Imaging lots of machines

[budgester]

We use Unattended, A Windows deployment system: Welcome

[localzuk]

>Just create your install, put the client on the machine

Trouble is the you either got to purchase a ghost license for each box or uninstall it every time you do a machine. Unless you got a site lic. or something?

Yeah, you need to buy a license for each machine which were about £5 each. So for our entire site it was about a £1000. Not too bad.

[sidewinder]

I'd say go with Ghost solution suite. Just create your install, put the client on the machine and then create a new image create task from the console - you set up the sysprep details within that task and away you go.

Then to reimage, you can either install the clients on all the machines you wish to install onto and then just run a restore task against them, or you can do it the old fashioned way, setting up either a boot disc or using PXE to boot the machines and then select the image from a ghostcast server session you have set up.

Very quick and simple.

I feel embarrased. We have Solution Suite 2, with a licence for every single client, and I didnt even know you could do that!
We still use Ghostcast Server and manually go to the machine, boot into Ghost and then go back to rename it afterwards

THANKYOU

[Ayaz]

thanks to all the responses. localzuk can you possibly expand abit on what you exactly do with gss. is there a step by step guide anywhere i could follow?

[maniac]

We use Windows Deployment Services because it's a free addition to Windows Server 2003 and my philosophy being why pay extra when there's a free version that does what we need fine! Once you got it setup, which can be a bit fiddly admitedly, it works really well. Have used this for the last year or so (prior to that we used RIS)

Mike.

[djones]

We use Windows Deployment Services because it's a free addition to Windows Server 2003 and my philosophy being why pay extra when there's a free version that does what we need fine! Once you got it setup, which can be a bit fiddly admitedly, it works really well. Have used this for the last year or so (prior to that we used RIS)

Mike.

My thoughts exactly. With the help of others here and elsewhere, I managed to work through the 'fiddly' setup and have been using it to deploy a single image to multiple hardware configs for about 5 months now. It has worked out fantastically and post deployment, I have machines that are correctly joined to the domain, in the correct OU, with wireless profiles installed and ready to go. All without any human contact (besides hitting F12 at the start of course) or costing anything bar a few days to get going. Well chuffed!

Have a read through the "WDS - Tips for beginners" stickied thread if you haven't done so already - loads of useful info. I've also written up a few guides detailing each step. It looks a lot but really isn't that complicated. I wish I'd done it much sooner.

Windows Deployment Services - Step by step guides

Dave.

[torledo]

Can be bootable CD, can be PXE boot off network - you choose whichever works for you (if you have lots to do network booting and using a ghost multicast session is best - that way you get all of them done simultaneously in about the same time as it would take to do 1)

Yes to the SID - part of mini-setup gives the machine a new SID

You can also do things like partition the laptop hard disc and put the image on a second partition which is normally hidden. You could then boot off a CD (or network, USB stick etc), unhide partition 2, copy the image back to partition 1, rehide partition 2. Ghost includes a program called gdisk which takes a variety of paramters to allow you to hide/unhide partitions all in a batch file.

i've always liked the idea of doing that....with hard disks being the size they are these days it would make a lot of sense to creat in effect you're own recovery parititon to reimage locally...or if possible to initiate the process with a network command sent to the machine

don't know how easy or difficult it is to set something like this up....you've mentioned gdisk for hiding paritions but what kind of commands would you need to reimage a machine from hidden partition remotely.....or if there's a way to script the process of re-hiding the partition after imaging.

[djones]

And what about actually getting the image onto the hidden partition? Surely you would need to update it occasionally or am I just being thick? Then again, (starting to ramble now!) I suppose if you install all software via GPOs etc, you wouldn't need to update it.

[j17sparky]

I just use RIS and GPO installed software/policies/etc.

Once you have connected the laptop to the domain and put it in its correct OU for the first time, AD stores the GUID so that next time you come to "image" it it knows which PC it is and puts it in the correct group ready for software to install.

Pros- Only 1 image needed for all PCs, whether that be 30 or 3000. No messing about with floppy boot disks and the likes. Absolutely zero learning curve for a techy to come in and install Windows and all its software on a PC (once the system is set up). It doesnt matter if you need to install more software on a live PC as it just goes on top, no need to recreate a new image and deploy it. No extra licencing costs.

Cons- You need to know how to create MSIs, which can sometimes be a PITA and take a while but once you get your head round it they are generally easy enough to do. You can only install 1 OS on a PC, well without using extra methods and software.

[torledo]

And what about actually getting the image onto the hidden partition? Surely you would need to update it occasionally or am I just being thick? Then again, (starting to ramble now!) I suppose if you install all software via GPOs etc, you wouldn't need to update it.

that's a good point, hadn't realised the complexity of updating many images vs a single centrally stored image.

i think tbh with the tools available with windows server and the deployment vendors i think traditional disk imaging may be a thing of the past...

for those that can afford it SMS can do OS, service pack and application deployment. Even without SMS a network based unattended install followed by GPO software delivery or something like softricity for app streaming would work just as well, if not better than ghost. Don't forget ghost solutions suite comes with a license cost - licensed in effect by no. of machines in the org...if it were a SMS vs ghost deicsion i'd prefer to pay the extra for SMS.

And eschew traditional imaging. I mean what's the point of disk imagin pxe or boot floppy based if service packs and apps can be deployed through other centrall administered methods - softricity being the current hot product for this. Just put all the settings in an answer file for regional, domain membership etc. then do a centrla unattended install followed by use of the policy based software distribution method you're org prefers to use...softricity, GPO's, SMS/zenworks etc

[blacksheep]

>i think tbh with the tools available with windows server and the deployment >vendors i think traditional disk imaging may be a thing of the past...

Depends its just another useful too.
Like I have a load of older P3s here, I created one image but done the restore of the image to all the HDs by taking out the drives and plugging them into a quick machine. This worked out a lot quicker. Also like said there is the OS issue.

Updating images has become a PITA though. Im tending to just do a OS and driver image these days and wrry about the apps later but that is time dconsuming - like lets spend all day (or more) sorting a machine out!!

RIS etc. sounds good.. when I find some time to play with it.