imaging software

crater

crater

1
Hello everyone
It's been awhile I can see that everyone is still doing a fine job!
Anyway here's the senerio: I'm going to be Imaging around 100 pc's and would like to know your opinons on what s/w to use?
Not only does the s/w have to make the image but also manage these pc's IE: rolling back to the image nightly to avoid "user made prob." (with as little help from admin as poss)
I've heard that Ghost 7.5 corp v. can remotely do this but on this many pc's and only on 10/100 ethernet (I can see a traffic jam com'in) OR is this a image that is stored locally and just a remote task is sent by the console (server).

Any help with this would be great. Even if it's not Ghost tell me I'm all ears now(lost)
 
Nunyobiznes

Nunyobiznes

1
" but also manage these pc's IE: rolling back to the image nightly to avoid "user made prob." (with as little help from admin as poss)"

Wouldn't rolling back to the image nightly destroy any files saved during the day?

I think the images are stored locally by default and there is an option to send a copy to a NAS or SAN or other similar device.
 
crater

crater

1
file destruction

sorry Nunyobiznes
Yes it would destroy files, but that would be ok as these are classroom pc's & if the student has work to be saved it would be saved to the server or disk.
 
netman

netman

1
i'm pretty sure that the image can be stored locally and that would be preferable because of the traffic issue.
 
Duracell

Duracell

1
nightly restoring

if you are willed to accept around 15% lost of performance, you may consider to use Roxio's GoBack (hope Scarecrow don't read this posting ;) )
in schools mode after every reboot the system is in an untouched condition;


Greetings from
Duracell
 
crater

crater

1
Roxio GoBack & Back & Back ect.

yea Duracell I think they are using GoBack now or at least dabbled with it some. But you must also must understand that the majority of these pc's are P-II at best running probally around 300mhz with at best, 128mb for ram, so a decline in performance would be just more trouble. So we're going to try and stay away from Roxio.
Never the less, thank's for the input & any more would still be welcome :)
 
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I

incognitu

1
In my faculty, there are around 200 PC's with very different configurations.
They use a free program (http://www.bpbatch.com) that loads a selected image that is asked each time a user boots up the computer; if a computer is rebooted, all the work is lost (unless saved) and a previously made image is loaded from scratch.
I don't know the details of how this works but I guess in the homepage of the program exists documentation (or links to) and you can work it up from there...

Sorry I can't give you more details, since only the admins of my department know how that works...
Anyway, hope it's helpful...

Regards,

Incognitu
 
FortiTude

FortiTude

1
crater said:
I've heard that Ghost 7.5 corp v. can remotely do this but on this many pc's and only on 10/100 ethernet (I can see a traffic jam com'in) OR is this a image that is stored locally and just a remote task is sent by the console (server).
Click to expand...
yeah ghost can broadcast an image to many clients,
i used it to up to 18 pcs ...
there is a wizard to create a "multicast" boot disk, afaik you need one for every pc, but perhaps you can use a few, insert -> start client -> put it into the next one ... not sure if that works, these need to be unique disks cause you need one ip for every pc. the ip is stored somewhere in a ... perhaps ini ... file on the floppy
then u need one pc with the image on the hd and the ghost multicast server, start the server and connect all clients to the server and start the session. it doesn't create that much traffic cause it's broadcasting.
it works quite fast ... it took me only a few hours to send about 20 gig image to 18 pcs.
dunno any max number of pcs it works for
forti
 
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crater

crater

1
[then u need one pc with the image on the hd and the ghost multicast server, start the server and connect all clients to the server and start the session.

so forti ,
If I'm hearing u right, I need 1 pc with image of let's say just a working config of Win 98se os(but also could be a image of os+numerous proggys)

Then I need another pc (server) to be the multicast server that would load the image and then broad cast it to the clients.

then all clients would (though the ghost client computer software) would be re-imaged. And then shut down automactically, to see another day?
also does the multi-cast boot disk need to be in the pc when the are woken up(WAN) to be imaged? if so, Yes I would need 200 disks, witch sounds funny to me. also we would have to make sure that the disk were actually inserted (via Teachers) witch would probally never happen.

In theory why could'nt the server act as the host pc and the server? I could save the image on a diff drive(or even a diff partion) as the ghost multi-cast server? I would think it would be faster to load image off of local disk than getting it from a seperate pc?
 
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FortiTude

FortiTude

1
crater said:
[then u need one pc with the image on the hd and the ghost multicast server, start the server and connect all clients to the server and start the session.

so forti ,
If I'm hearing u right, I need 1 pc with image of let's say just a working config of Win 98se os(but also could be a image of os+numerous proggys)

Then I need another pc (server) to be the multicast server that would load the image and then broad cast it to the clients.

then all clients would (though the ghost client computer software) would be re-imaged. And then shut down automactically, to see another day?
also does the multi-cast boot disk need to be in the pc when the are woken up(WAN) to be imaged? if so, Yes I would need 200 disks, witch sounds funny to me. also we would have to make sure that the disk were actually inserted (via Teachers) witch would probally never happen.

In theory why could'nt the server act as the host pc and the server? I could save the image on a diff drive(or even a diff partion) as the ghost multi-cast server? I would think it would be faster to load image off of local disk than getting it from a seperate pc?
Click to expand...
symantec ghost is good for creating many equal pcs one time... but i dont think you can use it for rolling back tnhe pcs every night, sorry

another option to secure the system would be for example hdd-sheriff, we use it at school and it works ....
its a pci card tracking all changes to selected partitions and restoring the partitions every boot, no need for an image
and to make changes to the sys log in as supervisor during boot and all changes will be saved
but it doesnt work with unix os ... :(
hope it helps
forti
 
B

bionic

1
Dont know if this is helpfull at all, but might be interesting anyway:)
Havent used this myself but more than once been drooling over their single pc version ;)

"The Radix Remote Protector provides the network manager with the simultaneous and automatic control of hundreds of computers. Most maintenance and restoration tasks of a group of computers, or a single workstation, can be executed from a remote location on an existing Local Area Network infrastructure (LAN). These include:

>> Monitoring/Saving/recovering remote workstations
>> Power up/restart/shutdown of remote workstations
>> Changing manager?s password
>> Messaging to remote clients
>> Unlock/re-lock protection of remote clients (opening the gates for software distribution and updates).
?and much more
Radix Protector compatibility with standard network tools provides for the smooth integration with existing network infrastructures and a smooth implementation in working environments."

Features:
Hardware support
IBM PC and compatible (486 and up)
Operating systems supported
MS-Dos, MS Windows3x/9x/Me/NT/2K/Xp
HDD interface support
E-IDE/SCSI 33/66/100 >1GB
Expansion slots:pCI
Boot partitions:24
Users passwords:24
Data partitions:23
Resident memory :12k
HDD speed drop (Approx.):2%
Kernel 32Bit support
CMOS backup/restore
Disable boot if card is defective
Supervisor password
Default boot selection
Multi partition protection
Hide/select menu
Timer restore
CE/FCC approved
Uninstall
Enables HDD/partition cloning
Optional 10/100 LAN card
Support network TCP/IP based
Scheduled wake on LAN
Remote group operation
Remote monitoring/recovery
Remote boot partition select
Scheduled remote operation
Enables scheduled software distribution
File transfer
Clients messaging

http://www.radixprotector.com/
 
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