Systems Deployment

Are you going to be deploying one image to multiple hardware types or just to the one model?

Scuba Steve,

Imaging with Ghost is a very broad subject by itself, and the procedures can vary quite a bit depending on your environment and your needs.

For Sysprep, I would recommend starting by reading this MS KB article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q302577

One thing I would strongly recommend you DON'T do is include applications in your base image. It might save you time up front, but then come back to haunt you. Separating your machine images from your applications gives you flexibility. I got caught in a situation once where installing a new version of an application required uninstalling the previous version (which was part of our base image). The uninstall was tedious and practically impossible to script or automate. That shortened the lifespan of our image, and we had to rebuild it. You could also have a situation where an app on your base image conflicts with something you want to install down the road.

Is your network NT? If so, plan out very carefully what Global Groups you want to be in the local Admin and Power User groups of the image. This will give you an easy way to control users' rights at the domain level by simply adding or removing them from a Global Group, rather than trying to keep track of local rights. You will need to temporarily add your base machine to the domain, make your additions to the local Admin and Power User groups, then remove the machine from the domain before running sysprep and creating your image. The sids will remain in those local groups even though the machine is not joined to the domain, and will resolve again once you image a new machine and join it to the domain.

Other things you can do:

Copy the i386 directory onto a utility directory, and slipstream XP sp1 into it. Edit the "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Setup" keys to reflect the location of the i386. This can save you and the user the aggravation of being prompted for the Windows XP disc.

Install the Command Console, too, by going to a command prompt and navigating to the i386 directory. Then type in "winnt32.exe /cmdcons". If you ever need to run the recovery console on a machine that won't start, this will again save you from going to get your XP disc.

These two are particularly good if you have laptop users who travel.

There are many other things you can do, like setting up a default profile for all users to start with ( http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/WindowsServ/2003/standard/proddocs/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/WindowsServ/2003/standard/proddocs/en-us/sysdm_advancd_create_preconfig_userprofile.asp ). I don't want to monopolize this board, so let me know if there is more you would like to hear.

craig --<>.

Wow! It sounds as if you have experience with this topic. Thank you for your reply. I am working on several other projects right now and have moved Ghost to the back burner until I can convince management to send me to training.

Has anyone ever attended a Binary Research International Training session for Ghost? If so, how was it? Was it work the $1,900? Let me know what you think.

Thanks,

Justin

I have found that in our environment installing some core apps into the image has worked well. We deploy all apps via GPO and only include things like Office in the SOE images and nothing in the OS imaghe. Therefore in the unlikely event that we need to upgrade something between image recreations it is easily done via GPO and having the OS only image allows up to create a new SOE image in about 30 minutes.

It all comes down to what environment you are in and what your future is likly to hold. Therefore planning is the most important thing.

I have a Lab with 25 PCs. I installed Ghost 2003 on one of them and I created images for 98, ME, 2000, XP Home and Pro and saved them on my D: drive. I really like the restore option that is built into this version. We have just signed up as a corporate client with symantec so we can get Ghost 8 for half the price of Ghost 2003. I am told that Ghost 8 has a similar option to restore images on the PC you are working on. Does anyone know how to set this up as Ghost 8 is geared more towards pushing images to other PCs. Thanks. [:D]

Steve -

I don't know if you're still following this thread, but I think that if you don't know Ghost, any Ghost training can benefit you.

I should know, I do training for it. And, until recently, I did the training and courseware for Binary Research.

I won't go into any more sales talk here, but if you're interested, let me know. I can line you up with training for less.

Thanks.

Thank you all for the replies. I have decided to move away from using Ghost as our deployment tool. I wasn't able to get the results I desired from Ghost. So we are currently using unattended installs of Windows XP pro that are located in a distribution share in our network. This is working 100% of what I want it to do. It will install the OS, drivers, and even the applications. Plus all the tools to do this is completely FREE!

Ghost is too complicated. Plus the "support" at symantec's site just refers you to Microsoft's site and then Microsoft's site refers you to symantec's site.

Thanks again!!!

USING GHOST CORPORATE EDITION 8.0

I want to create a backup of the computer to the same partition.

I can pull the image of any PC to my machine, which has the console.
I want to be able to create an image of the computer and save it on THAT computer.
For e.g. for computer "test2", i want to create an image , but i don't want to save the image on my PC... i want that image to be saved in that computer only.

