Ghost How Many PCs at a time?

[ICT_GUY]

A quick question about ghosting.

 

How many pc's can you ghost at a time and on what sort of spec network?

 

I know that speed will be a factor of server, network, and client but I am trying to work out what I am likely to be able to do when the new suite and servers come online.

 

Currently I can reliably ghost 8 - 10 pcs (using ghost ver 7.4) on a 1gigabit backboned network (100mbit to client) from an old 1.4ghz athlon based server using a Raptor 10k HD.

 

So the new quad core server with a 150gig raptor image drive and the latest version of ghost should give a boost but I have no idea to what.

 

All feedback greatly appreciated as I am going to be ordering licences asap.

[Geoff]

We have a similar setup here. 1Gbit fibre backbone and 100mbit to the desktop. Switches are mostly ProCurves.

 

Server is a random Fujitsu destop with a large hdd in it.

 

With multicast, we've not hit a limit. We've done ~90 machines at once.

With broadcast, about 30.

with unicast, 7 - 10, depending on the image size.

[timbo343]

Is that it? We can normally do about 30 - 60 PCs at one time, and we are running a gig backbone. But during school time at max it is usually about 15 but dont normally image during school time, we try to wait until the holidays to do any major imaging.

[ICT_GUY]

I think my limit is more to do with the server than anything else. But it might be that the version of ghost is 5+years old.

[flashsnaps]

Just a bit of info,

 

We purchased a batch of 60 machines from Misco last summer and had an arrangement where they sent us one of the new machines, we set it up and ensured it was how we wanted it. We then sent it back, they put this image on to the 59 other machines.

Leaving us just to rename the machines.

Not sure if other firms do this, but its worth asking as it will save you a lot of time!

[timbo343]

Dell offer this server as do HP. Edited May 14, 2008 by timbo343
and so does NEC (i think)

[Ste_Harve]

When i use to use Ghost i could get any number of multicast clients on the go. This was from a P4 1.6 machien with 512mb ram!! and a couple of 10k scsi drives not in raid. If i did any imaging during the school day it often caused our print server to not talk to the network till the imaging had finished.

 

I've since moved over to WDS and over the summer and 184 machines imaginging in one go!! Was bit of a task to get it all going. This was from a dual xeon server with 4gb ram and teamed gb nics. 100mb to desktop. 15k sas drives in raid 5. Quickest machine took about 15 mins to download image and slowest was about 60 mins. network infrastructure is all procurve managed switches.

 

I'm going to try the multicast feature of wds on server 2008 soon to see of thats any better.

[Elky]

Just a bit of info,

 

We purchased a batch of 60 machines from Misco last summer and had an arrangement where they sent us one of the new machines, we set it up and ensured it was how we wanted it. We then sent it back, they put this image on to the 59 other machines.

Leaving us just to rename the machines.

Not sure if other firms do this, but its worth asking as it will save you a lot of time!

 

This is something we offer free of charge as well just so you all know

[ICT_GUY]

This is something we offer free of charge as well just so you all know

 

Worth knowing as we will most likely be taking you up on your offer of pcs for £300.

[Elky]

Worth knowing as we will most likely be taking you up on your offer of pcs for £300.

 

 

Always good to hear. Just give me a shout if you need any more info at all

 

Regards

[srochford]

All feedback greatly appreciated as I am going to be ordering licences asap.

 

You do know that you need the same number of licenses as you have machines? Even if you only ghost 10 at a time, you can't just use 10 licenses.

[FN-GM]

Server: 3ghz, 3 Gig Ram.

Client: duel core, 1 – 2 Gig Ram

Network: 1gb backbone, 100meg to clients

We have run around 150 clients with that setup. Took a little longer than your average suite though.

[maniac]

We only use ghost on our aging Fujitsu Desktops, and a few other random machines, all our others are imaged using WDS as it's free!

 

We run ghostcast server from a 2yr old laptop believe it or not, which is loaded with all the images we need. That way when we use it in Multicast mode, the traffic is confined to the area of the school we're in, as we plug the laptop into a spare port in whatever room we're in. As the machines only have 100mbs cards, you only need a 100mbs card in the server as the clients can't accept the data any quicker, in multicast mode the process only goes as fast as the slowest machine anyway.

 

We do 20-30 machines at once with no problems.

 

Mike.

[ICT_GUY]

You do know that you need the same number of licenses as you have machines? Even if you only ghost 10 at a time, you can't just use 10 licenses.

 

I was under the impression that this only applied if you were using the enterprise console? Not if you were using the boot disk and ghost cast?

[FN-GM]

I was under the impression that this only applied if you were using the enterprise console? Not if you were using the boot disk and ghost cast?

 

Yes i thought that was the case as well.

[DMcCoy]

I was under the impression that this only applied if you were using the enterprise console? Not if you were using the boot disk and ghost cast?

 

No you need one ghost license for every single PC you ever use it on, that is restore an image to, console or not.

 

You can reallocate licenses by destroying the HDD or wiping it with gdisk which removes the ghost signature from the disk.

 

This applies to corporate and home versions of ghost.

[ICT_GUY]

No you need one ghost license for every single PC you ever use it on, that is restore an image to, console or not.

 

You can reallocate licenses by destroying the HDD or wiping it with gdisk which removes the ghost signature from the disk.

 

This applies to corporate and home versions of ghost.

 

Just got a quote through, looks fairly cheap (around £4 something a pc) so it wont be an issue, I am just checking up on what is included.

Edited May 15, 2008 by ICT_GUY

[Sirbendy]

Source server: Win2k3R2 print server, P4/3Ghz, 256mb, standard IDE, Gigabit card

Network: Gigabit

Destination machinery: Various from p3/500 10/100 to C2D/C2Q and AMD

 

During the working day, we only ever do one or 2, with no issue.

 

Over the hols we did 100 on one batch, multicast. Ghost 8.0, boot CD, and Ghost 11 server.

 

Could have pushed for more, but I was doing a floor by floor image job. anywhere from 15-40 minutes. Doing it again this summer.

[witch]

deleted due to inaccuracy Edited May 18, 2008 by witch