Ghost Solution Suite

I am very new to Ghost.  I have 20 Dell computers that I would like to get setup with the same image.  My problem is that I have never used ghost and have no idea how to go about creating the initial image to then put on all of my machines.  We have Symantec Ghost 2.5 version 11.5.1.2266.

The machines are Dell Vostro 230 with Windows 7 32-bit.

Is there a place where I could find step-by-step instructions for creating and using Ghost images?

>Is there a place where I could find step-by-step instructions for creating and using Ghost images?

Have you considered reading the documentation supplied with the product?  This will guide you on how to set up Ghost.

However, you also indicate you have no idea about how to create the initial image to deploy to the other machines.  Covering the installation and configuration of Windows 7 is somewhat outside the scope of this forum, but if you are able to build a Windows 7 machine that works to your requirements, then the first consideration is how you plan to handle the licensing of the operating system. Microsoft provide various licensing schemes - MAK keys, volume MAK keys and KMS servers are the common options. Which one do you plan to use?  Will you be sysprepping your image prior to imaging?

Sources of further information you can research can be found in the Articles forum in this community and also in the Symwise knowledgebase.

I have no idea what sysprepping is.  Windows 7 is already installed and licensed on these machines. I essentially do not want to have to setup the same exact programs and internet shortcuts on all of these pcs by hand. I'd rather setup one and then copy an image to the rest of the pcs.

ehehhe welcome to imaging.

I'm no guru on SGSS, but I know a little of imaging.

Step 1: Create your master image. This is your baseline. This is your stud, stamp, master image, etc... that you will use to deploy to all your computers. This includes your operating system (properly licensed/legal right?!!), with all the apps that your organization/lab uses, and little details not included in this step that only you would know... Once you have defined your master image..

Step 2: back it up. You did not do all that work only figure out you forgot or fat fingered some little detail (which we all do!).

STep 3: now that you have your baseline, and have it backed up, you can start fiddling around, and not worry about breaking anything. Matter o fact, you might even find ways to improve your baseline, or other processes in this stage, such as fine tuning, improving performance, improving security. This is where you TEST your backup. As they say, the backup recovery process is 10% backup, 90% recovery, or perhaps I made that up.

Step 4: now that you have the jist on about everything, and know how to backup and recover an image... hold on, i dont think you know how to backup or recover do you?  SGSS is a little weird... (and I'm quoting one of their techs), its not like acronis, or norton ghost, or perhaps like some other backup/recovery app you've probably used. See, it doesnt flat out tell you that in order for you to make a backup, you have to FIRST make a boot disc using its (you have to install SGSS first) Boot Wizard utility (its within Ghost Console, Tools menu). You can make bootable floppy, flash drive, an ISO, CDROM disc, and some others. You then need to use that disc/disk to boot your machine that needs to be imaged, and recover that backup you created following the on screen prompts (its pretty self explanatory; i never read the manual either).

Thats the elementary part. if you have multiple models of computers, it gets even more exciting if your goal is to use one image (backup). You'll pull your hair out and go bald figuring out and wasting many hours getting to know sysprep. Theres at least a handful of software out there that does Universal Imaging quite well... please PM me as I'm not sure I can state the software I use here (or perhaps I could.. i dont know). Please keep in mind that some salesmen would think you and I are whack that we dont backup to "THE CLOUD"!!! (online), or to SANs or some other non directly attached storage device. But you and I understand we dont give a danm about that because we're just doing the basics, such as backing up to external USB HDDs or optical media (which sgss does quite well - to a point).

Anyway, if all your machines are the same models, then you dont need to worry about universal imaging. All you have to do is run a Ghostcast server (on the machine you installed Ghost Console on), and set up your network to run ghostcast on the clients. Again, I never read the manual and figured it out... not trying to say it was easy, i HIGHLY suggest reading the manual.. but you know technology these days, "you can go online and just download/read the manual!!!. Well, you and I both know what an online manual means when youre in front of your customer or in your lab, nothing. Once you got that set up, you can remotely manage backups and recoveries to your machines. Unlike directly attached storage, in the network environment, you can deploy images simultaneously, or make backups simultaneously. Make sure you have at least a gigabit network if you want speed. You would also want to make sure your drives doing all the backups/recoveries are fast (read: SSDs).

my 2cents. it gets much, much more complicated than this.SGSS does a bit more than backup/recoveries, it can perform several management roles such as system inventories,  i cant think of anything simple to do on SGSS. Specially after using norton ghost for so long. think of sgss for the enterprise, and norton ghost for home. one is limited and does what you just need, the other scales rediculously, at a steep learning curve.

This post was extremely helpful.  I just need to find, in the documentation the steps for creating a backup image.  That's my issue. I run the helpdesk for over 350 users by myself so learning new software is not so easy to do.