Ghost Solution Suite

Assuming you have installed GSS and the client to your machines then they should show up in your console with their proper name.  When you set up a clone task to restore your master image to your machines you will need to include the "Configuration" checkbox as well.   Before you do that though you might want to create a configuration template if you want to force any custom settings.  If you want everything to be the same then choose "Default" at the top of the configuration tab.   You can create a template in In Configuration Resources under the sub folder labeled "Configurations"  Add a template and uncheck all the things you want to be reset from the original machines configuration.  IE, if you want the old name then uncheck the "Apply Computer Name" checkbox.  If you created a custome configuration, under the configuration tab in your task choose "Template" and then pick the template name that you just created.  At the bottom there is a checkbox that says "Use default settings", you will need to check that.  That checkbox tells ghost to apply the old machine info wherever you unchecked a check box in your template. 

 

It sounds to me though that a config template is not needed in what you are doing though, you could probably get away with just choosing "Default" on teh configuration tab. 

 

When you run your task the configuration will get set and your machine should get its old name that is in the console.

 

 

Karl,

 

You can do that using ghostcast and boot cds. Before you create your image, you need to sysprep it. Sysprep will remove the computer name and sid. You can make a sysprep.inf file the same way you would make an unattended answer file (SetupMgr.exe) to specify the domain to join. There is an option in SetupMgr.exe to have the computers generate automatic names. If you want specific names, you would need to enter ComputerName=

into the Sysprep.inf file. You will then be prompted to enter the computer name upon boot. After that, it will join the domain automatically. I know there is a way to have the computers each use a separate, specific name, based on their MAC Address but I haven't figured out how to do it again (I did it at my last job, a few years ago).

 

I hope this helps.

 

Hi Gryphonl,

 

Thansk for your reply, I will give this a try when i next get round to ghosting a pc,

 

Again thanks for your reply..

 

Karl

Hi Karl,

 

Just to add to what Gryphon has said, if you set automatically generate name in sysprep and have sysprep join the machines to the domain for you then on first logon you can have the machines call a text file on a network share with corresponding MAC addresses and their relevant names, you just set sysprep to call a free programe by the name of "WSNAME" that you hide on the hard disk.

 

A sample of the text file would look like this >>>

 

001558015F5C = H1STN01
001558015FB9 = H1STN02
001558015F10 = H1STN03
001558015F8D = H1STN04
001558015FC0 = H1STN05
001558015F4E = H1STN06
001558015F11 = H1STN07
001558015EA7 = H1STN08
001558015FB8 = H1STN09
001558015E1D = H1STN10

 

where H1STN01 is the first station in the room and H1STN10 is the last, the MAC and = and the machine name are seperated by "TAB's"

 

you will need to write a little script to do all the calling of WSNAME and the MAC address list from sysprep, my script looks a little like this>>>

 

c:\wsname /RCID /user:ghost /pass:multicast /RDF:"\\bob\mac$\maclist.txt" /DFK:$MAC /reboot

 

 

wsname is the name of the program that the script calls which should be hidden on the hard disk with this script, /RCID is a peramiter for the program \\bob\mac$\maclist.txt is the name of the text file on a remote share, and the user and pass are granted access to the share and have permission to change a computers name.

 

wsname and its peramiters are available here >>  http://mystuff.clarke.co.nz/MyStuff/wsname.asp

 

:)