[trueimage] What alternative to Acronis 2010 with PXE

[TechyTeam]

For quite a few years we had been using a server which stored all of our Acronis *.TIB images for different machines we used over the years.

 

When a couple of machines need setup again we would simply place them on the PXE network and boot into Acronis PXE which was hosting Acronis trueimage 2010. Once in the aconis software we could jump into the storage folder on the server and pick the relevant image for the particular machine. It was a system which works well however we are now running into problems with newer more modern laptops and computers.

 

The latest I3, I5 and I7 machines are only connecting to the acronis software at 10mbps and actually imaging at around 2-3mbps so taking quite a long time to restore the 10GB images for these particular machines.

 

i believe the older acronis software doesn support the newer ethernet drivers so well. Ive done a trial with the latest Acronis software and its terrible, clunky and not working or loading our images on the server.

 

What are the alternatives available for this type of operation we use?

[ITGuyWestMidlands]

PartImageIsNotGhost, Wds/mdt or sccm. Simple with wds and mdt but sccm takes some setting up

[synaesthesia]

As above, it'll be ideal to get to know MDT/SCCM depending on your requirements; imaging full machines is something many people have, quite thankfully, left in the past.

[cpjitservices]

If you want to stick with Acronis, look at backup & recovery 11. We use it here. Handy for on the fly imaging if a hard disk fails you can put a drive into a dock and image straight from the TIB file. Or boot from the media with TIB on a USB Drive or something.

[GreyFox]

We've been using Free Opensource Ghost (FOG) FOG Project (am I allowed to link? Sorry if not) for a few years now. I personally love it!

 

We came from a Ghost background, used Acronis for a bit, then briefly looked at MDT and WDS before settling with FOG. Can't really fault it, although there have been one or two issues over the years, a solution has always been found

[JimPotter]

another +1 for FOG.

 

Been using it for 5 years, partimage before that (used in FOG) and its really let me down.

 

I've heard people talk of creating one master VM image and deploying them with WDS which then injects all the drivers. Has anyone tried this with FOG? My only issue with FOG is image management (really of a problem with my methods rather than FOG) - I keep about 4 different workstations images which I update periodically, and some of them have picked up oddities over the years. If I use a VM and inject drivers ... I could go part time:)

 

Jim