Ghost Solution Suite

Our organization is thinking about making the switch from ghost to Microsoft's SCCM 2007.  There are five features of SCCM that make it worth our while that I can't find how to do in ghost:

1)  Have the client run a task whenever the client connects.  As far as I can tell, the only way to run a task in ghost is either immediately or at a scheduled time.  If the client is not connected then the task is never run.  With SCCM the client software connects to the server periodically and asks for information about what tasks are available for it based on software installed, computer name, ou, etc.  Except for client initiated tasks, which require the user to click the task, ghost seems to be much more push oriented.

2)  Multiple available tasks.  If I have two dynamic groups in ghost, MissingAcrobatReader and MissingFlashPlayer, I can have two tasks, InstallAcrobatReader and InstallFlashPlayer linked to the respective groups.  If a computer is in both dynamic groups, I can't run both tasks at once.  If there is no overlap in the groups, the tasks can run.  In SCCM, the client computer would pull the associated tasks and run them; it would be up to me to check that there wouldn't be a conflict in the two tasks.

3)  Roaming clients.  If a laptop user is out of the office on a trip, I can't use ghost to find the client and push down a task.  With sccm, the client connects to the server over straight tcp/ip using bits and grabs the tasks.

4) Active Directory aware.  It would be greate to be able to use ad group membership as a criteria for dynamic groups or tasks.  Or be able to just use an ou.

5)  Easier way to make arbitrary dynamic groups.  In sccm, I can ctrl+click computers then right click and say create new collection.  In ghost I have to create a new filter and type in the individual computer names then create the dynamic group.  (This is really minor.)

We're currently running 11.5.x of the console and I think we have the latest version of everything.  I don't want to move to sccm; ghost has better security features, a simpler interface, and just works.  But these features are awfully tempting because they would solve a number of problems for us.

Is there any way to duplicate these features in ghost or are they something that may be available in the next version?  

Thanks,

Bob

One main problem with SCCM (we use both) is that unless you have a 2008 Server it doesn't multicast.

I think for personal work computers sccm is the tool. But in classrooms it's another story. My job is maintain 400 classroom computers and I use gss for that. Classrooms are 90% in use during office hours. So I have little time or scheduled task during night to install operating systems or new programs. In these cases ghosts “do it now” is better way (and I use wolbuut, so if computer is shutdown it’s not a problem). If I do program installation sccm “do it when its feels good for you” way. Then I found few problems 1. I cannot say 100% sure when the program is installed in all computers in classroom 2. If the installation starts silent during teaching and computers slow down because of this (it’s not nice for end user).<o p=""></o>

After all you can install programs that are prepared for sccm and also deploy ghost ai packages with sccm. So you don’t need to do packaging for both systems. So if you got the money sccm and gss can live together:)<o p=""></o>