Portable Imaging solution

[mtdmitchell]

I now visit lots of different schools and at the moment for imaging it’s a case of creating a new image for different models of PC\Laptops and capturing the image using Ghostcast which is installed on the sites server or capturing to a USB drive. This is can very time consuming and inefficient.

 

What i looking for is a Method of using 1 image (1 for each different OS, Mainly XP some Win 7) for all sites, and maybe having MDT or some other Imaging software installed on my laptop ready to go?

 

I’m only familiar with Ghost, so can someone advise if this is possible?

[mtdmitchell]

Fog is looking like my best option

[glennda]

Fog is a very good piece of software - i use all of its features (green fog, login tracker etc). What you will have to do though is create an image and use the sysprep to select the correct drivers. But if you want it for different sites you couldn't use all the features like joining domain etc becuase (i assume) you have different domains on each site.

[dhicks]

But if you want it for different sites you couldn't use all the features like joining domain etc becuase (i assume) you have different domains on each site.

 

I have FOG do the imaging and host renaming, but domain join is done via a script - just have your image auto-login to a local administrator account and do a domain join. You could have the script join a different domain based on machine name.

[mtdmitchell]

I have FOG do the imaging and host renaming, but domain join is done via a script - just have your image auto-login to a local administrator account and do a domain join. You could have the script join a different domain based on machine name.

 

great tip thanks, will look to include that

[strawberry]

mdt can be set to do varous things, on boot you can select your image, be it from cd or a custom one you've captured, you can then add programs, drivers are injected automagically and you can use different task sequences for different schools ( for adding to ad etc)

[Hightower]

WDS should do the trick too, although you will need a server licence for it - maybe have it running as a VM on your laptop. You can then create a single use image (i.e. it has all the drivers and generic software on it for all hardware types you encounter), and you can simply update the domain joining part of the sysprep file prior to imaging. You can also create a folder on the server for additional drivers, so if you get new hardware you simply drop the drivers into here which saves having to update your image.

[TechSupp]

Speaking of creating an image for all hardware etc, has anyone got any simpletons info/instructions of how to do that, i.e. I know there are downloads available with all the recent drivers etc but where do I put them and how to tell the install where to look when it reboots, how best to use sysprep? I have used Fog in the past and its been OK, but used it for renaming etc. I'm in a similar situation where I cover a few schools but having a single image (or 2) for each school would be great instead of my current range of images. I currently use Partimage (part of the SystemRescueCD) as its usually not a major image job just one or two that need reimaging due to faults etc. (larger imaging jobs I let our supplier do, pay them as its more cost effective in time etc).

[Hightower]

Speaking of creating an image for all hardware etc, has anyone got any simpletons info/instructions of how to do that, i.e. I know there are downloads available with all the recent drivers etc but where do I put them and how to tell the install where to look when it reboots, how best to use sysprep? I have used Fog in the past and its been OK, but used it for renaming etc. I'm in a similar situation where I cover a few schools but having a single image (or 2) for each school would be great instead of my current range of images. I currently use Partimage (part of the SystemRescueCD) as its usually not a major image job just one or two that need reimaging due to faults etc. (larger imaging jobs I let our supplier do, pay them as its more cost effective in time etc).

 

I'm currently working on an XP image that does all hardware - I'm getting close to the final product, just having to tweak sysprep.inf files etc till it's right. Once it is right and works on all our hardware (it's going to take a few days to test the various computers) I will be documenting how I created the image. I will post this documentation up once done.

[TechSupp]

Thats just what I need, thanks, looking forward to reading it!

[Hightower]

Thats just what I need, thanks, looking forward to reading it!

 

Or watching it

 

Planning on doing video documentation as I find it easier to follow (and to document for that matter!)

[mtdmitchell]

I'm currently working on an XP image that does all hardware - I'm getting close to the final product, just having to tweak sysprep.inf files etc till it's right. Once it is right and works on all our hardware (it's going to take a few days to test the various computers) I will be documenting how I created the image. I will post this documentation up once done.

 

Sounds Good

[cpjitservices]

It's all well and good have a 'Universal' Image, it's a great idea but I'd watch out where licensing is concerned if you are going to other schools your still going to have to alter each image for different locations to suit the licensing.

[TechSupp]

In my case Universal would be universal for one school then another universal image for another as each have their own software requirements so could not have a single universal anyway.

[morganw]

You may want to check out Clonezilla instead of WDS, FOG, Ghost etc. I've haven't used it but from what I've read it has options that can make it more suited to portable use, whereas all of the others are really designed to be permanently located on a site. Maybe not so important if you can take a VM around with you though.

