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GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

Migration User

Migration UserMay 04, 2015 03:35 AM

  • 1.  GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 04, 2015 08:58 AM

    Thank you for the show yesterday.  I look forward to this coming out.

    I have a couple of questions that were not addressed yesterday (or in the other thread before it was locked)

    1) I know you said the images are backwards compatible.  However.  With GSS 3.0 being Altiris 6.9, do the 3.0 endpoints need a new client, or will the GSS 2.5.1 client phone home to the GSS 3.0 console?

    2) Will more than 1 person be able to use the same GSS 3.0 console at the same time?  I know this is not currently doable in 2.5.

     

    Thanks!



  • 2.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 04, 2015 09:41 AM

    Hi Terry,

    Just some thoughts because i don't really know but you'd probably want to push out the new client to the machines because it sounds like the new client is doing more like inventory and other things that DS 6.9 did but GSS 2.51 didn't do automatically.

    I'd also be wary about setting up the beta with the same name as the current ghost system.  Setting it up in a test environment first would be highly recommended until they iron out all the bugs.(unless you're looking waay ahead which is good).  I don't have to worry about this because my ghost is still sitting on win2003 so i need to update. 

    I would also be VERY interested in multiple people using the console, so any feedback on that would be helpful!

    -Steve



  • 3.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 04, 2015 03:34 PM

    I propose that this thread be used to record any questions (and answers) relating to Ghost 3.0 beta so that we all have visibility of what is going on and can share our experiences.



  • 4.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 05, 2015 01:12 AM

    can gss 3.0 use microsoft wds instead of altiris 6.9 pxe server?

    <Taken out of moderation; EdT>



  • 5.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 05, 2015 01:15 AM

    can i use only the ghostcast server and intergrate it with microsft wds like in 2.5 i dont need console?



  • 6.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 05, 2015 04:41 AM

    @ Audigy - the answer is in your hands. Grab a copy of the beta and have a play. If it does not work as you would like, provide us with the necessary feedback.



  • 7.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 05, 2015 11:01 AM

    We have a very large enterprise environment with a central IT group that runs many things but we also have independent departmental IT groups. Central IT runs DHCP and is very locked down, PXE is not available. I suspect that several of out independent IT groups would want to setup a GSS3 solution.

    In this case with PXE not availble what would be recommended setup, given there may be multiple installs each without access to PXE. I see in the install setup steps (13) you have to specify a PXE server.

    What is the likelyhood of the "known issues" been fixed before release? For example "A x64 client computer fails to boot into production" = "Deploy image task using a Sysprep image fails if you boot a x64 client computer in preboot environment using an automation partition." seems to be a really big issue as said above we would need to boot to automation and all our images are built after sysprep.

    Regards,

    Pete



  • 8.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 05, 2015 01:41 PM

    I noticed that there is a GhostSrv.exe as well as a GhostSrv64.exe. Same thing with the Ghost32.exe and Ghost64.exe.

    Are the 64 versions required if you are using 64bit based WIM files? Should I just use the 64 versions going forward all the time?

    If I do use the 64 versions going forward, will they be backward compatible for the images we made using Ghost32.exe and GhostSrv.exe on old system?



  • 9.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 05, 2015 01:48 PM

    Is the PXE Server listed as a service in MS Services? I can't find a listing for it.



  • 10.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 05, 2015 01:53 PM

    What is the significance of using a Linux vs a Windows PE Pre-Boot OS for the boot menu? We have always used windows by using and editing a BCD file.

    Is the Linux one faster? What features/tools might I be missing or gaining by using Linux?



  • 11.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 05, 2015 02:13 PM

    I found this on the Whats New White Paper:

    'Support for Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 8.1, Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite'

     

    So just to be clear ... can I use GhostSrv64.exe along with Ghost64.exe to image a Mac? I remember David had stated that 3.0 would be able to image a Linux OS as well but I don't see it listed.

    Is there an actual list stating what OS's can be imaged using Ghost64.exe. Is there a list of what OS's Ghostexplorer.exe can interact with?



  • 12.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 06, 2015 08:30 AM

    Question: 

    My client is failing on the install of the agent from the console, using Tools -> Remote Agent Installer. The error: 

    Starting install for machine RDP9.
    'The network path was not found.' . Unable to connect to computer RDP9 with username (removed) .

    The username in question has administrative rights and the proper password, firewall is turned off, etc. 

    In the past there was a workaround where you could run the client install on the machine from the client. Does this still exist? 

    Also, are there specific settings that need to be in place on the client in order to for the Remote Agent Install to succeed? I have experienced issues with this in DS 7.5 as well, and I'm curious if there is a network firewall preventing the problem or something else.

    Does the default directory require sharing to be enabled? Any other ideas?

     

    Thanks!



