Ghost Solution Suite

 View Only
  • 1.  Ghostcast Server Licensing

    Posted Aug 17, 2011 07:18 AM

    I've been evaluating a trial license of Symantec Ghost Solution 2.5 for a few days, and I have a question to make.

    I'm interested in buying the product for the Ghostcast Server feature only.

    I'd like to setup a small network using a switch that will connect a server and a variable number of workstations. The server will be able to deploy images to the workstations so I can ship them to end users. That process will be repeated constantly with a large number of PCs. As far as I can tell, this can be done using the Ghostcast Server.

    When I tried to buy the product, it prompted me to enter the number of licenses, with 5 being the minimum.

    Will I be able to do what I need to with only 5 licenses? I don't intend, at least for the time being, any of the other features that are available in the Suite.

    And is that fee a yearly subscription to the product, or a one time payment?

     

    Any help will be appreciated.



  • 2.  RE: Ghostcast Server Licensing

    Posted Aug 17, 2011 11:16 AM

    I'm sure you can find the past postings by Nigel Bree which cover Ghost licensing in detail, but the licensing model requires you to have a license for every machine on which Ghost is run. 



  • 3.  RE: Ghostcast Server Licensing

    Posted Aug 17, 2011 04:49 PM

    And the license is considered "attached" to a machine until its disk is wiped (or an equivalent action) so that it's not benefiting from the use of Ghost. Now, that license is perpetual and does not expire - if a machine has an attached license, you can clone to it multiple times.

    Since the first major corporate users of Ghost in the 1990's were PC manufacturers, they of course only needed to clone a machine once and they were interested in enormous license volumes; thus, for this class of customer while the same license model applies, there is a special class of "one-use" manufacturing license for that kind of situation which is extremely inexpensive (especially since we're talking volumes in the millions).

    The OEM manufacturing license is not represented in the on-line store, as it's a kind of volume license and you need to discuss your situation with a sales representative with whom you can negotiate a contract with the kind of volume you are planning annual; volume licenses come in various special forms, such as for educational use or for purposes like manufacturing which don't have completely predictable usage - Symantec naturally has volume license models available which can suit this, but the process of tailoring the right contract is not something that can be done through the online store.