Please tell me the steps if you know how to do that.. THanks

Hi, I work in a library where we used to use PowerQuest products for our Cloning process. However, we need to jump to the Symantec Ghost Wagon because our old product is not longer available.

After doing experiments and a lot of Googling, we are able to perform the same things that we used to do with PowerQuest, now using Symantec Ghost Corporate Edition 8.2(SGCE8.2)

[:)]Getting images across the network thorough Mapped Drives.
[:)]Broadcasting images from server to clients.
[:)]Backup HardDisk to HardDisk and so on.
Know were are able to [:D] about this things.

However it is time to get involve with the Symantec Console.[:@][:@]

Thanks to the manual we know that we can have either Ghost Boot Partitions on the clients or use Virtual Boot Partitions.

We have installed the clients from the console. It have been working in one computer but it trashes another computer in which now we could not even log-in because of a missing DLL.

We install the Ghost Boot Partition according to the PDF file included with the software.
We did this correctly, but when the computer restarts, we do know if it is working fine.
It looks like it is looking for the Console server but it is not reaching it.
The server is on the same network for sure.

Our goal is to take care of our 100 computers.
Some use Windows 2000 the new ones use Windows XP, servers alike.

Any help on this will be much appreciated.
Could you please extend your comment about separating the Apps from the OS in the images, and how to perform this using SGCE?

Hi, this is the prime goal that my boss want. He came from another place where they already this approach.

I do not have experience with this before.[:-]
Could you help on this?
We have only Dell Computer GX400, GX240, GX260, GX270, GX280, SX260, and SX270 at least we have 20 of each one.

These computers have either 3COM or Intel network cards. and there are 3 or 4 different video cards involve. some computer use Windows 2000 other use Windows XP Pro.

It is possible to have one image for all these chaos??/[&:]

Thanks for your help!!!

This is for IT_FREAK

When you are installing the Ghost client software, it will ask you to input the name of the ghost console system. Otherwise, when I don't input the name of the console system the workstation is never seen by the console.

One more thing, a littke know secret with Ghost, if you want to see if the workstation is talking to the console, (on the workstation) hold down the Ctrl Key, and move your mouse to the upper left hand screen, in a few seconds you will see the Ghost icon pop up in the system tray. Click on show debug console. You will then see if there is communication with the Ghost Console computer. (note: it takes a few seconds to report the comm with the console, so give it about 30 seconds)
HTH

This is also for IT_FREAK
Trying to use the same image for the different models and NIC cards is a complex task and will take some time.
After much research and trial & error I was successful in making a single bootable CD for starting Ghost 8 with various NIC cards - so it can be done but is time consuming to accomplish (Hint: I used the choice command to choose the right NIC driver).
As far as making a single image for the various Dell models - this is also a project that will take qiute a bit of time. The key to this is including all of the pecular drivers for each machine in the OemPnPDriversPath = "drivers\audio;drivers\NIC” however I read in a Microsoft document that this path is limited to 256 charactors.
So we have opted to aquire a newly released package called UIU thru Binary Reseach Corp. I have been testing the demo product since Sept and it works great. I have been able to reduce out images from 12 Dell models (GX-270,260, 240, 200, 150, 110, 1 + C800, 810, 840, CPx, D800 (2 versions))

Hope this helps.
Mikeeee

GX240, GX260, GX270, GX280
Not such a good idea to mix those 3 systems. we have them here and the 240 does not work with the 270's. minor glitches, nothing big. We just decided to create one image for every system, and then deploy them using ghost.

Hi,

How did you manage to add all your drivers into one image ?

Frank

Hi,

How can I start a ghost cast session on a remote server at a different site which points to an image local to that server using console v 8?

Hey GhostTrainer

I'm having a serious issue with Ghost 2003 and/or Corporate 8.0. No matter what happens when I create a network boot disk, it will not recognize my domain! I've contacted Symantec and the best guess they have is that my domain cannot be "seen" because it's numeric. My domain is name is 01400, and I cannot change it to an alpha-numeric name.

I get an error NTS0020: the DEFAULTDOMAIN is wrong in the PROTOCOL.INI section.

But, I've examined the disk, and it's correct in the protocol.ini. Also, if I change that value to anything else, it says there's a duplicate name or device on the network, so I know the 01400 value is the correct one.

Any ideas? Anyone I can talk to w/ Symantec that lives in this country and I can call long distance or email to?

Any help is much appreciated in advance.