Endpoint Management Community Blog

MT3 Duncan R. Green - US Navy | 25 Mar 2009 | 2 comments

A few months back (probably almost a year now, actually), my organization bought several (*cough* 90, whoops) licenses for Ghost Solution Suite 2.0. After several weeks of installing, uninstalling, reinstalling, conifugring routers, mucking with the domain, and client installs, we finally got it to work in conjunction with WINS. Because of the nature of my organization, we don't have direct control over our routers and switches - they're controlled remotely at another site several hours away. As such, we are unable to use Mutlicasting.

So, late one night when we finally had GSS running, one of my coworkers and I decided to see what we could do with it. We noticed that we could edit different computer settings - domain membership, computer names, etc.

I would also like to point out that at this point, we didn't have a console account set up for Ghost in the domain.

You can probably see where this is going.

My coworker decided to...

Error: "Incompatible clone switch on the server side".

Randall Newnham | 19 Mar 2009 | 2 comments

This error can occur when you are trying to automate a Ghostcast session with the -sure switch. What is going on is that the the disk is not specified. In a non-automated Ghostcast session, the user specifies the source (for image cration) or destination (for image restore). When adding the -sure switch, the -clone switch either needs to be included in the boot media, or the disk number needs to be specified in the Ghostcast Server session in the "Client command line options" area. this particularly useful in a PXE deployment environment when the switches -ja=<sessionname> -sure are typically added.

How to use Ghost to take and deploy images to iGel Thin Clients

Randall Newnham | 19 Mar 2009 | 0 comments

Due to limited memory, installing a Ghost client on these devices will fail. 1-click virtual partition boot media tends to fail, as well. Here is a method to backup and restore to an iGel Thin Client:

1. Create a Standard Ghost Boot Package using PC-DOS on a USB flash drive.

2. Boot to that device; the boot order will need to be changed to allow booting to that device.

3. Choose Local > Disk > To Image to backup, or choose Local > Disk > From Image to restore.

Note: The USB flash drive used will need to be large enough to accomodate the Ghost boot package and the image.

Ghost Console client cannot be seen in console when a Cisco PIX firewall is present.

Randall Newnham | 06 Mar 2009 | 0 comments

Ghost Console Clients will not be able to connect to the Ghost Console if the PIX firewall is blocking access to the multicast group ID address of 229.55.150.208.

Configuring the PIX firewall to allow the clients to multicast to the multicast group address 229.55.150.208, and configuring the firewall to allow the Ghost Console to send unicast UDP traffic to the clients will resolve this.

Alternatively, using the Ghostcast method with either the switch -JADDR=<serveripaddress>, or by entering the server's IP address after entering the session name will work. This bypasses the need for a multicast communication for client identification.

Automated Symantec User Migration batch files

Cobra7 | 05 Mar 2009 | 0 comments

Symantec User Migration (SUM) is a great tool to pull a users files, icons, registry settings and Windows settings and put them in a nice and neat little file. They can either then be saved as a backup or installed onto another PC.

The Following back files are what I use to capture and restore a users settings. I keep them out on the network for easy access. Also please note I have SUM installed on the network server and a custom SCMMigrationOptions.xml is being used.

To Capture I use:

@echo off
echo "This will use SUM Wizard to capture a users data for Desktops"
echo "Enter name "
set /p UserName=

echo "Saving to \\Server\share\User_Migration\%UserName%.ump
pause
"\\Server\share\SUM\User Migration Wizard\SUMWizard.exe" /action:create /pkg:\\Server\...

Intel 825XX drivers and instructions to extract them

Cobra7 | 05 Mar 2009 | 9 comments

This is for the Windows (and WinPE) drivers for any PC that uses Intel network drivers 825XX (Such as 82567LM for example) and how to put them into WinPE.

First you will need to download the drivers from Intel, NOT Dell or HP or whatever brand you have.

You can find the site http://downloadcenter.intel.com/

On the search, type in the network card type (example, 82567LM). Follow the instructions, make sure you get the Vista drivers and not the ones for Windows 64.

The file you should be downloaded should be called "PROVISTA32_v13_5.exe"

Next, you can either use WinZip or WinRAR to extract the files by following this Blog: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs...

Adding drivers to WinPE

Cobra7 | 03 Mar 2009 | 1 comment

Adding Drivers to WinPE (Ghost boot wizard or Ghost Console) .

Note: In order to add drivers to the Ghost Console the Ghost Boot Wizard must be used.

Start Ghost Boot Wizard.
Select Windows PE and click Edit.
Highlight WinPE and click Edit
On the right wide will be a button named “Add new driver”, click it
Browse to the .inf file and select it
Name it the name of the driver (i.e. Intel e1000 Pro, Broadcom 57xx)
Select Vista and XP and click Ok.
The driver will now appear on the left side unchecked, check the box next to it.
Click Ok, Ok.
If you wish to make a new boot disk or VP, continue to do so, otherwise click Cancel to leave the program.

How to Run DeployAnyhwere When Boot Package is Delivered Via PXE

Randall Newnham | 25 Feb 2009 | 2 comments

It is possible to run DeployAnywhere when using a PXE service to deliver the Ghost boot package. This method requires use of, and assumes familiarity with, drive mapping. Here are the steps to accompish this:

Create a Ghost Boot CD with the DeployAnywhere option checked.
Copy the contents of this CD to a new folder on a network share. I recommend the name DeployAnywhere.
Create a new PXE boot image, making sure to fill out the Client Settings window with the drive mapping information. If using 3COM Boot Services, you can use the TCP/IP Network Boot Image option and add the settings in the Client Settings window in the Ghost Boot Wizard. If using Windows Deployment Services (WDS), you will need to add the Net Use command with these setting to your Windows Image (WIM). For assistance with this, please contact Microsoft support.
When running DeployAnywhere, note that the command line will need to refer to this path for the...

Defrag Ghost Images for Better Performance

arjain | 08 Dec 2008 | 0 comments

Editing ghost images slows down deploying image time as ghost images (gho/ghs) become fragmented.

This fragmentation is caused due to add/remove/modify of files done from Ghost Explorer.

To increase performance, open modified gho files in Ghost Explorer. Goto File > Compile.

Save As Dialog box will appear.

Tip: by default Span Image is checked, uncheck it so that gho can be managed easily, before that check you ghost version, as earlier ghost do not support gho more than 2 GB.

Write the file name and click on Save button.

Ghost Explorer will compile the image and will create a new image.

Use the new image for better performance.

Ghost Explorer

arjain | 11 Mar 2009 | 2 comments

Ghost Explorer (Ghostexp.exe) allows you to view, add, delete, launch and extract files from a Ghost image (.gho) file.

Following task can be performed using Ghost Explorer:

View image file contents and save a list of files within an image file.
Extract files or directories from an image file.
Add, move, copy, delete, and launch files from and within an image file.
Drag-and-drop functionality.
Span sizes can be set.
Add/edit description of image.

Ghost Explorer supports different partition types from FAT 16 to NTFS and Linux Ext2/3

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