Ghost Solution Suite

I have created a bootable DVD disk using the Ghost Boot Wizard utility of the Symantec Ghost Solution Suite 2.5 software on my machine. The Suite software was installed using the "Symantec_Ghost_Solution_Suite_2.5.1_Trial_AllWin_EN" executable. Two license files came included with extension of *.slf. I registered the product by selecting one of the *.slf files to remove a "Trail" window that would appear. Somebody mentioned that when i register the product, the Trail version then becomes a full version. Is this true? or is there something else that a need to do? I have 10 client licenses that i have available.

Anyways, I created a bootable disk using the pre-OS of WIN PE and burned in a *.gho and *.ghs files to the DVD. The computer i am trying to load the ghost image does not have a network connection. During the Bootup, the disk is loaded with WIN PE, and i am able to reach the point where i select the *.gho image. But, when i select to load, i get a "Usage Error 11136 - Ghost Trailware is only able to be used via the Ghost Console, or to deploy Ghost Boot Partitions".

Would somebody be able to know what i need to do to move on from this problem?

Regards,
Jess

The trialware build of Ghost Solution Suite and the full product builds are quite different; trialware builds omit some components of the full product (such as, from memory, the Linux boot environment) and the builds of the included tools have a number of capabilities aimed at stand-alone rather than managed use disabled when they are built.

In general it's true that trialware versions of Symantec products *do* unlock to full versions using SLF files; Ghost Solution Suite is different. The trialware of GSS does allow the vast majority of the product's capabilities to be exercised through the console, but we don't allow stand-alone component use (i.e., not done through the GSS console) except with a fully licensed version.

If you want to exercise Ghost's imaging and capture support completely end-to-end, you can do it with the trialware by using the managed GSS console process rather than the stand-alone boot CD/USB key method.

Nigel,

Thanks for that information. I do have more questions. Can the GSS 2.5.1 do image creations and restoration of Window Server 2003 operation systems? I been trying but to no avail. Also, is the Console Client software able to work on a Server 2003 OS (as i was able to remotely install the client)?

Jess

Yes, GSS 2.5.1 can image and restore Windows 2003, and the console client software works fine on Windows Server 2003. Ghost Solution Suite clients and servers will run on basically every edition (workstation or server)  from Windows 2000 to Windows 7. The only particular restriction is that server editions of Windows cannot be hot-imaged by Ghost Solution Suite, and that servers acting in roles such as domain controllers or cluster nodes can require special procedures when restoring, for the obvious reason that the distributed networks they are a member of tend to not take kindly to member nodes being wound back in time.

[ One exception to the above is Windows ISA Server, which is specifically unsupported as a Solution Suite server platform; the ISA Server edition of Windows contains a TCP/IP stack that is (apparently by design) hardcoded to be incapable of supporting standard IP multicast. ]

 Nigel,

I have connected to my Server 2003 machine and installed my Console Client on via the Remote Client Install button under Tools. I have two ghost files with extensions *.gho and *.ghs that i have on the Console Server computer. I have given up in loading the ghost files via the boot disk as i need the full version of GSS. How can i install this(these0 ghost file(s) to be installed on the client computer which is currently loaded with Windows Server 2003?

Also, i have been playing the Tutorial to learn how the application works. Why do i not see any Windows 2003 option to gather any information from my Windows 2003 computer as when i attempt to create an inventory report?

Best Regards,
Jess

Nigel,

How do we get a Full-Version with five seats? Our current download was from CDW, and the CDW rep said that with the license it would turn the Trial version into the Full-Version.

Also, the ghost image(s) were given to me by somebody, and i have been trying to load it on a different machine. Probably this way would not work on this client machine because the ghost image is hardware dependent, unless maybe it was sysprepped. Would you agree?

Jess

The full version is easily enough purchased through the Symantec online store (go to http://www.ghost.com and the "Buy Now" link on the bottom left) or through resellers such as CDW.

Ghost Solution Suite 2.5 is perfectly capable of restoring to dissimilar hardware, as it includes a feature called "DeployAnywhere" which can inject mass-storage and network drivers after the image has been deployed (it can't do other driver types such as display or USB drivers in the GSS 2.5 edition, but that's less significant that having a restored result that boots, which is the primary thing we aim to take care of). You can run DeployAnywhere standalone (as covered in section 8 of the Implementation Guide) but through the console it's simply a matter of ticking a tickbox when creating a Task to restore an image to a client, which will manage the running of DeployAnywhere to retarget the image after it is deployed.

To restore the images you have already, you need to a) define an "Image" object in the console (under "Configuration Resources") to refer to the existing .GHO images, and then b) define a Task which contains a "Clone" type of step, and use that image definition as part of it - in real managed use, such tasks typically also contain "Configuration" task stages to then customize the newly-deployed image by renaming the machine and things of that nature.

Gathering inventory information is not Windows edition-specific; if you employ a "Refresh Inventory" task on a client machine, the inventory information is gathered the same way regardless of Windows edition. After information is gathered by running such a task against a machine, everything else is done by (user-modifiable) queries on that data, which comes originally from the Windows WMI system on the client machine and is then stored for querying against in the GSS console's database.

Windows Server 2003 isn't a part of the predefined inventory filters simply because there's little call for it - Windows 2003 is largely just a Server edition of Windows XP, but the base OS not significantly different from XP (as evidenced by the non-server edition of Windows 2003 64-bit being called Windows XP 64-bit) and the majority of our customers use the GSS console primarily to deal with workstation editions of Windows rather than server editions. Bear in mind that the "Dynamic Machine Groups" section is based on the Inventory filters, and it's possible to write your own filters and thus create customized folder arrangements based on all kinds of criteria based on the inventory information that the console gathers.