Ghost Solution Suite

I'm planning on updating GSS 1.0 to 1.1, and I'm fairly new to the Ghost solution suite. My department has a few concerns about upgrading.

Among them,

Will our AI definitions work with the new version?

I have read that tasks and machine groups will carry over, but I'd like some confirmation. In any event I'll be taking screens of the machine group tree, just in case.

Also, another admin here has done considerable work with sysprep, and, though I'll be backing up his work as well, I'd like to hear if anyone's had any issues related to sysprep?

I suppose any other general tips or tricks would also be very much appreciated. This is my first major project, and I'd like it to go off without a hitch.

Best,

Joe

Hi Joe,
if you take a private copy (backup) of the database (the "db" directory underneath where-ever you installed the product), and a copy of the certificates (privkey.crt & pubkey.crt) which are in the product directory - then you have a complete copy of everything you need to revert to GSS 1.0 should something horrible happen during upgrade.

Hi Joe,

you mentioned your colleague did some work with Sysprep in which case you might also want to make a backup of the Sysprep directory, which lives under <Documents and Settings>\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\Ghost\Sysprep.

The folders under there contain your Sysprep configurations, which can be easily transferred over to a new installation by just copying. The files in the root of that directory are your modified unattend files and in conjunction with the backed-up database will also be easily transferred to your new install.

Aggie

When I have done the upgrade I lost my Dynamic Machine groups, filters and views. It was not a big deal to be me because I just started to play with them before the upgrade.

Also if you have any PXE boot images that have the old versions of ghost or the ghost console in them you may want to upgrade them.

Thanks for the tips guys, I'll be sure to incorporate these backup procedures as I move forward. I'll probably plan to perform the upgrade early next week to allow myself time to get more familiar with the process. I also have to figure out licensing issues first.

I'm still looking for any reports of AI's working (or not working) after an upgrade from GSS 1.0 to GSS 1.1.

Last time we upgraded here we lost our tasks and machine groups, or so I hear.

Also, has anyone had any success with using flash drives as USB bootable drives? That sounds very slick if it was properly implemented.

Our AI's worked fine - no problems there.

Have not done the USB drive or Boot CD in 1.1. I did create a boot CD, the real manual undocumented method in GSS 1.0. It was very difficult.

Yes, we've been able to create cd rom boot disks in 1.0. It's quite the challenge. I have to document the process, and its relatively complicated, requiring an absurd amount of steps. Hence why I am so interested in the 1.1 changes to the process.

Here is the link I used to create CD Boot disks in Ghost 8.0.

http://help.ischool.washington.edu/faqs/12_29_en.html

Actually, that appears to be the same process we use here for our boot disk. I imagine one of my coworkers found this site previously. His translation of the process leaves a little to be desired, and this is much more complete!

Though, anyone that has done this process must admit, there has to be a better way. I was just wondering if GSS1.1 finally incorporated this process into their boot disk wizard, and whether their usb drive boot functionality works smoothly. Being that a usb drive is not dependant on CD-ROM drivers and is fully rewritable, I'd expect it to be even more efficient

yes, the Boot Wizard will create ISO images of bootable CD's, and can format USB flash drives.