I have a LAN with 200 PCs mixed with Vista & XP. I'm looking into a disk imaging solution for the techs to use. I basically want to know what solution would be best for the following senerio:
1. I want to be able to take a new PC out of the box & get a full image stored on the LAN.
2. I want to create a bootable CD that I can put in a computer that needs ghosted & the problem computer will boot to the particulat image & install the new image on the problem computer.
I know most of you will probably say use Acronis or Symantec Ghost but my question is which is easier to use on the both the admin site & on the tech side of the program. Basically, I have the hardware & bandwidth to do this but like most IT departments, I don't have the time to implamnent it. I know (Symantec Ghost for instance) has numerous options within the program & can be difficult to find what you need it to do. I guess what I'm asking is, I'd like to hear from someone who has used Symantec Ghost or Acronis & see what your opinions are on these two programs. If someone has used or is using another program to do this I'd like to hear about this also....thanks
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Hmmm....that looks pretty good. Will LANDesk allow me to update the image that is stored on a LAN? For instance, we use Word Perfect in our organization. If we update a macro package (which is just a folder locted on the C drive of the computer with the macros in it) can I just update the image with the new folder or would I need to get another whole new image with the update macros?
You could do that. You would have to restore the image to a machine, add the folder, then recapture the image. I fyou use provisioning templates, you could make a batch file that copies it off of a share using a UNC path after the machine is imaged also. Using the provisioning templates, you essentially make a base image of just XP with all of the correct settings then sysprep it.
After you deploy the image you can have it deploy whatever packages you want. You can have it copy files, and so on. It is a very useful tool.
If you look itno the HII methods more you can have it copy over the correct driver for each machine and have it update the HAL so the image will work on any piece of hardware you have. You can then customize the sysprep.inf file for each machine using a couple of scripts that run within LANDesk. THis is very useful.
This could essentially cut your deployment costs as you can put a deployment package (you copy file batch file) that runs post provisioning(imaging) then it will ensure that the files are there. The beauty of this is that when you need to update software you just change the package seperate of the image, and then you can keep deploying, so you don't have to modify the actual image.
Here is some documentation that will explain this a bit better so you can help push thi to possibly get the ball rolling. I have sucessfully made HII function within a very large domain.
http://community.la
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landesk does have very cool features, if you dont have any LAN management software, look into it: remote desktop, patch management, software deployment, imaging...
if, however, you have something in place already, and all you are missing is an imaging feature, look into the specialized software suites. I have used Sym Ghost before, havent had any complains. Our hardware was more or less standard across the board - was working for the school district, were buying computers in batches.
there is a company that provides collection of universal drivers providing functionality similar to HII mentioned above. Can't remember tho, has been about 4 years since.
The benefit of LANDesk is their support base is very immense and they have some very easy to use Best Practices Guides. From an Admin standpoint it is simple an productive. From a technician standpoint, you can automate a lot of simple tasks, reducing time spent in the field. You can provision machines remotely which is very useful, so your technicians will not need to have boot discs and every other tool in the world.
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by: dnairnsPosted on 2009-08-10 at 08:08:47ID: 25060609
It is a fairly expensive but I would reccomend LANDesk. We use it and there are some really cool functionalities, for instance using provisioning you can use a single image on any machine in your company. it is called Hardware Independent Imaging.
It is a little more extensive than just imaging it will do software deployment remote control and many other functions too, but the imaging utilities used in LANDesk Managemant Suite are the best I have used.
Hope this helps.