Pushing Client Images. Ghostcast vs. Ghost Console
Hello all,
I have a couple basic question that I am little confused on now that I am testing GSS 2.0.
I have setup and am using the PXE services for my clients. I find that I can create the appropriate bootdisk to get the clients to fire up and show in the ghost console in which case I can run a number of tasks. The one task I dont seem to be able to do through the ghost console though is to run a push of an image using the ghost console. I seem to only be able to do this from a ghostcast server instance in which I have to manually log a client machine into the ghost.exe, select the ghostcast server option, specify the session ID and then go back to the ghostcast console and initiate the image transfer.
So my questions are this: Is there not a way to push the client image using the ghost console? Secondly, is there a way to script the automatic start of a ghostcast session on the clients that will automatically logon them on and specify a session ID? Thirdly, is there a way to create multiple selection items in the PXE menu that will allow the option to log into either an automated ghostcast session or into the normal ghost console session?
Thanks for clarifying these questions so we can move forward with our testing and deployment.
Comments
As far as I know, running ghost.exe and manually specifiying a Ghostcast server session name doesn't check any keys. There are no keys involved. Keys are only involved when connecting to a Console, or so I thought.
As for the multiple selection list thing in PXE, we have that, sorta. But before that, can you not simply do a Client Initiated Task? If you create a task "Restore PC #7" which pushes Image#7 to PC#7, and flag that as a client intiatable-task, wouldn't that do it? I've not really used Client Initated Tasks much. But that seems to be the same as rebooting PXE, connecting to an "autoghost" session, and then having the end-user actuall go to the console and start the push (frankly, I'm not sure I'd want the end user anywhere near the console or the ghostcast server.)
If this involves only the Ghostcast Server and not the actual Console (you don't need any special configuration or other tasks done at the same time as the push) you could just leave the Ghostcast Server running. Have it autostart after 1 client connects to it, and set it to restart the session when done. So when someone connects to the Ghostcast Session "PC7" it'll automatically start pushing an image to the computer.
Getting back to mulitple selection thing - we have our PXE menu setup in 3COM PXE services. The first entry in the PXE is the default to boot to hard drive. Our second entry is "Ghost - Manual" which is the "TCP/IP Network Boot Image" made from the Ghost Boot Wizard. The last entry is "Ghost - Console" which is the "TCP/IP Network Ghost Client Boot Image" made from GBW. The third entry is the equivalent of your "into the normal ghost console session" where once it's in the console session, you can control it from the console. The second entry is the same as manually booting so you can enter whatever session ID you want. You'd add additional entries (and create entire PXE boot images) for each additional option. With the right commandline switches, you could have an image that automatically connects to "PC7" ghostcast session, with a -sure -reboot switch. If you really got fancy, you could use the BOOTPTAB editor to make sure that only PC7 got the option to download that PXE image :)
Good luck,
PH
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