XP Deployment

[edsa]

Hello there,

I am about to install new PCs in my school and I have been trialing the latest version of Ghost. It is the first time that I have used the software so I am very much finding my way round it.

I would like to build a PC, take an image of that PC and deploy the image across the network from the Ghost server to my new client PCs by using the PXE network cards on the clients. Do I need to combine Ghost with RIS in order to do this?

I would appreciate all advice on this as I need to get these PCs installed fairy quickly and I am pretty new to cloning PCs.

ta

Eddie

[andy]

I think you can do this with RIS, but I don't know much about it - I'm sure a bunch of people will be along in a moment that do Alternatively, you don't have to do it with RIS, if you buy the full version, on the CD you get 3COMs Boot Services. I gather you can do a similar job with that - IIRC you don't get it as part of the trial. We are using Ghost here. WE just install the Ghost Boot partition from a pen drive at the moment, if the machine doesn;t already have an exisiting image on - then we can just remote install the Ghost client. We may look at PXE later on.



Andy

[djm968]

In this case, I would say yes Ghost with RIS is the best option. Install RIS and another menu item will be available in the boot wizard, “Create RIS Menu Item” or something similar.

Check this article for further info.

http://entsupport.symantec.com/docs/n2000042011340125

[edsa]

Thanks Andy, I'll take a look at the 3Com Boot Services.

ed

[Grommit]

You do not need RIS nor 3COM boot services..

Simplist way is

Install Ghost Multicast ? Server ? on a laptop (laptop must be on network)

Make a perfect build with everything on

Take off of the network and rename

Make Ghost Boot Disk with boot disk maker in Ghost on the Laptop

Start ghost multicast on laptop.. go through easy session setup

Boot PC with boot disk and upload image

pt 2

Take laptop to room where PC's are ready for cloning

Plug laptop into network and start Ghost Multicast

Boot all PC's with boot disk

Join Multicasst session

And all PC's will be cloned..

Run NewSID when adding to network and naming PC's

[djm968]

Six words! boot disk.... boot disk.... boot disk. If you read the original post, the poster is asking about PXE booting.

[Ric_]

Alternatively, you could forget about Ghost and just use WDS (formally RIS). This would save you Ghost licensing costs. However, I am only suggesting this as an option that you may not have considered... you may have reasons for wanting to use Ghost.

WDS can take an image of a built machine. The MS tools cna then copy this up to your server and then PXE boot the machines to pull the image down.

[edsa]

Thank you all for all of that info. There are a lot of options for me there. I did initially try WDS and Riprep to copy the image up to the server. However, I kept getting asked to stop various services and when I came to try to install the image back across the network to the same original test machine there was an error message saying that the image that I was trying to deploy did not contain the correct network card driver. Is this a common problem. Or do I have to manually copy the network card driver to the image?

The reason I thought I would try Ghost was to avoid these problems.

[NetworkGeezer]

Thanks Andy, I'll take a look at the 3Com Boot Services.

ed

If you use non-RIS PXE booting then you need to redirect the PXE requests using DHCP server options to the machine running the 3Com Boot Services.

[edsa]

cheers NetworkGeezer!! I appreciate all the advice. I havn't had to deploy as many PCs at once before. I have only used disk to disk in the past. I know what needs done in theory, but having problems with it all.

Which way would you go with it?

ed

[Ric_]

@edsa: RIPREP usually stops the services for you (although the message doesn't explain this). WDS also has a new tool if you are using mixed or native mode... I haven't used this.

The problem you are having with your RIPREP image deployment is easily solved by adding the drivers for your NIC to the image on the server - IIRC you can do this to your default automated install and then they magically copy across to the RIPREP builds (as long as you use RIS for the Windows installation). Check out http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315279 for info on doing this.

[Grommit]

Thank you all for all of that info. There are a lot of options for me there. I did initially try WDS and Riprep to copy the image up to the server. However, I kept getting asked to stop various services and when I came to try to install the image back across the network to the same original test machine there was an error message saying that the image that I was trying to deploy did not contain the correct network card driver. Is this a common problem. Or do I have to manually copy the network card driver to the image?

The reason I thought I would try Ghost was to avoid these problems.

Ghost is much easier to setup and deploy via laptop than RIS or WDS ..

All you do is make the image and deploy.. no problems...

I am talking about Multicasting and not remote deploy.. that is take the laptop into the room and run from there..

[djm968]

Ghost is much easier to setup and deploy via laptop than RIS or WDS ..

All you do is make the image and deploy.. no problems...

I am talking about Multicasting and not remote deploy.. that is take the laptop into the room and run from there..

I think edsa is looking for a server based imaging solution using PXE booting and the reason I would use ghost is that it offers multicast image deployment whereas RIS/WDS is a unicast technology.

[Halfmad]

Ghost mulitcast is fantastic, used it a few times although I do have 10 disk DVD duplicator so sometimes I just roll images out via that during term time (when I can't afford the network to be slow.)

[Grommit]

Ghost is much easier to setup and deploy via laptop than RIS or WDS ..

All you do is make the image and deploy.. no problems...

I am talking about Multicasting and not remote deploy.. that is take the laptop into the room and run from there..

I think edsa is looking for a server based imaging solution using PXE booting and the reason I would use ghost is that it offers multicast image deployment whereas RIS/WDS is a unicast technology.

I thought that too... but reading his posts I see that he just wants to rollout as easy as possible.. and if you are not all WDS and RIS sussed Ghost is the easiest and simplist way to deploy images..

I mean I have been in IT for 7 years and RIS or WDS still confuses me...