Ghost Solution Suite

I'd like to hear how other's have accomplished this task with Ghost Console?. I forgot to install it on my image, i'd like not to have to re-image 65 computers because of it.

Hello,

Try using deploy AI Package. You can find more information about it in ghost implementation guide in section "Creating executables to Roll out Applications."

Thanks

I do not think AI snapshot will work simply due to the fact that they have a limit of 2 GIG per package.

It is also highly unlikely that snapshotting a huge and complex application like CS4 would work. The sheer size and the fact that it exceeds 2Gb would defeat most capture engines. Also, apps like CS4 often install one or more standard runtimes, and it is considered very bad practice to capture these, as using the native installers is the only way to ensure that their update processes work correctly.

So your **reliable** options are either to manually install on the 65 workstations, or whatever subset actually need this app, or reimage.  I suspect reimaging would prove faster than 65 manual installs of CS4.

If you have not done this already, I suggest you now document the components and settings in your image so you don't get caught out this way in the future.!!

Check to see if Adobe has a way to install from a command line and network share. You could create a batch file to run all the commands and deploy that to the workstations in the console.

As others have noted, there's no capture engine which could possibly install something like CS4 - like Microsoft Visual Studio, the chain of prerequisite base OS components it wants to see satisfied alone is far too complex to reliably identify.

Although the base CS4 installer has an executable wrapper (as Visual Studio does, because MSI is incapable of dealing with some basic things) Adobe have a specific way to get a scripted CS4 install for volume deployment, see http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/volumelicensing/cs/deployment_toolkit.html

Nigel is right

We use the deploy kits here, and it asks you for a source.  It will then ask what parts you want to install, settings to make, etc.  It will then create an MSI you can call (usually needs to be called with "/qn" appended).  Tends to work well, unless it errors out, then you have to look into the logs.  The wrapper does ask what to do on errors though, and you can select continue