Ghost Images?

[nunob]

So I have a question regarding building images for workstations I will start with what I would like to accomplish. We have workstations that are connected via a workgroup to a point of sale server (but its just an XP pro system with loads of ram) the basic setup of these systems is the same they all need the same username and password, local admin privelages, Adobe, all the windows updates, winzip, and a few other customizations. I am reloading these things constantly now as we have 100's of them out in the field. What I am currently doing is plugging in an external DVD burner dropping in an oem disc and loading everything like drivers and the sort then sending them back onsite where the sales guy plugs it in to the network and loads the point of sale software and changes the network settings to match the network.I would like to do a setup that is more automated for me such as a DVD with ghost and the image on it that would do this for me. I have zero experience with imaging so I need some input on the pit falls of doing this and the basic do's and don'ts for this. If there is a better solution I would like to know of that as well. Thanks in advance for advice you can offer me.

[Platypus]

An image is a common solution where you have numbers of identical systems at diverse locations. And that's the basic requirement, that the systems be hardware identical. So you can't make an image of a Dell and put it onto an HP, or use an image of a model with an Intel chipset to image onto an nVidia board.

Once an image is taken of a fully operational setup, imaging that onto a blank or corrupted drive in the equivalent system immediately produces another fully operational machine (providing there is no other hardware fault). The guys at my work who look after the lottery terminal machines do it that way, for repairing corrupted systems, replacing hard drives or updating the installation.

If there's a choice of machines being used, you can prepare an image for each, so if you could find say either of two models of Dell or an Acer, you'd need 3 disks to choose from.

[nunob]

Do you know how to go about building the image and also is sysprep needed? How do you use sysprep if it is indeed needed?

[Platypus]

I use Acronis TrueImage myself, but the operating principle is the same. You can make an image of a partition using the program installed in Windows, just run the imaging program and choose to burn an image of the system partition onto DVD. But if the image is of the partition that also has the imaging program on it, you'll get the program installed on all the systems, which may not be what you want.

What I do for home and work is create a bootable CD or DVD (an option within Acronis, and I expect also within Ghost). Boot from the CD/DVD on the system I want the image of, Acronis boots up from the CD/DVD, create an image of the drive or partition I want to save/transfer.

You can't save an image onto the partition you are making an image of, so the image will need to be saved onto another partition on the same drive, another drive or burned straight to DVD. The image will be compressed, but for a large partition, of course may still become larger than a single DVD. In this case, it's best to let the imaging program burn the image to multiple DVDs. It will keep a log and ask for the next DVD when restoring the saved image onto a system.

If you create a bootable DVD, you can burn the image onto the same DVD you've booted from, so you'll end up with a bootable DVD containing the image. You can then boot from it on other identical systems and choose to have the image restored to their hard drives.

Alternatively, you could do something like have a bootable CD, and a selection of images to suit different systems on a USB hard drive. Later versions of imaging utilities (eg Ver 10 or higher of Acronis) can save and restore images directly to and from many possible sources - USB drives, over networks, optical drives etc. Some types of proprietary systems may give trouble being able to access all devices - the imaging utility mightn't have suitable drivers.

If you have access to Ghost it should do the same type of thing.

If the systems happen to use Seagate or Maxtor drives, you would be entitled to use the Seagate DiskWizard software, provided free to enable maintenance activities for these drives:

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/sup...ads/discwizard

This supplies a dedicated Acronis TrueImage - a Seagate or Maxtor drive must be present in order for it to operate.

[nunob]

Thanks!!! I have Ghost 2k3 what about sysprep is this needed to remove the sid on the system prior to making the image? Sounds like I just need to experiment a bit with this.

[Platypus]

I haven't had to be involved with sysprep or with the volume licensing etc side of things, the work lottery terminals is all on Win2k with supplied images, and my personal imaging is for restore directly to the same machines in case of disasters.

Perhaps NooNoo or one of the other guys is up on that side of it.

[NooNoo]

Ghost has a utility called ghost walker that creates a unique sid, here is a tutorial

[nunob]

Thank you all for the help