[morganw]

Speaking of creating an image for all hardware etc, has anyone got any simpletons info/instructions of how to do that, i.e. I know there are downloads available with all the recent drivers etc but where do I put them and how to tell the install where to look when it reboots, how best to use sysprep? I have used Fog in the past and its been OK, but used it for renaming etc. I'm in a similar situation where I cover a few schools but having a single image (or 2) for each school would be great instead of my current range of images. I currently use Partimage (part of the SystemRescueCD) as its usually not a major image job just one or two that need reimaging due to faults etc. (larger imaging jobs I let our supplier do, pay them as its more cost effective in time etc).

 

This is your friend for universal XP images

Vernalex.com - Welcome

 

Download the SysPrep Driver Scanner from the same site and it will handle the pnp driver installation, and get DriverMax to export drivers from a working system if you can't locate an actual download with the files in it.

 

To get more control of driver selection you'll probably have to start using something like MDT and filter driver selection based on the host.

[Chad]

Also check out "MySysprep", I use this in conjunction with sysprep driver scanner. This handles different HALs which makes a universal image that much easier to deploy to differing hardware.

 

What I do is image up the master image before it's ever sysprepped every time it's updated, then copy in the "sysprep" folder containing all the drivers from a network share and run sysprep driverscanner and MySysprep. Once this finishes and shuts down, image this up as the deployable image. The sysprep folder gets deleted once the deployment/sysprep process finishes so the drivers get removed.

 

For new hardware we deploy this image and see what hardware is missing. I then do a "search in files" for the PCI/hardware vendor codes in an extracted copy of all the drivers from driverpacks.net and add the appropriate driver folder into the sysprep/drivers folder on the network share.

 

Then to update the deployable image, image down the master image, copy in the updated sysprep folder and re-run sysprep driver scanner/mysysprep to update it to support the new hardware. Once done, upload this as the new deployable image.

 

It may seem a bit unnecessary to maintain 2 copies of the image (before and after sysprep) but I prefer to keep my master template as clean as possible (i.e. never sysprepped!).

 

Chad

[morganw]

If you create your image on an older machine you can successfully switch between the ACPI Uniprocessor and ACPI Multiprocessor HALs just by using Sysprep, but this is the only way that is supported to work. So you need MySysprep if this isn't good enough.

 

I do kind of the same thing as Chad, just keep a reference sysprep folder with everthing in and just add drivers to it as they are needed.

[Hightower]

Just as a heads up, I've nearly finished my video documentation for creating a single image. Just got to blotch out the VLK I entered so no-one can pinch it. Will post up the link when it's on, but should hopefully be today.

[Hightower]

Alright, just tested my latest image on three vastly different sets of hardware and it seems fine, so here is the video documentation I promised. Please feel free to leave a comment on the website to let me know how you got on.

 

Single XP Image for WDS

[mtdmitchell]

Alright, just tested my latest image on three vastly different sets of hardware and it seems fine, so here is the video documentation I promised. Please feel free to leave a comment on the website to let me know how you got on.

 

Single XP Image for WDS

 

Thanks will have a look at that

[mtdmitchell]

In my case Universal would be universal for one school then another universal image for another as each have their own software requirements so could not have a single universal anyway.

 

As i deal with Mainly Primary schools, im planning to use a base image with all the Open source software installed and basic stuff. Then use Group policy to push out the different software at the sites.

[mtdmitchell]

no real outstanding suggestions of which Application to use for imaging then? MDT or Fog - can these be installed and run from my laptop? im planning on testing as soon as i get chance

[cpjitservices]

I have just remembered, When we were moving over to vanilla we built the DC in VMWare then decided we wanted it on a physical machine - we used Acronis Universal Restore to create the image in vmware and then dump it (over the network on a shared location) to the server but when dumping you must specify that you want universal drivers installing - it works! that server is still up & running and I have also tried this on an XP VM to a physical PC and it works in the reverse too.

 

So if you can get hold of Acronis Universal Restore (We have a Enterprise license) you'll be up & running all you'll need to do is specify the drivers option and dump it to the client from the network.

 

It's easy to do you just boot into Acronis - create the image of the drive - save the image to the network (as long as you selected network support) then go to the client boot into Acronis Universal restore again and dump the image to the hard disk from the network share in which you saved the image.

 

All you need to do is get hold of the program create the boot cd and boot into it - it has all the drivers you need when it burns to disc.

 

If you get stuck let me know and I'll throw some documentation together as it was me that was in charge of the rollout.

Edited March 17, 2011 by cpjitservices

[oxide54]

Alright, just tested my latest image on three vastly different sets of hardware and it seems fine, so here is the video documentation I promised. Please feel free to leave a comment on the website to let me know how you got on.

 

Single XP Image for WDS

 

why don't you just inject the vmware nic driver into the WDS wim? instead of swapping the NIC in the vmx file.?