Symantec Ghost Solution Suite

[DBB2010]

i'd like to be able to create a self extracting ghost image without prompts. i know symantec makes products to do exactly this but i'm not sure which product or how to do it. i was hoping that a more experienced technician could share what they've learned with me.

my ultimate goal is to take, for example, a newly installed xp system with drivers, tweaks, etc already completed and then make a ghost image of it. then, to package that ghost image with a bootable symantec application and place the package on a dvd so that, when booted from, the image loads exactly like when i created it without any [or minimal] prompts for the user to mess up. basically like a recovery disc with the idea in mind that as long as their hardware is good and their data is backed up, this will keep me from having to fix their junk again, haha. mostly for family but i'd also like to learn as more of a personal endeavor.

i see similar things on recovery partitions and the like from manufacturers so i know it's possible and probably not very difficult at all, i just get mixed up when i try to figure it out from symantec's website. and really, there's no reason at all it would have to be ghost if there's another program that will do the same thing. maybe acronis?

 

[KSoD]

You might want to look at FOG or CloneZilla. They might be a better alternative to Ghost.

 

[DBB2010]

will these create a self-executable package [for lack of a better term] and run without network support?

 

[KSoD]

Yes as far as i know. I know they will create a disk that you can boot from and install the image with. I know they can be done on a home PC cause i have used them both at one point in time now.

 

[DBB2010]

how might i go about automating the imaging process? not the creation of the image, but the application.

 

[KSoD]

I know that they have all of this stuff on their websites. They are open source and they have great support and FAQs on their site that can answer the questions a lot easer and faster than waiting for a response.

 

[DBB2010]

I know that they have all of this stuff on their websites. They are open source and they have great support and FAQs on their site that can answer the questions a lot easer and faster than waiting for a response.

i'll look deeper into both of these then.

for the sake of the original post, does anyone know how i could do this with a ghost image?

 

[Jayce]

So more or less, you want to do a fresh install 1 time, capture that image, and if things go south you want to hit the magic button to blast that image back to the disk to bring it back to day 1 - correct?

If so, FOG and Clonezilla both do that as Mak stated. Both have their pros and cons, though. Having used both of them extensively, it really comes down to your opinion of each to decide what you want to use.

FOG : Requires a computer to act as a server. Based on Ubuntu/Fedora/CentOS, etc., so it requires an install of some form of Linux in order to work. Minimal Linux knowledge needed. Just need to get through the installation process (relatively easy, comparable to Windows) and then set a static IP, then run the installer script (detailed info on their wiki) and it should pull dependencies accordingly. Afterwards, it works through a web based GUI frontend. I image systems at work, and to date have done about 1,900 systems on a dual core Dell Latitude laptop. Once FOG is set up, FOG requires much less user interaction to get the imaging process rolling. You have to register the system (quick and painless), then just tie in what image you want to use with that system. If you don't ever delete the host in the FOG database, you never have to register it again. Then just hit task management - deploy - watch it run.

Clonezilla : Just plain awesome for quick single backups. Can pull backups and save them to a variety of sources (Samba server, external hard drive, even a flash drive if it's big enough, it can break the image up into sections you specify by size, allowing you to have sections of the image so each can fit on their own blank DVD for storage). This can be slightly more intimidating, being it's a text based user interface, but it's easy to use. But the LiveCD of Clonezilla is very handy and highly recommended. PS - a new version just came out very recently. Clonezilla does prompt you with questions, but if you're doing a basic upload/download to an external drive, most of the options default to that. I think the big thing is you just have to choose which drive is your SOURCE and which is your DESTINATION. Being you will have an external plugged in, and you have an internal drive already in, it has to know which is getting backed up. It doesn't take long to get the hang of it.

I believe either of these will do what you need, assuming the question I asked at the very top of my post was accurate in terms of what you're trying to do. It's what I do here at work... if I come across a system that a student messed up, I don't install XP again or use Dell's "recovery partition" (in fact I format that during my initial install process), or redo the software. 9/10 times I just hook it up to my laptop, register it, and push the original image to it that I made. Afterwards I just wait for Windows and AntiVirus updates to finish, then I walk away.

As far as Ghost itself, I cannot comment on it that extensively since I haven't used it that much to begin with. My experience with it is limited, and once I needed a mass software cloning program, FOG came around, so I didn't really give Ghost the time of day to try newer versions then.

Good luck with whatever you end up choosing. Good to hear users are looking into image backups. They've bailed me out many times from failed hard drives.

 

[Osiris]

Acronis does just that and more. Im using Acronis right now, Acronis Backup and Recovery 10. I created 1 image, exactly the way I want it, joined to the domian, updates, tweaks, programs, wireless, etc. Created a bootable DVD but a CD is fine as well as its only 128mb, oh yea also needed to get the sata drivers so the bootable DVD could see the drive, it slips the drivers, as many drivers as you want into the bootable DVD, then created the image on a USB thumbdrive which the drive itself is 16GB and the image is 13GB, after that I put the thumbdrive in the next laptop, inserted the bootable DVD, and then recovered the system and the best part, you can add the image to other, different makes and model computers/laptops. So no more needing to have multiple images, just one is all you need. Maybe one a month you can update the image for patches, new programs, etc then create a new one, etc. The process to recover the image on my USB thumbdrive is 12-14 minutes. I deployed 24 laptops today and its only 9:46, this just made my life so much more efficient.

And if I want to, I can add the original image to a recovery partition, when the laptop reboots, you press F11 and follow the prompts to reimage the laptop if something was to go wrong.

 

[Jayce]

And if I want to, I can add the original image to a recovery partition, when the laptop reboots, you press F11 and follow the prompts to reimage the laptop if something was to go wrong.

This is one feature I've heard about Acronis that I really like. However, how much does Acronis cost for both commercial and home use? The fact Clonezilla is free and did what I needed was enough for me to just bust out an old external drive and get to it.

Was Acronis the company that recently was promoting free (but stripped down) versions of itself, coming bundled with a certain hard drive manufacturer?

EDIT - How did you set it up so it's 1 image for any model system? Did you sysprep it?