  • 13.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 06, 2015 12:28 PM

    In Boot Disk Creator, if you choose New Configuration and then WinPE 5.x it seems to offer no selection of x86 or x64, just just seems to go and mount x86? Am I missing something.

    Pete



  • 14.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 06, 2015 12:31 PM

    David,

    We were required to commit time to this Beta at signup. From all the comments provided thus far the testers are fully committed. Where are any replies from Symantec to these comments and bug reports - this is very disappointing.

    Pete



  • 15.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 07, 2015 04:00 AM

    Since Ghost is basically writing sectors to a hard disk, it should not matter whether you use 32 bit or 64 bit WinPE. Same for wim files - they are just a recording of the hard disk content and this is not affected by whether a 32 bit or 64 bit operating system is present. After all, you can image a data drive without an O/S installed using the same methodology.

     



  • 16.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 09, 2015 09:58 AM

    let me quote the Symantec Ghost Solution Suite 3.0 Beta Guide, found in the beta files:

     

    Page 16 : "Note : if you are using a evaluation license, you cannot use the WinPE Add-on packages"



  • 17.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 09, 2015 10:02 AM

    let me quote the Symantec Ghost Solution Suite 3.0 Beta Guide, found in the beta files:

     

    Page 16 : "Note : if you are using a evaluation license, you cannot use the WinPE Add-on packages"



  • 18.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 09, 2015 01:45 PM

    GSS 2.5 had the option to "Clone using Volume Snapshot (Hot Imaging)". I have not found a similar function in the Beta. Is it possible to backup a client without forcing a reboot in GSS 3.0?

     

    Thanks,

    Michael



  • 19.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 10, 2015 09:18 AM

    Hi Everyone,

    Please make sure that any any issues you are seeing are reported as an incident in the beta portal, this is where support and development are tracking issues. For product questions, please use the forum in the beta portal if possible for the same reason, the team is spending most of it's time there and gets proactively notified when a new post arrives.

    I'm keen to make sure you're getting quick answers. I'll try and pick through this thread and supply answers.

    Thanks,

    David



  • 20.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 10, 2015 09:29 AM

    Here are the answers to the questions posted:

    @Terry BU. 1) The agents will need a new agent. 2) you can have multiple consoles running and security can also be configured.

     

    @audigy. You should be able to use Ghost Cast server standalone as you could in GSS 2.5.

     

    @Pete G: We will be looking at fixing all high severity issues, make sure it’s logged in the beta portal. Also the beta portal is the place to log and discuss all things relating to the beta, we enforce this for a couple of reasons, firstly to help focus the attention of the team on one place and also to make sure that all information is being shared in one place for other customers.

     

    @buck614: Linux PE is smaller and can be suitable for low bandwidth sites. It is based on linux so for any customisations you’d need the Linux know-how. Also, the WinPE tools would not be available, again potentially limiting customisation.

     

    Mac imaging is not naively supported in the product, the native support for Mac is management only. We’re looking to add this (and is already added to DS 7 if you want to take a look there. Most customers in the past have been using processes such as the one described here: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/downloads/mac-imaging-using-deployment-solution-unicast-multicast

     

    @krystasch: Please post your question as an incident in the beta portal.



  • 21.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 10, 2015 04:05 PM

    Where can I download the LinuxPE X64 pre-boot fies?



  • 22.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 19, 2015 05:47 AM

    Hi,

    is there anywhere i can find out about using other shares beyond the default eXpress share. and how to modify the agents appropriately? its mentioned in one of the how to videos but I can't find anything on it... 

    basically because of the type of labs we use, images can be quite large and we use 2Tb disks per lab. the current ghost has no issues with this but the new ghost seems to have issues accessing say f:\ict_image\ict15.gho

    Thanks

     

     



  • 23.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 23, 2015 11:15 AM

    In Deployment Server 6.9 SP6 in preboot there was a variable %ALTIRIS_DS_SERVER% and %ALTIRIS_PXE_SERVER%; the last one, %ALTIRIS_PXE_SERVER%, no longer exists.

     

    See also http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH213143



  • 24.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Mar 24, 2015 10:35 AM

    Differnces with DS6.9 SP6:

    1. Aclient is not available anymore, only dagent
    2. Thinclients appear not to be supported
    3. license.exe will not start; mfc120.dll missing
    4. In a run script, no longer works:
      SET PROD_NAME=%#!computer@prod_name%
      or
      set MODEL_NUM=%#*"select distinct replace(model_num,' ','') from computer where computer_id = %ID%"%

       


  • 25.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Apr 20, 2015 07:27 PM

    Is something wrong with the GSS 3.0 install. I get to 38% and it hangs.

    BTW, if I am in the wrong forum, I apologize, but can you please link me to the correct forum.



