Imaging Machines

[MatthewL]

Hopefully this is the right bit. We currently use GHOST for our imaging solution but I have heard of various other bits of software out there and some that were free, I am looking to change the way we do things, can anyone point me into the right direction for these other bits of software.

 

Cheers

 

Matt

[ChrisH]

Look into WDS, it comes with Server 2003/8 . Theres plenty of topics on here about it.

[Michael]

I use Image for Windows. Not free, but easy to use and very cheap!

[tmcd35]

I was looking at this just the other week, having used Ghost for years. Found Clonezilla (recommended by others on this site). A very good alternative to Ghost, now I just need to set up PXE booting!

[netadmin]

I use FOG Imaging and it seems to work perfectly. It is nice, if you have VPN access to the network and set your computers to PXE boot first, you can start the computer imaging process from anywhere. FOG is free.

 

I have created one desktop image for about 7 different desktop models. We used to have different images for each model, but that was making the image process too confusing.

 

I am presently working on scripting an automated sysprep (using the mini-setup) and using FOG to rename the PC and join the domain automatically. My scripts initiate a series of restarts to run gpupdate and trigger the Group Policy deployed software to automatically install, so that the entire imaging process is zero-touch.

 

Hope this helps. Here's the link: SourceForge.net: FOG - A Free Cloning Solution

[Michael]

I am presently working on scripting an automated sysprep (using the mini-setup)

 

You can automate sysprep completely using an answer file. You can either provide a list of workstation names for it to use, or make it the only manual requirement of Mini Setup. I usually go with the second option, so I can organise machines in numerical order.

[ranj]

Does anyone know much about BDD (business Desktop Deployment) can anyone tell me if this is Microsoft's take on imaging machines? I heard its good alternative to ghosting machines. If anyone uses this I'd been keen to hear from them.

[MatthewL]

Thanks for the replies, the ones I had heard about have been listed so I will take a look into them. I have had a look at BDD, it looks good but not used it yet so cannot comment, its one option we have but I'm evaluating other bits at the moment.

[somabc]

itidiots.com - Episode 47: Introduction To BDD 2007

itidiots.com - Episode 48: BDD Lite Touch of Vista / Office 2007

 

BDD is certainly useful for automating windows installs and then installing extra software like office.

[EduTech]

We currently use NetRunna very good bit of software... there bringing some major updates out soon aswell which sound very interesting.. =]

 

Not free though..

 

James.

[FN-GM]

I use ghost. with the console i can start a room on image in seconds.

[pagelad]

I Use Acronis snap deploy.

 

Very easy, no need to sysprep. Just install your windows \ software boot to its nice PXE with graphical user interface and make an image.

 

Boot the rest of the machines up with PXE and select deploy, they all then appear in the management console and a few clicks and your deploying.

 

Automatically resets the SIDS, joins the network etc and can automatically number the machines for you

[FragglePete]

I too use Ghost. Once you get your head around the Console, it's excellent.

 

I can rebuild a classroom in about half a day now (30 PCs), so have starting to do rebuilds during half terms which has helped performance in some of the ICT Suites. We use CSE here, and although it is winding me up with various issues, the application deployment (using Prism) and control is very good (when it works!).

 

Pete

[danrhodes]

Hi,

 

I also use ghost, as FragglePete says, once you get your head around the consoles it's a fantastic program to use. If you have good infrastructure it's also really quick.

 

I am able to ghost a whole room in about 1 hour, from start to finish.

 

Can't get much better than that.

 

D

[icttech]

We use HD Clone, very good for client to client, as we had problems with SATA and ghost.

[gshaw]

SMS 2003 and OSD feature pack here, works a treat Choose machines to image, advertise the OS et voila all done. Was surprised how quick it did our machines in summer, about 45 mins per room

 

Cost us peanuts as we're on Campus License plus we get all the other SMS goodies, reporting etc. Haven't upgraded to SCCM as it can't image machines before you import their MAC addresses at the moment, fixed in R2 according to the roadmap (so why not just fix it in the first place )

 

Before that we used RIS, not particularly pleasant, haven't tried WDS out yet as it's basically bits of the OSD system anyway...

[Singist]

I use Trinity Rescue Kit . You could use the mclone facility and image 30 machines over your network in 30 minutes?. Just boot pc's via pxe, it finds the trk boot server and away you go. Very easy instructions, I can post if you need them. This software is freeware and it has some other nifty uses to i.e password recovery, samba fileserver for file loss/recovery amongst other things.

[reggiep]

Can anyone give me some pointers with sysprep?

I've used it before but used someone elses .inf file so I have never had to set it up from scratch.

 

Do I need syspep, setupcl and the sysprep.inf file all in a folder call sysprep on the root of c: ?

 

Then I need to set up the sysprep.inf file, which I do not know what to do!

 

Can anyone help out?

 

Thanks

[pagelad]

If you look on an XP cd in teh support folder you should find a cab file called deploy,

 

Extract that to c:\sysprep on the machine you want to sysprep.

 

Then run the file setupmgr, you will then have a GUI screen you can create anser files and sysprep files from in a wizard.

[reggiep]

Ah yes, Thanks for that. I had a go with it but failed. I had another go at your suggestion and using the mini setup option worked for me.

[sparkeh]

I am torn between checking out FOG or clonezilla, only really got time to go for one at the moment.

 

Anyone tried both? Thoughts?

[Ste_Harve]

Right well I use WDS. It takes a minute or two to boot into the deployment client and from there the whole process is automated after i've selected the image. All my machines are staged in the directory so it automatically pulls in machine names for each machine. Can do a whole room in about 30-45 mins.

 

If anyone needs any help on using WDS drop me a PM and i'll try and sort it out. It took me a few days to get it set up to automatically name the machines, but now thats sorted it's easy. I use this for XP images, not had time to look at using it with vista yet, but it's on the todo list, as i'm wanting to move some machines over to vista, mainly some office machines.

[danrhodes]

We use HD Clone, very good for client to client, as we had problems with SATA and ghost.

 

What problems did you come accross with Ghost and SATA, what version of ghost do you use?

 

Im using the latest v12 or something. I like the version on the Hiren CD as it can ghost back to USB Drives which can be very usefull at times.

 

If you would like to try the Disk out the link is - Removed link to cd with illegal content

 

D

Edited December 15, 2008 by plexer
cd contains copyrighted info

[plexer]

Unless you have the relevant licences for the software on that cd you shouldn't be using it.

 

Ben

[maniac]

I am torn between checking out FOG or clonezilla, only really got time to go for one at the moment.

 

Anyone tried both? Thoughts?

 

I've recently setup a FOG server, and can throughly recommend it. There's a few improvements that could be made, but nothing that stops it being a very useful tool. You get a lot of added extras with FOG, as well as an imaging solution it also allows you to do things like change host names remotely, user tracking, printer management, full workstation hardware inventory and a whole host of other diagnostic and useful tools that are all PXE bootable. The management of the whole system is though an easy to use web based interface and it's a doddle to setup. I've got it running on ubuntu linux on an old Dell server and it's very stable and quick, but it will run happily on most linux builds and there's plenty of guides on installing it on the net.

 

Mike.