Many systems engineers and administrators are familiar with Ghost as a disk imager/cloner. It was the first product in this field and has continually maintained its reputation as the best-of-breed over many years of development, to remain the de facto standard imaging tool. The latest version, Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 (GSS 2.0), has leapt beyond the recording and deployment of single disk images to bring you an extensive set of tools designed to manage key aspects of desktop lifecycle in large network infrastructures.
GSS 2.0 offers the following benefits:-
Simplifies the migration to Windows Vista™ and management of desktop systems
- Specifically designed with Microsoft Windows Vista in mind, providing full support for managing machines running the Windows Vista operating system, and migrating end users from previous operating systems to Windows Vista.
- Centralized management console increases IT productivity and helps lower the total costs of ownership (TCO) for networked PCs and workstations.
- User migration is fully integrated into the management console, allowing full systems upgrades from one operating system to another with a single click of the mouse.
- Stand-alone User Migration component allows administrators to migrate user personalities even when the desktop machines are not connected to a network
Reduces deployment costs, complexity, and time
- Symantec ghost optimized imaging provides significantly faster creation and restoration of images compared with standard tools included with the operating system
- Multicasting minimizes bandwidth usage and speeds up the deployment of images or individual files, such as a critical security-related hot fixes.
- Simultaneously deploy hundreds of Windows or Linux® operating systems across the enterprise in a matter of minutes, including the new Windows vista operating system.
- Configure and schedule repetitive IT tasks from a centralized console.
Simplifies and speeds PC and user migration
- Perform fast and easy broad-scale or 1:1 user migration of user data, settings, and profiles via console-driven tasks or peer-to-peer migration.
- Administrators can restrict users from migrating unauthorized files such as MP3. Auto Install helps reduce the time and costs of managing software distribution across a network by providing an efficient means of creating application packages and updates.
- Access rights and transport encryption prevent unauthorized access, helping to provide secure transfer and storage of user data.
- A Client Staging Area minimizes network storage and bandwidth issues by allowing files and folders to be preserved locally on a system during an image deployment.
Facilitates secure OPC retirement
- Reduces the risk and liability associated with PC retirement and data disposal by implementing the industry’s best-practice strategies.
- Helps ensure that confidential data cannot be recovered from recycled, retired, or leased PCs.
- Meets the highest industry standards fro secure data disposal, including Department of Defense (DoD) standard DOD 5220.22-M.
- GDisk 32 provides secure disk wiping from Windows PE.
| Workshops - overview |
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Out of its box, the toolset presents a complex array of options, and many users fail to get beyond the most immediate disk cloning functions. Scorpio Network Solutions Ltd is the UK's leading specialist in the use of Ghost and all other members of Symantec's Livestate product family. As Symantec's service delivery partner for Ghost, Scorpio has extended the power of these tools with unique add-ons and methods to turn a complex toolset into a powerful management application. We help companies embrace the full features of the product by distilling the essential elements into clearly understandable processes. Our experts can quickly assess the key aspects of a company's infrastructure and direction to design and implement an appropriate Ghost configuration. In some cases we create tailor-made scripts.
We have worked with Symantec to develop comprehensive service "workshop" packages to help you configure and maximise the benefits of GSS 2.0 in your organisation. The workshops are practical hands-on sessions flexible enough to fit each client's environmental requirements after a preliminary review.
In addition, we offer bespoke consultancy services to design and implement fully working desktop lifecycle management systems with documented procedures and processes, tailored to specific company and infrastructure needs.
The workshop contents are described in greater detail below. Please contact us for more information and pricing.
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We are now offering a 3 day short workshop that still aims to cover the essentials of GSS 2.0, but assumes a greater level of starting knowledge and is less in-depth than the other two.
It covers the following areas:-
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Day 1
• Engagement Workshop and Planning. To include discussion of the three proposed scenarios:
o OS Refresh win2000-win2000 or XP-XP (replacing like for like)
o OS Upgrade to XP only
o System Refresh to new hardware (using migration wizard to migrate user data and settings)
• Discussion of the components included with Ghost Solution Suite
• Review of the test environment and the proposed GSS deployment.
Day 2
• Installation of Software – Ghost / Deploy Centre Library / Symantec Client Migration. Configuration of the base server components:
o PXE
o DHCP
o Ghost
o Symantec Client Migration
Day 3
• Ghost Console Configuration
• Symantec Client Migration (SCM) Configuration
• Creation of a Client Template for SCM
Day 4
• Creation of Virtual Floppy Disks (VFD’s)
• Creation of Network Boot Disk– Multiple NIC’s
• QuickBoot
• Multicast
• PXE menu options
• Creation of an initial PC image
Day 5
• Deploying agents to client machines using the Ghost console (push & pull)
• Ghost Action Tasks
o QB.exe push & Execute
o WOL
• Using the Ghost Console to centrally manage a ‘hands off’ machine rebuild:
o Use SCM to capture user data from test PC
o Re-Image the machine (using the previously captured image)
o Use SCM to restore user data.
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Day 6
• Short review of Week 1
• Preparing an image with Sysprep
o Using Setupmgr.exe to create a custom sysprep.inf
o Explain the layout and contents of the Sysprep.inf
o Show how the Ghost deployment scripts work with sysprep.inf
o Prepare the machine with Sysprep.
o Capture a sysprep’d image
• Configure Multicast
• Deploy the sysprep’d image to multiple machines using multicast
Multicast knowledge transfer.
Day 7 & 8
• Single master image creation
• Making one master image work on different models of hardware
o Troubleshooting the Plug and Play process.
o How to identify missing drivers.
o Tools and tips for injecting drivers into the image.
o How to handle different disk controllers
o How to handle different HAL’s
o Limitations of the single image technique
• Modify the master sysprep’d image to include additional required drivers
Day 9
• Migration scenario with rollback configuration.
• The following scenario will demonstrate how to automate a migration to a new operating system with the facility to roll-back the client to its previous state if the upgrade fails. – All managed from the central console, without needing to touch the client PC
o Start with a standard build PC
o Resize the existing partition(s) to create some space
o Create a new hidden backup partition
o Capture an image of the current disk to the hidden partition
o Re-image the machine with the new build. (without overwriting the hidden backup)
o Demonstrate how the machine can be easily rolled back to the pre-migration state if required by simply sending a job from the ghost console to restore from the backup)
• Automation of Symantec Client Migration capture & restore
o Use the SCM migration template created in week 1
o Create automated scripts to capture user data and restore user data
o Integrate the SCM scripts into the migration process scripts for a complete end-to-end migration process.
Day 10
• Full end-to-end migration testing. Using the scripts and tasks created so far to perform a full end to end client migration. All tasks to be performed centrally from the Ghost console without needing to go the client PC.
o Capturing user data and program settings from the machine.
o Re-imaging the machine, either with the existing standard build or with an upgraded operating system.
o Restoring the user data and application settings.
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