laserblazer Posted October 23, 2008 Posted October 23, 2008 I've been using Symantec Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 for a while but basically just for cloning because I could never get anything else to work reliably with Windows 98 clients. Now we are upgrading to XP in the ICT suites I'm looking for something that will create images centrally and is more cost-effective than Ghost. Can anyone give me some pointers please?
tmcd35 Posted October 23, 2008 Posted October 23, 2008 Microsoft RIS. Don't know what it's been renamed to in Win 2k8, but it's built into windows server as standard - so practically free. I found it a bit slower to use than Ghost though.
jcollings Posted October 23, 2008 Posted October 23, 2008 Free Open Ghost (FOG) FOG :: A Computer Cloning Solution - Home
cheredenine Posted October 23, 2008 Posted October 23, 2008 I use WDS as well - works very nicely once you've got your head round it. I have it working in combination with a sysprep script that joins the imaged PC to the network. It is a bit more work to take and deploy an image as you've got to supply domain/user details and answer some set up questions, but i've not had a PC fail to image correctly yet. It was a real pain to get working initially, however, until I'd got hold of a workable boot.wim file. You need to be careful what source you use as Vista media supplied with, for example Dell, laptops or computers have subtly crippled boot.wim's... I took a fellow Edugeeker's advice and downloaded the trial of Server 2008, used the file i needed and ignored the rest (therefore no license issues..)
rush_tech Posted October 23, 2008 Posted October 23, 2008 It looks interesting. How difficult was it to set up? It was fairly easy, as long as you set up DRBL Server first, following the installation guide on the website:)
IanT Posted October 23, 2008 Posted October 23, 2008 I read and watched a presentaion on Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery Server Edition the other day which impressed me. Linky: http://www.symantec.com/business/backup-exec-system-recovery-server-edition Ian
tmcd35 Posted October 23, 2008 Posted October 23, 2008 WDS is free and working ok for me (except for some Fujitsu desktops with silly ADMTek NIC drivers). WDS - Thank you! I knew RIS was renamed, but couldn't for the life of me remember what the new initials are!
CyberNerd Posted October 23, 2008 Posted October 23, 2008 This worked out pretty cost effective for us compated to ghost as we have a lot of IBM/Lenovo kit: IBM Director: Extensions: Remote Deployment Manager
jsnetman Posted October 23, 2008 Posted October 23, 2008 I vote for WDS, as said before hard to initially setup but once working very good and versatile.
AngryTechnician Posted October 23, 2008 Posted October 23, 2008 I've always found Acronis TrueImage to be a good alternative to Ghost - not sure what the prices for the non-personal versions of Ghost are like at the moment to compare, but could be worth a look.
danboid Posted October 23, 2008 Posted October 23, 2008 We use clonezilla too. Only other imaging tool I've tried is Ghost Corporate Solution Suite. Ghost wins the interface comp. hands down and boots faster off a CD too but I've found clonezilla to be much more reliable and creates images much faster, if you do that often its a big benefit. Unfortunately I haven't been able to try drbl-live (clonezilla server) multicasting as our switches are too old but I have successfully used it to do a unicast. I've heard good stuff about PING and Acronis TrueImage too
rh91uk Posted October 27, 2008 Posted October 27, 2008 We use Acronis True Image sometimes, but we more than usually use the Personal Backup Appliance and hack together some bootable Insert USB sticks which carry the pba client, rather than burning the ISO to cd. The Canned OS Project: Personal Backup Appliance Getting Started
richard.thomas Posted October 28, 2008 Posted October 28, 2008 Another vote for FOG over here. FOG :: A Computer Cloning Solution - Home
Simcfc73 Posted October 28, 2008 Posted October 28, 2008 Clonezilla here too, haven't set up the server yet tough I just use an external hard drive to save the images to and do one at a time. Very pleased with it and its very fast. My next job is to try and virtualise a DRBL server if it can be done.
tbeach Posted October 28, 2008 Posted October 28, 2008 Testing BDD 2007, 25 mins for one machine with all the software installed
maniac Posted October 28, 2008 Posted October 28, 2008 Another vote for FOG over here. FOG :: A Computer Cloning Solution - Home I've just recycled our old SIMS server into a server for FOG. Very easy to set up and so far I'm pretty impressed with it. I've only captured and restored one image with it so far to test it, and installed the windows client on a couple of test workstations, but it just works no complecated setup procedures etc. Mike.
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