Remote Installs and Norton Ghost

we use norton ghost here. works well. just pop the disk in and let it do its thing.

couple guys here are working on setting up a pixi server to install images over the network.
 
We use to use Norton Ghost and it worked great. You can use that with Ghost Walker to set up lots of computers in mass. I'd suggest using multi-casting if you plan on ghosting a few at a time.

Now we use Novell Zen imaging from a pxe server. Works great and everything is pretty automated. Just enter in the image name and that's it.
 
b_sinning said:
Now we use Novell Zen imaging from a pxe server. Works great and everything is pretty automated. Just enter in the image name and that's it.



likewise
 
We used to use Ghost + Sysprep, but unattended installs + pxe server is the way to go. If you're really interested, I can probably get you a copy of the shell + files that I'm using.

Or is this for home?
 
fly said:
We used to use Ghost + Sysprep, but unattended installs + pxe server is the way to go. If you're really interested, I can probably get you a copy of the shell + files that I'm using.

Or is this for home?


work. I would like the files very much. Is it hard to add software installs to it? I have to add some workorder/custmore service software and acrobat to the install. not to mention Office and Firefox.
 
SpangeMonkee said:
work. I would like the files very much. Is it hard to add software installs to it? I have to add some workorder/custmore service software and acrobat to the install. not to mention Office and Firefox.
I have silent installs for most of it, but the learning curve can be kinda steep. How many installs are you talking about here? Ghost + sysprep may be better if its for a smaller volume. I have some great scripts for that too. Will allow you to have 1 image for every PC in your building...
 
Sysprep is a good tool. We use to use it.

Now we have standard images for set computer types with all the common apps (office, firefox, adobe, etc.) preinstalled on them and any of the specialized apps for individual departments is installed through Novell Zenworks.

We can do that becuase we only buy Dell PC equipment and try to buy lots of one type of model at a time.
 
fly said:
I have silent installs for most of it, but the learning curve can be kinda steep. How many installs are you talking about here? Ghost + sysprep may be better if its for a smaller volume. I have some great scripts for that too. Will allow you to have 1 image for every PC in your building...


well, we get a new machine about every month or two. I can easily spend several hours getting the machine to where it needs to be. Since we buy Dell, that means uninstalling all the bullshit apps, setting it up on the domain, install Office from our bulk licenses, install Firefox, install the two workorder apps, install the Retrospect client (backup) and install all the printers and network shares. I made a VB script for all the shares and printers, but that only cut down a small portion of my time. It just takes too much of my day to setup a new employee. I would love any scripts that you have and anything else you can get together.
 
SpangeMonkee said:
well, we get a new machine about every month or two. I can easily spend several hours getting the machine to where it needs to be. Since we buy Dell, that means uninstalling all the bullshit apps, setting it up on the domain, install Office from our bulk licenses, install Firefox, install the two workorder apps, install the Retrospect client (backup) and install all the printers and network shares. I made a VB script for all the shares and printers, but that only cut down a small portion of my time. It just takes too much of my day to setup a new employee. I would love any scripts that you have and anything else you can get together.
Ghost + sysprep is def what you need then. do you ever reimage old machines? If so, you'll need to build the image on the oldest machine you have, specifically with the smallest hard drive as well.

Get with me on AIM/ICQ and I'll get ya what I have.
 
b_sinning said:
Sysprep is a good tool. We use to use it.

Now we have standard images for set computer types with all the common apps (office, firefox, adobe, etc.) preinstalled on them and any of the specialized apps for individual departments is installed through Novell Zenworks.

We can do that becuase we only buy Dell PC equipment and try to buy lots of one type of model at a time.
I wish I had Zenworks. I pretty much had to build my own with off the shelf equipment. Even had to code my own app to push out software installs/upgrades. Probably ended up costing the company waaay more in my time than actually getting ZenWorks. :lol:
 
I never ever begin making an image using the dell image. Just reinstall windows, clean off all the unneeded Microsoft crap and then start installing your software. Then run sysprep and make a ghost image.


Actually I've been promoted out of doing any of that. I'm on a totally different side of networking now. I still cringe when I see the sys. admins screwing up the way I use to have everything set up. I still give them hints and ideas very often.
 
Our imaging team uses a combination of technologies, most of which mentioned in this thread.

Sysprep (Allows you to preinstall all standard apps, network settings, etc)
Ghost (Create an image that can be dumped on any new system)
Bart's PE (bootable CD that will allow you to connect to your remote Ghost server)
Cleanimage.vbs (site specific script that provides locale settings, software updates, etc.)

This allows you to boot up a new system, dump an image and set it up within about 30 minutes. Fly has some great advice, build on your oldest system with the smallest disk drive. Also include drivers (and possible automated driver installation in your cleanimage script) for your newer systems.

I'll see if I can grab source code from our scripts to give you a guidline for setting up your own.
 
reverendsaintjay said:
Our imaging team uses a combination of technologies, most of which mentioned in this thread.

Sysprep (Allows you to preinstall all standard apps, network settings, etc)
Ghost (Create an image that can be dumped on any new system)
Bart's PE (bootable CD that will allow you to connect to your remote Ghost server)
Cleanimage.vbs (site specific script that provides locale settings, software updates, etc.)

This allows you to boot up a new system, dump an image and set it up within about 30 minutes. Fly has some great advice, build on your oldest system with the smallest disk drive. Also include drivers (and possible automated driver installation in your cleanimage script) for your newer systems.

I'll see if I can grab source code from our scripts to give you a guidline for setting up your own.

Bart's PE is a great little program. I use to use the hell out of it.
 
b_sinning said:
Bart's PE is a great little program. I use to use the hell out of it.
have you tried XPE? Gives you the whole windows interface. And I'm trying to get MicroPE working so that I can boot PE to image PCs in less than 40mb.


btw spange, I haven't had a chance to go through all my sysprep stuff and take work specific stuff out of it. :heart: