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Ghost Solutions Suite v2.0 (Read 3401 times)
puzzle
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Ghost Solutions Suite v2.0
Apr 16th, 2007 at 3:39pm
 
Hi
Just started a new job and got thrown in at the deep end!  I have used Norton Ghost before but only to do an image to or from a disk drive (IDE and Sata).  My new employer has picked up on this and wants me to build an image server using an old pc.  They have Norton Ghost image files on Sata disks already and I have a Ghost floppydisk to boot from to retrieve the images. 
He has now gone and purchased Solutions Suite v2.0 before I have even had chance to look into it!  I have a few questions which I would really appreciate your help with as follows:
1.  Can I just put the Sata drive in a pc (obviously with Sata m/b) and use these as my reference for pulling the images down?
2.  How do I do this over the network through DOS?
3.  Is the floppy boot disc mentioned above adquate for what I need to do?
4.  How do I enable the D-Link Rev A card as I won't have o/s driver as there won't be an o/s on there?
5.  Are there any specific guides I can follow almost step-by-step

Thanks in anticipation!  Any help appreciated.

 
 
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nbree
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Re: Ghost Solutions Suite v2.0
Reply #1 - Apr 16th, 2007 at 4:23pm
 
GSS is a huge product and it can take a long time to work through all the things it can and can't do.

Quote:
1.  Can I just put the Sata drive in a pc (obviously with Sata m/b) and use these as my reference for pulling the images down?


I'm not quite sure how to read i"reference", but most kinds of machine can function as an image server. The server machine doesn't need to be anything special, although you'll want to run some kind of Windows - a regular desktop edition will do - on the machine so you can distribute images to all the machines at once via multicast (and it'll give you the opportunity to run the console to automate a lot of tasks).

The one thing that GSS doesn't do (and it's annoying to me as well) is that GSS is arranged around a server-driven process and has never supported client-driven processes very well (only through SMB filesharing of images, which is vastly less than ideal). Hopefully we'll address that soon, but the future is still the future and crystal balls are on back-order.

With GSS, you have one really big choice; do you just use all the various tool pieces individually and stitch your own process together, or do you use the console to do it for you. There are a bunch of Flash tutorials on the GSS2 CD that are oriented around showing you what the console can do, and that may help you decide whether you want to get involved with that or not.

Quote:
2.  How do I do this over the network through DOS?

What approach you take here depends on whether you want to go with the console or not. You'll start with the Ghost Boot Wizard to make the boot disk you need, but what kind of boot disk... depends.

You can make a traditional boot CD or floppy that runs traditional interactive Ghost and just use that forever and a day; or, you can set up network booting on the image server and create a PXE boot package if the machines you'll be imaging support that. Or, you can create a boot CD or floppy that you use to get your machines into the console, and then drive things from the server.

Quote:
3.  Is the floppy boot disc mentioned above adquate for what I need to do?

It's one way of going about things, and it's still a pretty traditional way to start. Just be aware you have plenty of other options like bootable CDs and USB sticks if your hardware supports those.

Quote:
4.  How do I enable the D-Link Rev A card as I won't have o/s driver as there won't be an o/s on there?

One of the standard parts of Ghost is the Ghost Boot Wizard, which comes with setups to create boot disks for a range of network cards and has a bunch of network drivers available to pick (plus a "universal" network driver for PXE-bootable machines).

Your D-Link card will have a specific model number; you'll need to know that to select the proper driver from the list in the Boot Wizard.

Quote:
5.  Are there any specific guides I can follow almost step-by-step

One of the manuals - the "Implementation Guide" - has lots of step-by-step procedures for various things. It's probably a good idea to have a skim over it to get an idea of all the various kind of things you can do with Ghost.

It's a big product, and there's a lot of pieces in it to learn, unfortunately.
 
 
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Rama
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Re: Ghost Solutions Suite v2.0
Reply #2 - Apr 16th, 2007 at 4:30pm
 
Just out of curiosity, how many machines do you have in your network?
Rama
 
 
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Rama
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Re: Ghost Solutions Suite v2.0
Reply #3 - Apr 16th, 2007 at 9:18pm
 
Quote:
Hi
Just started a new job and got thrown in at the deep end!  I have used Norton Ghost before but only to do an image to or from a disk drive (IDE and Sata).  My new employer has picked up on this and wants me to build an image server using an old pc.  They have Norton Ghost image files on Sata disks already and I have a Ghost floppydisk to boot from to retrieve the images. 
He has now gone and purchased Solutions Suite v2.0 before I have even had chance to look into it!  I have a few questions which I would really appreciate your help with as follows:
1.  Can I just put the Sata drive in a pc (obviously with Sata m/b) and use these as my reference for pulling the images down?
2.  How do I do this over the network through DOS?
3.  Is the floppy boot disc mentioned above adquate for what I need to do?
4.  How do I enable the D-Link Rev A card as I won't have o/s driver as there won't be an o/s on there?
5.  Are there any specific guides I can follow almost step-by-step

Thanks in anticipation!  Any help appreciated.




NBree who is a developer of GSS, has given a very helpful response.

There are two other avenues of help. I believe there are three-day courses on GSS, and attending them would go a long way to understand how to implement the program. A second option would be to see if your business would be willing to hire a consultant to help you implement. These two may speed up your implementation.

/me  Smiley
 
 
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