Ghost Solution Suite

hello guys....I have always created my image after installing all appl and then I unjoin the machine from domain, and then create my image with machine in workgroup....is there any way to have the machine join the domain with a predefine name after restoring the image?
given the fact that a name is already been created in Active Directory, ofcourse I guess I would have to use ghostwalker, I have never used sysprep.

any help will be appreciated.

thanks

HI K_Tech
You are quite right, if you don't use sysprep Ghostwalker will restore the workstations original details including it's AD account. I personally do use sysprep with Ghost and this method will work the same restoring the original details. It is the information held in the config of the workstaion in GSS1.1 that is replaced when ghosting out. You can also by making changes to this config change details during deployment if you wish.

cheers Gary

well I use ghostwalk and no sysprep, and it does change the SID of the machine, once finishes ghosting, and then I manually join the domain, but the machine joins with a different SID, but what I want is to automatically have the machine join with a predefine name.
I read on ur post talking about the conf in console, have quite use it, I pretty much use the console to push the client, and create image or restore with the creation of task.
if I understand correctly u said that if u use ghostwlk with out sysprep ur machine will join the domain with the same SID as ur original machine, I belive the point of running ghostwlk after ghosting is to change SID now if ur machine is not part of a domain it will join with a new SID of course u would have to change the name first, and thats what Im trying to figure out
but thanks for ur help

I believe that what you want is the Configuration step. In that step you can define (among other things) the computer name to be applied to the machine where you have just restored an image and it will also allow you to join a domain as part of the task. Having GhostWalker change the SID is also a good idea.

When taking your image you can also have Ghost remove the machine from the domain automatically. It is a tick box in the 'image create task'.

The option to change the SID is in the 'clone' tab of you image deployment task.

You can set lots of information with the configuration option in ghost, not only the name and domain, but computer descriptiosn, IP address', DNS and WINS server details it's much easier the sysprep (if you don't have to worry about differences in hardware).

I was checking the configuration folder in the ghost console, I forgot but I played around with it some time ago but I dont see how is going to help me with what I need to do, the settings are very limited for example computer name, u can only specify one and I need multiple computer name so when the machine boots up not only joins the domain but automatically gets assigned a name that was already created in Active Directory for that machine, I think when I did it with sysprep sometime ago u can predefine computer name but in a continuous format like "fabrican-RMXX-xx" where the x's at the end will auto assigne a number upon restoring and booting up the machine............correct me if Im wrong.
still Ive been left with the question, is there any way to join clone multiple machine and have them join Active Directory automatically with a predefine name? not the machine assigning itself a name!
thanks to all

> the settings are very limited for example computer name, u can only specify one

It's a little more than that - if you put asterisks there in the "template" kind of configuration, it generates a name. Also, if you use the "apply default configuration", then for any setting that you don't explicitly set it will merge in what it thinks the machine already has to put it back.

So for instance, if I have a machine currently named "dev-nbree3" and I have it in the console, if I push an image out with "apply default configuration", the freshly-deployed image will be reconfigured to have the same settings as it had before.

>It's a little more than that - if you put asterisks there in the "template" kind of configuration, it generates a name

when you mean "template" are you talking about the Data Template folder under Configuration Resources, or the Configuration folder.

I meant the "Configurations" under the Configuration Folder (the other kind of template is for user migration). With those configurations, several settings can be specified using the asterisk characters.

In the current console the first page of the configuration property dialog has a tickbox called "Allow template settings", and you have to tick that to stop it complaining about '*' being an invalid character in a computer name (I don't know why the console UI was designed to work that way, but it does).

Then, when you build a task to configure a group of machines, in the "Configuration" tab of the task properties you can pick that template-type configuration as the one to apply.