  • 26.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Apr 21, 2015 06:07 AM

    hello,

    I want to use ghost 3.0 to image surface pro 3, the surface is docked and has a network-connection. I succesfully installed the pxe server and clients can connect (with pxe+winPE 5.1) to the ghost 3.0 server. In the previous version i used pxe+winpe and ghostcastserver to image new clients (out of the box).

    How can i image new clients (without windows installed) with pxe+winpe in ghost 3.0)?

    Greetings, Andy



  • 27.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Apr 21, 2015 06:28 AM

    ok... using GSS 2.5 i have a nember of syspreped images which were prepared using gss2.5. These images work perfectly whn using gss2.5 to deploy them

    now when I try using gss3.0 to deploy the images to the endpoint, the image successfully completes BUT the deployed image fails during setup and causes a continuous reboot. I'm presuming there is something different in the sysprep stage of gss3.0 as if I use an already deployed image and then regather it syspreped using GSS3.0 it works fine? Is it possible to use older images with gss3.0 or will i have to regather the image?

    the other thing i have an issue is with the failed image, I created a boot disk with the agent to try recover the system but it seems to reboot over and over again to the failed system? The only way i can stop this is to delete the system from the console and then boot using the usb key.. then i can image it but I have lost its previous settings? Is this supposed to happen or am i doing something wrong?

     

    regards

    Willie

     

     

     



  • 28.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Apr 28, 2015 08:10 AM

    Thanks for your feedback.

    Do you have any response from Symantec about the N°4 ?

    It's a great function in DS 6.9 and it will be disaster if it's not in GSS 3.0 



  • 29.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted May 04, 2015 03:35 AM

    I can confirm that #4 is solved in beta 2



  • 30.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted May 04, 2015 08:35 AM

    What is the process of adding new drivers to Ghost 3.0 PXE?  It seems to be different then 2.5 version.



  • 31.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted May 05, 2015 12:27 AM

    I am looking for assistance with GSS 3.0

    I was able to install the beta "YES" Recently today I was able to deploy my boot image via (Boot/EFI) which launched the dos command box. From there i was able to manually launch ghost64.exe by changing the directory manually to the ghost folder and run ghost64.exe to multicast.

    1st. Question | How do I configure the preboot to launch ghost64.exe automatically? (where do i enter the commands)

    2nd. Question | Is there a way i can just boot from the Nic and just have GSS 3.0 rather than using EFI?

    I ran into an issue after booting from EFI and got an error invalid partition.  Feed back is much appreciated.  

     
     



  • 32.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted May 21, 2015 10:36 AM
      |   view attached

    With the GSS 3.0 beta refresh 3, to have the %ALTIRIS_PXE_SERVER% variable to work, I did the folowing :

    Edit the file "C:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\Bootwiz\platforms\Winpe5\x64\Templates\startutl.bat" (and the same file in the "...\Winpe5\x86\Templates" directory) :

    Replace the 1041 line : "if not errorlevel 1 set opt=/winpe5"

    with the line "if not errorlevel 1 set opt=/winpe4"

    Then we have to modify the pxe boot image without any change to rebuild the boot.wim image file with the corrected startutl.bat file inside it (in /windows/system32 directory of the WinPE5 image)

    The original startutl.bat file doesn't work in WinPE 5.1 because the getpxe.exe tool doesn't accept the /winpe5 option yet but with the /winpe4 option it works fine.

    See the attached corrected startutl.bat file

    Attachment(s)

    zip
    startutl.zip   13 KB 1 version


  • 33.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted May 29, 2015 03:13 AM

    I removed Ghost and reinstall latest beta 3.0 and get stuck at 38% in installation

    Any ideas ?

     

    Thanks

     

    Göran Dahlgren



  • 34.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Jun 01, 2015 09:17 AM

    Try installing on a clean build or a clean VM.

    Otherwise, given the lack of information in your posting it is impossible to guess at what the problem might be.



  • 35.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Jul 23, 2015 04:37 PM

    I had the same error.

    The solution for me was to reinstall. I was also running a win 7 build and needed to have a windows server edition for SQL. This might be the same for you.

     

     



  • 36.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Aug 18, 2015 03:12 PM

    I just came here to say that my installer is also getting stuck at 38%. It's no longer in beta AFAIK, either. On Windows 10... it just hangs there.

    install.png

    I was trying to install the trial of Ghost Suite, but if not even the trial installer works, I can tell you right now my company won't be going with Ghost!



  • 37.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Aug 20, 2015 06:30 AM

    Basically, there is very little actual information in your posting to allow anyone to help you. Tell us about the hardware and also how you have built the WinPE boot environment and what drivers you have added to the boot environment.



  • 38.  RE: GHOST 3.0 BETA QUESTIONS

    Posted Aug 26, 2015 05:47 AM

    As there have been no further postings to recent issues, and this was always intended to act as a beta stage discussion thread, I am going to lock the thread and ask users with specific issues to opne new threads in their own right.