I am a computer teacher. Recently, I implemented Active Directory on the network. We have 20 Windows XP machines, and are adding the old Windows 98SE machines to the network soon. My question: I have old software, new software, etc. I would like to find the easiest and best way to put the software on the machines. After deciding to join the XP machines to the domain, I thought about reformatting them. I am still debating that issue. I would like to have nice new clean machines. I also purchased Norton Ghost from the website (not the corporate edition), but am confused about how to clone XP machines. I guess my question is multi-layered. What is the best way to clean the machines, and put the software back on? Is there a way to reformat the machines with a 98 boot disk? Will Norton Ghost provide an image I can send out to all 20 machines? Should I attempt to create Windows Installer packages? Sorry if this is long-winded.
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More about that different hardware configurations..more importantly
I should have asked if the computers were from the same manufacturer.
The only problems I have had ghosting dissimilar computers was corrected by this article:
http://support.microsoft.c
My experience in this is limited compared to others here and I have always ghosted
machines made by the same manufacturer. I have never tried to mix and match
Hope this helps!
Hello mdiglio, thank you very much for your help. The 20 XP machines are all DELL machines purchased this year. They are all exactly the same. Is it ok that I did not purchase the Norton Ghost Corporate Edition? May I still do my ghosting with Norton Ghost 2003? Also, will I have the option to ghost to the server (Windows 2000)? I think that would be best. Thanks again.
Since your using AD which means you're running Windows 2000, why not use RIS? Microsoft remote installation service would be fabulous in your case where you don't need but to create one image on the server of one of your machines and you can then RIS it down to all of the others. Here is instructions on using RIS.
http://www.microsoft.com/w
http://support.microsoft.c
Hello,
The only thing you are missing from not having the enterprise edition is capabilities of
ghosting multiple computers using multicast
this link has another link to a .pdf comparing the 2 editions:
http://www.symantec.com/sa
Yes, you can put an image on your windows 2000 server
I found these tutorials online that I think you will like
they go through everything step-by-step they even have an 'interactive' option
so you can actually do the step in a test environment
take a look at this tutorial:
How to use a mapped network drive to create and restore images
from this link:
http://www.symantec.com/te
Once you look through these tutorials you will probably be able to decide which method
of ghosting you will like to use.
Thank you both for your help. Just to confirm mdiglio, I can use my Norton Ghost 2003 version to clone a machine and send it to all 20 machines? It looks as if the result could be achieved easier with the Corporate Edition, but it does not preclude me from achieving my desired result. Does that sound right? I am reading the articles on RIS now mikecr....thank you.
Thanks guys. I am looking into RIS now. One other question: I plan on loading all the software I have on to once machine, and then performing the RIS steps. In the future, what is the best way to deploy software? I know 2000 Server has the Windows Installer Package. I have not used it though. Also, do you have any links to good tutorials on using login scripts? Thank you.
Deploying software using an installer package is the best way to go. You can publish it for them to install on the computer or you can assign it to the computer and it will automatically install. This is done in group policy. Here is some information on that.
http://support.microsoft.c
http://support.microsoft.c
As for login scripts, it just depends on what you want to do with them. Normally you just use them to map drives and this can be done by putting a batch file using NET USE commands to map drives into the Netlogon directory on the server. You would then go into the user account in Active Directory and specify the name of the login script. You can use Kixstart, which comes on the Windows 2000 server CD, to do more such as adding, looking for, or deleting lines in the registry or looking at group status and mapping drives by AD group and so on. Is this what your interested in?
Just open up notepad and then use the following syntax.
net use "driveletter": //computername/sharename
Then do file save as, and save it as "script.bat" or whatever you would like to call it. It just needs to have a *.bat extension. Once you save it, on your server just do \\"servername"\netlogon and copy it to the Netlogon directory. The only thing that you need to do then is to edit their Active Directory account and under the Profile tab of the user account specify the name of your logon script.
Good mornign mikecr, hope you had a good labor day weekend...back to work for me. I am not sure if you are familiar with Windows 98, but I have some old 98SE machines I want to join to the school domain. I am running into some problems. I initially checked the "logon to NT domain" box, and entered the domain name. I also had the machines obtain an address automatically, and I put the IP of my 2000 server in for WINS. When I logon, I get the following message:
"No domain Server was available to validate your password. You may not be able to gain access to some network resources." Any ideas? Thank you.
Are you running Active Directory in native mode? If so install the Active Directory Client Extensions for Windows 95/98.
http://www.microsoft.com/w
Why don't you try silent install? Easy and fast. And you don't need to worry about new computers with other hardware, since the image will just install itself over and over again. Images need to be created every time you have set one up for a newer PC.
The trick is to create a neat bootdisk with everything included you need. So here goes:
http://www.ranish.com/part
Networkbootflops (Found on the NT4 Server CD) and all the latest available NDIS2 drivers for your NIC's
DOS 6.22 (newer versions too large to fit everything on one flop).
Some firm knowledge of creating boot floppies (SMARTDRV!!!).
Create a silent install script for Windows XP. Docs found on microsoft.com/windowsxp.
Make silent installations for all your other programs like Office. Check for info on office.microsoft.com.
And concerning Win98 logging on to W2K domain: Always use Client Extension, as said before. Find it on the W2K Server CD.
Business Accounts
Answer for Membership
by: mdiglioPosted on 2003-08-26 at 21:42:12ID: 9229734
Hello,
If you have the time to spend I think it is a great idea to start with a fresh install!
Depending upon the hardware configuration of the 20 XP machines here is one suggestion for you.
You won't need a 98 boot disk but you can just set the cmos to boot from the CD on 1 XP machine
Boot from the Windows XP CD and reformat the drive using NTFS. If htey already are NTFS you can
just do a quick format.
Once you have all the Service Packs, updates and software installed you can then ghost that computer
to a network share. Oh yea, disjoin it from the domain before you ghost it!
To ghost a computer you will have to create a boot-disk using symatec ghost boot disk wizard.
It is an easy to follow walk through to use their utlity.
You will boot the machine you want to use as a base image with that Ghost boot disk.
This will bring you to a small graphical program where you will tell it where to save the image and
what name to give it.
Once that image is created you will then boot your other XP machines using that same disk
and once the graphical part comes up you will then tell it to overwrite the existing disk with
the image you created earlier.
Can't remember exactly but I think at the user interface you will click local >> from image (image you created earlier) >> to disk
Once that image has finished cloning itself to that XP machines you will then have to run a utility
to change the SID of the machine. If you have ghost-walker..great. If not here is a program that
you can use:
New Sid
http://www.sysinternals.co
You can send an image to more than one computer at a tme if you would like.
Earlier I said "depending upon your hardware configuration" If these XP machines are smiiliar
you should have no problem at all using this method if they are VERY different like some 400MHZ computers and some 2.0GHZ computers let us know and we can give you some procedures to ensure it goes smoothly.