The beta for Data Connector 7.0 is now available for download. As part of the 7.0 release, we have moved the Connector functionality into the Symantec Management Platform and it is no longer a standalone solution. The functionality will now be available to all solutions and customers.

Highlights of this release include:

• Import Organizational Views and Groups - This allows you to create and populate new Organizational View and Groups structures from any of the data sources that Connector supports.
• User Interface/Usability updates - The User Interface has been re-factored to help with usability and make connector integrations even easier.
• Virtual Data Classes - A Virtual Data Class allows you to federate data into the Notification Server CMDB. This is done by creating a key from a resource type in the CMDB to an external source. You can then reference data from the other data source without importing the data. This data can then be used in...

There are some hardware setups that require using a different version of WIndows PE than WIndows PE 2.0, which is what the Ghost Boot Wizard in Ghost Solution Suite 2.5 uses. The disadvantage to using custom Windows PE boot disks is that some options that are available in the boot wizard are either not available, or it is not intuitive to include. One of these features is DeployAnywhere, the Ghost utility for injecting drivers into a machine after an image is deployed. This method will allow you to use that feature even if you have to use a different PE environment.

How to add DeployAnywhere:

1. Add this file to the PE environemnt:

C:\Program Files\Symantec\Ghost\GhDplyAw32.exe

2. Add this folder to the PE environment:

C:\Documents & Settings\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\Ghost\Template\common\windrivers

This provides the executable and the drivers necessary for evaluating and retargeting. Here is the...

Once the client machine boots up into the PreOS it will need an IP address to communicate with the Ghost Cast Server, and by default that IP address will come from the DHCP. When there is no DHCP server, the client machine will not get any IP address, hence, the machine will not be able to communicate with the Ghost Cast Server.

To force the PreOS WinPE or WinPE-512 to use a static IP address:

1. Go to "\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\Ghost\Template\common\winpe\ghost" for WinPE and "\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\Ghost\Template\common\winpe-512\ghost" for WinPE-512
2. Remove the read only from start.bat
3. Edit start.bat using the notepad and add the following line between x: and cd \ghost

   netsh int ip set address local static 192.168.0.100 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.1

   (IP address of 192.168.0.100 with a Subnet Mask of 255.255.255.0 and a Default Gateway of 192.168.0.1 would be set on...

Of the things I miss the most when working with the Altiris suite the following two things are pretty close to the top of the list:
Customisable user message screens which may be associated per deployment task type. In other words, I don't want to have to create such type things to be part of my deployment package. A simple interface which allows me to communicate with my target audience with reference to what is about to happen on their device would be most useful. Connected to this is the lack of ability to have a countdown timer which may be associated with the task in question. For example, I deploy a certain job which requires the user to click on ok. The problem with this is that most users will just ignore this message, putting it into the background. What would be most useful is if I can set a timer on the job such that if the user has not clicked on ok within the set timeframe the job then automatically executes. This accompanied with a visible countdown box which...