I think a lot of people ahve their own ways, but I just haven't figured out how to do all of that with ghost walker and ect...So I use

NewSID  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897418.aspx

and

WSNchanger http://mystuff.clarke.co.nz/MyStuff/wsname.asp

I use a .cmd file to start when I first boot to change the SID and name of the p.c. automatically and it seems to be working great. I will post the code...

This is the batch file that runs at startup:

notepad.exe c:\windows\system32\newsid\newsid.txt

c:\windows\system32\newsid\newsid.exe /a /n VM-GHOST

c:\windows\system32\newsid\wsname /N:US$MAC /EXCLUDEADAPTERS[WIRELESS WLAN BLUETOOTH PPP VMWARE IPSEC] /REBOOT

The newsid.txt is just a text file that opens up to let the user know not to do anything, a warning. as you can see WSNchanger changes the p.c.'s name to US<MAC> - which is what we use at my work.

This is the .vbs script I run just before I shut down the computer to take an image of the p.c. - this puts an entry into the RunOnce so when the p.c. starts up it runs the batch file above.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce]
"newsid"="c:\\windows\\system32\\newsid\\newsid.cmd"

If you're using Console, when you create a restore task, tick the option 'Use Ghostwalker to perform a SID Change on the target machine' and include a Configuration template with the computer name and domain to join.

If you're running the tasks manually, then you can use Ghostwalker(to change the SID and name) or GhConfig(to change the name). Just copy the executables onto your boot media if it's not already present. Ghostwalker is pretty easy to use, it has a gui and all you need to comfirm the drive and name. Or you can use the command line to change the SID and name:

ghstwalk.exe /cn=ComputerName

A limitation of GhostWalker is that the name has to be the same length as the original name from the source machine. You can use GhConfig.exe to change the computer name without that limitation. GhConfig.exe reads a parameter file for the computer details. You can find more details in the Ghost Implementation Guide under 'Chapter 16. Performing post-clone configuration from the command-line"

These run in the virtual partition like Ghost so the configurations are applied before the machines boot into Windows.

Cheers,
Jackson

Yeah, thats right. But how can I perform this, if the PC is not already in the domain. As far as I know, pc's which are in the domain, can only perform these tasks.

For Example:

I have a pc which has no operation system installed. How can I set this pc into ghost console. I think this is not possible, isn't it ?

Greetings,

G-3Manticore

If you have a bare metal system with no OS installed then you boot to PXE with client agent in it. Ghost boot wizard builds those as well as any other type of bootable media. Winpe boot packages all come with all ghost tools included (walker, ghconfig, ghost, gdisk, client agent etc) so I suggest using Winpe. DOS has size limitations here and there and you might find that not all tools are present by default in all boot packages.

Once you boot machine to PXE boot package which has client agent included, it will automatically connect to the Console under Default group. You should see client with MAC address appearing. You can then issue regular tasks on this machine - deploy an image, rename machine, run deploy anywhere etc.

Happy cloning!