Ghost Solution Suite

I am using Symantec ghost casting to deploy an image to several identical windows 7 workstations over the network. When I push the image from the server to one workstation, it takes 30 minutes. But when I go over one station say two or three, it takes over an hour. I know I am using a lot of bandwith, I don't think it should take that long. Anyone has a solution?

Thanks

Adeconnet

Is your session running in multicast or unicast?

When I ghost multiple workstations I run multitask, but if it is only one I just run in unicast.

Do you have IGMP Snooping enabled on your switch(es) ?  This is a requirement for Multicast to work correctly.

What are you using as your Ghost server and what bandwidth is available on the NIC?  Are we talking 1Gbps or 100Mbps ?  It looks like your server NIC may be running pretty much at saturation with one machine so doubling the loads results in doubling the time taken.

Also, how big is your image?

Your response has really got me running around and checking on things. As for the IGMP SNOOPING, I don't think it is enabled. I am using  brand new Dell optiplex Gx 790 as my ghost server. The nick is set to auto negotiate  but it does looks like it is getting 100Mbps. One nteresting thing that I found out is that the cable from the server is not directly connected to our main switch. It is connected to a smaller switch which is servicing 5 others devices. I am beginnig to think this might be why. The next time I do multi casting I shall connect the cable directly to the main switch and see  that makes any difference.

100Mbps equates to around 10Mbytes per second allowing for some network latency. This means that a 10Gb Win 7 image would take AT LEAST 20 minutes. If you allow for further latencies caused by having other switches in the network, it's hardly surprising you are seeing such poor performance as your network is pretty much maxed out.