New to imaging. Which one? (WDS or FOG)

[newpersn]

Hi all,

 

Currntlly using a mix of Rdrive and Ghost and i would like to move away and have a globle server or pc with all the images on insted of us having usb sticks and usb hard drives.

 

Which would be the easiest to set up and get going before the summer. Fog or WDS. I think WDS makes more sence.

 

Your input?

 

(Hopefully i would set up an WSUS at the same time as there no souce for updates currently but thats a different topic. )

[mac_shinobi]

Is SCCM too much cost / price wise ?

[sted]

easiest to setup is probably wds if you have an 03 sp2 server or above its a few mouse clicks. Fog probably depends how familiar you are with linux as to how easy it is (if your starting from 0 i would use mdt2012 and wds together again fairly wasy longest part is the 1gb+ waik download lol)

[localzuk]

We went for FOG here. It is *a lot* simpler to set up than WDS, as it is simple traditional imaging.

 

However, this may be down to my being used to linux already - but the actual 'linux' involved is minimal past the initial setup stage.

[mac_shinobi]

We went for FOG here. It is *a lot* simpler to set up than WDS, as it is simple traditional imaging.

 

However, this may be down to my being used to linux already - but the actual 'linux' involved is minimal past the initial setup stage.

 

You have a setup guide from start to finish ?

[localzuk]

Yeah - Integrating FOG into an Existing Network - FOGProject Wiki

 

or Ubuntu 10.04 - FOGProject Wiki

[SYNACK]

Yeah - Integrating FOG into an Existing Network - FOGProject Wiki

 

or Ubuntu 10.04 - FOGProject Wiki

 

How is that easier than the three clicks or so it takes to get WDS up and running on 2008 or above?

 

I'd look at MDT for an extencible way to handle lots of different types of machine with one image and stacks of different drivers.

[jamesfed]

I published a video in a thread very simlar to this one only a few days ago - Using MDT and App-V to deploy Windows 7 and applications - YouTube

 

A mix of MDT (free) and App-V (part of MDOP which is very very cheap) makes it very very easy for us to get Images/Applications to PCs

[localzuk]

How is that easier than the three clicks or so it takes to get WDS up and running on 2008 or above?

 

I'd look at MDT for an extencible way to handle lots of different types of machine with one image and stacks of different drivers.

 

What, install Linux, download Fog, run fog, follow prompts? I went from a blank PC to a fully working Fog server in 20 minutes, with an image uploading. No chance of that in WDS!

 

That is a little less complicated than WDS in my experience!! I spent hours working with RIS and then WDS back in my old school and found it to be cumbersome and overly complex, with things like capture images, install images and boot images and then unattend files! With fog, you click 'upload' to get an image, and 'deploy' to send an image.

 

This is what I looked at last time... Step-by-Step Guide for Windows Deployment Services in Windows Server 2003

[apeo]

+1 for Fog.

 

I found creation from scratch straight forward and image creation/deployment simple. FYI I wouldnt say I'm that familiar with linux but creating a LAMP server and setting up Fog not that complex.

 

Personally the idea of image creation and deploying via WDS just give me a headache. Especially if you happen to have alot of software on the image.

[cpjitservices]

+1 for FOG simple install and setup just follow the FOG Ubuntu guide.

[jamesfed]

This is what I looked at last time... Step-by-Step Guide for Windows Deployment Services in Windows Server 2003

 

Server 2003?

 

Wow welcome to Server 2008 R2 Soon to be Server 8.....

 

I won't say its 3 clicks but it should be a doddle for any Windows sysadmin (next, next, next, agree, copy boot from Windows 7 disk, capture, deploy).

[morganw]

For flat imaging I think FOG has a lot to offer. To install from the original OS media, including updates, relevant drivers, and applications then I think WDS + MDT is the way to go.

[newpersn]

I would like the easiest way. We use a lot of software. Not All of it is msi's.

 

Think I might play around with fog in a few weeks.

[soveryapt]

You know what, I was going to answer with WDS (following my previous thread on a similar topic - http://www.edugeek.net/forums/o-s-deployment/94007-recommendations-please-school-imaging.html) but having wrestled with an Acer Laptop for the past week trying to get an image to deploy to it, I'm starting to wonder if FOG might be a better option .. lol ..

[localzuk]

You know what, I was going to answer with WDS (following my previous thread on a similar topic - http://www.edugeek.net/forums/o-s-deployment/94007-recommendations-please-school-imaging.html) but having wrestled with an Acer Laptop for the past week trying to get an image to deploy to it, I'm starting to wonder if FOG might be a better option .. lol ..

 

See, this is why I prefer old style imaging with Fog. It isn't anything special and I've yet to find a PC it wont work with.

[soveryapt]

See, this is why I prefer old style imaging with Fog. It isn't anything special and I've yet to find a PC it wont work with.

 

lol ..

[morganw]

I had to use two different kernels to cover about 25 types of PC with FOG, with WDS there was one batch of particularly shoddy PCs that would crash in WinPE and when it doesn't work you don't have any options. WDS + MDT will do a lot of the hard work with Windows 7 Sysprep though, and also do dynamic driver injection. Someone recently posted some code on the FOG forum to do something similar with drivers but the Windows side will be more fiddly with FOG as you'll have to manage your own Sysprep process.

I would read up on Windows 7 Sysprep and decide from there if you want to manage this yourself or get some tools to help you out.

[localzuk]

Fog driver setup is pretty simple - nearly all drivers can be installed using silent installers via the snap-ins capability of Fog. If they don't have a silent install for a particular driver, you can create your own with the driver inf file and related files, and a script calling dpinst.exe.

 

Takes a couple of minutes to do the latter, seconds to do the prior.

[sted]

you can fire out fat images with all your software preinstalled with mdt/wds it just required an extra step or 2 (bacically the same as creating any image) install on test pc setup how you want, if using wds only sysprep and pull to server as a deploy image if using mdt use the scripts in \\server\deploymentshare$ and pull that image to the server and create a task that fires the image back out and injects drivers on new pcs as needed. Fat images are really no harder in mdt/wds than say ghost

[newpersn]

is there an idiot gudie that i can follow for WDS please? im slowly trying to get my head around it. but not really working..

[soveryapt]

is there an idiot gudie that i can follow for WDS please? im slowly trying to get my head around it. but not really working..

 

There are a couple of stickies at the top of the deployment forum .. one being http://www.edugeek.net/forums/o-s-deployment/56928-complete-guide.html which is very useful ..

[newpersn]

Thanks for that.

 

Also we are running Vlans. The server on a different address than the client. Is ther some i need to change in DCHP on each server??

[soveryapt]

How do the clients normally get their IP addresses? As it should work pretty much the same way, just making sure that your listen on / don't listen on the relevant ports .. however, I've never done it that way, so I'm just theorising here ..

[newpersn]

They get them all by DHCP. Is there not something i need to put in the server options of DHCP?