can connect to the fsm server some imaging system clients such as client 376 may connect to the server through a server connector plugin 372 fsm may choose a workflow based on request submitted from a client by the user to the web service obtain metadata on machines the job steps need to run on and submit the workflow for execution to fsm client fsm client 362 364 creates a separate workflow the system also provides functionality to distribute workflows between several clients for cases where too many requests for jobs have arrived to the server and transmitted to fsm clients each application domain 366 is used to run a single workflow fsm may not communicate tasks to individual client machines with wmi instead job steps themselves may run on fsm clients 362 364 and remotely execute tasks on machines to be imaged 388 a san storage device 378 may be used to store cached virtual images workflow execution may be stopped paused and resumed on.