Ghost Solution Suite

Ok so I've got the Ghost Console 11.5.1.2266.  What I'd like to do is use this software to take images of some of my servers.  It works fine on servers that basically have one drive, just a C: drive for example.  But then when you start getting into servers that have a couple of partitions.....an OS partition(C drive), and a data partition(D drive), is it possible to create images of those????  I'd really like to automate this if possible.  I have a few servers that have only a single partition, and it works beautifully.  I have them scheduled to create an image once a week in the middle of the night, it's great.  Does anyone know if this is possible???

Hi,
Ghost Solution Suite is actually a product for workstations and not for servers. But still , in your scenario , you can create the image of the whole disk so that it will have both C and D drive. In simple words, it is possible to take the image of Disk as such using Ghost Solution Suite. Does this answer your question?


Regards,
Dilip Sebastian

Hi,

What Dilip says is perfectly correct. This product is basically used for ghosting workstations and client machines. 

There are 2 possible options by which you could image machines that have 2 partitions.

First, what you could do you could boot up the machine that you want to Ghost and select the partition that you image. Second, you could use the -IR switch that you create a sector copy of the complete hard disk, thereby creating an image of the entire hard disk.

You could try this and reply here. Hope it helps !

Hi,

The activity of - IR (Image Raw) switch is as follows:

The Image Raw switch copies the entire disk, ignoring the partition table. This is useful when a disk does not contain a partition table in the standard PC format, or you do not want partitions to be realigned to track boundaries on the destination disk. Some operating systems may not be able to access unaligned partitions. Partitions cannot be resized during restore and you need an identical or larger disk.

Hope the above lines will give you a detailed explanation about the usuage of -IR switch.
But as mentioned by Dilip and Venkatnathan Ghost is designed mainly for Workstation Imaging and restoring.

Thanks
Sockkalingam.S

Ok so in the Ghost Console, tasks, and on the image creation task, which is where I'm doing this from.........on the General tab it has Source Drive, Source Partition, and a check box for Partition Operation.  What do you guys think I should use in these fields??  If it's possible I'm really trying to automate this where I can create the Image task and just let it run once a week.

Hi,

You can use the -IR switch in Ghost Console.
In the General tab right at the bottom you have " ADVANCED " tab.
Click on the advanced tab and a new window will open.
Enter -IR and save the settings.
For running the task once in a week you need to schedule the task.
Below document will explain you as how to schedule a task.

http://service1.symantec.com/support/on-technology.nsf/854fa02b4f5013678825731a007d06af/3c10d2be2e437b198825746c0066f917?OpenDocument

Hope everything will go automated as you expect.

Thanks

Yes I understand, but you still have to enter the information in the Source Drive and/or Source Partition fields, if you leave them blank and just add the -IR switch, the image fails.....and I'm guessing because a source drive was not specified.  The problem is that when you specify a source drive, it only images that drive.  For example, if you enter 1 in the Source Drive field, it only takes an image of the C drive, if you enter 2 in the Source Drive field, it only takes an image of the D drive.  

As per your original query,

If you want to create an image of your physical hard drives C and D, it might not be possible with Ghost.

But if you want to create an image of 2 partitions C and D from a single hard drive, it is possible.

Please go through the link below to know more about switches used during cloning

http://service1.symantec.com/support/on-technology.nsf/854fa02b4f5013678825731a007d06af/66a93d5726b1c2a78825734e0059c052?OpenDocument

Hi,

I believe this is not the right way of doing it. And I believe there is a way to do the same with RAID volumes  Update regarding the same will be provided as soon as possible

NOTE:   -IR switch is for sector copy of hard drive. But in your scenario, I don't think it is required.
           


Regards,
Dilip Sebastian

Hi, 

OS Volumes is a new feature in Ghost 2.5 which aims at imaging all partitions from all available disks in one single operation. OS volumes or volume 80, is used for creating one image out of every volume plugged into the client. But this is actually for RAID set up.But a Console task can only be performed on a machine that doesnot have RAID.

Sample Scenario:
Disk 1-> Having 2 partitions
Disk 2-> Having 3 partitions

I believe ,in this scenario, we can perform a console task for image creation as follows:

1. Create a simple Image create Task
2.  In the General tab, Enter " 80 " as the source drive
3. Execute the task

****To be frank, I haven't yet tested this  But I strongely believe that We can make it in this way.****

NOTE 1:The image created in this sample scenario will then contain 5 partitions regardless of the disk they belong to , therefore in order to restore the configuration a partition restore is compulsory.


NOTE 2: If you have RAID set up, Console task won't work.


Regards,
Dilip Sebastian

Perfect, I was successfully able to create an image using 80 for the source drive, and I can see both partitions when I go into ghost explorer and it got everything.  One question on the restore.  When I do the restore and I do a partition restore, there are a few options on that page as well.  Should I do the same thing where I was using 80, but use it for the destination partition??  Then also at the bottom of that page it wants you to choose the source partition, and you can only choose one partition at a time.  I've attached a screenshot with the options that the clone tab shows.

Thanks again for all of your help!!!

Hi

I am using Ghost 11.5.1 with Ghost cast server 11.02.1573... I’m using the PXE boot method on the LAN.
I have a windows 7 image that works perfectly on my workstations where I don't receive and image errors, and all integrity checks are passed. When I create a new image from a workstation and only make one change to that image, eg create a new shortcut on the desktop, I receive the crc32 error message. If I choose not to abort the imaging process by selecting no, the imaging continues with no problem. Once the image process has finished I check the device manager, there are not issues....

If I do an integrity check on the new image it still show the crc32 error.... I have tried different hardware for creating the image...Not sure why this is happening...Advise please

Hi,

I may be way of the mark here, but shouldn't you be considering implementing full and proper disaster recovery plan.  Creating an image of a server is far from standard procedure, I guess it would be a nice second or third line part of a disaster recovery strategy, but the most important point here is to get a backup procedure in place, with system state and data backups.

A ghost image is just as vulnerable to data loss as a standard server with no backup or image at all, remember, you have to store the ghost image somewhere, and there is always the possibility that the image can become corrupt or worse still destroyed if a disk failure occurs in the storage location.

Another symantec product, Backup Exec, would do the trick nicely.  As far as I can see, it's one of the best pieces of kit I have ever used.  Although complex and tricky to configure at times, it will give you the redundancy that you require, with mulitple avenues to explore in terms of backing up to disk, robotic libraries or flushing to tape.

I would strongly recommend you invest in some proper backup software and media, and get yourself protected!

Remember, if the network goes down, and you lose data, you're responsible.

I hope you heed the advice.

Many Thanks