Symantec Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 — moving beyond mere disk imaging
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Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 1 of 18
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 1 of 18
Symantec Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 contains much more than just your basic disk cloning utilities. As disk cloning has become a much more common practice (with a lot more competition) Symantec has taken steps to ensure that the corporate version of Ghost contains many features above and beyond basic disk cloning to help it retain it’s position of prominence in the area of cloning.
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Josh Hoskins
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Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 2 of 18
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 2 of 18
As you can see from this list of installable options, there is much more to Ghost Corporate edition than the simple Ghost cloning program. While almost all of these features have a tremendous amount of value, in this gallery we will be looking at the GhostCast Server feature, along with the Ghost Boot Wizard.
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Josh Hoskins
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 3 of 18
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 3 of 18
This is the first screen of the Ghost Boot Wizard. The Ghost Boot Wizard is a utility to help you create a Ghost boot disk with the appropriate utilities for the type of cloning you will be doing, and the needed Ghost executables. There are many types of disks available. One of the big upgrades in version 8 is the new ability to create CD/DVD startup disks instead of just floppies. Since we will be using the GhostCast server, we will need to create a Network Boot Disk.
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Josh Hoskins
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 4 of 18
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 4 of 18
Since we will be creating a Network Boot Disk, the first thing we must do is select the type of NIC in the client PC’s. Ghost includes a large number of network card drivers by default. If the NIC in your clients is listed, then simply select that card and click next. If your card is not included you can create a new template (by modifying the Multicard Template), then saving it with a new name (usually naming it according to the driver contained).
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Josh Hoskins
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 5 of 18
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 5 of 18
Since the BroadCom NIC we have in our client system is not included by default in Ghost, we will have to create a new template for it. The first step is having the driver for your NIC already downloaded. You will need to make sure you download the DOS version of your driver, as that is the OS your Ghost Boot Disk will run. Next you will configure a Multicard Template from the Ghost Boot Wizard dialog. Following that you will use the Setup button to browse to the directory to where you downloaded your driver. Normally, you will not have to make any changes to the defaults, but if you do you add manual parameters to your driver here. If you are having trouble getting the driver work, check the manufactures support site for issues on the DOS driver. You will often certain parameters to add in to make it work.
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Josh Hoskins
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 6 of 18
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 6 of 18
The next step in creating your boot disk is to select the version of DOS you will be using. By default Ghost Corporate Edition 8 included PC-DOS, but if you own a copy of MS-DOS you can also use that. This can be useful, if you are proficient in MS-DOS, in troubleshooting any errors you have, especially with your NIC drivers. In this demo, we will be using PC-DOS as it is fully functional, and will more than suit our needs in this case.
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Josh Hoskins
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 7 of 18
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 7 of 18
You will then set your options for the loading of Ghost itself. While the wizard will by default load the Corporate Edition version 8 Ghost executable, you can also use any other version of Ghost.exe you have. This is useful if you wish to take advantage of the additional drivers in Ghost 8 or the CD/DVD boot disk capabilities while maintaining a previous version of Ghost infrastructure. Also, you can add parameters to the execution of Ghost.exe. There are many useful parameters for Ghost. You can find a listing of common one’s here.
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Josh Hoskins
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 8 of 18
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 8 of 18
You will then choose whether you will need to override BIOS control of USB or Firewire devices. While typically not needed if you will be using USB or Firewire devices as one of your cloning options it may be useful to select the appropriate control here, in case you come across a BIOS that has access to these devices disabled. It can save you a trip back to your desktop to create a new set of startup disks. As we will be doing a network imaging though, we will not select either of these options.
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Josh Hoskins
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 9 of 18
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 9 of 18
You can then determine how you will want Ghost to access your network. Typically DHCP will be sufficient to provide access to your network, but in certain cases you may want to segregate your ghost traffic, or just isolate it to range of IP addresses for monitoring. If either of those is the case, you can set a static IP address for any client booted to this Ghost boot disk to use. Be careful though, as you do not assign the same IP to multiple boot disks, as this can lead to issues of the same IP address being active by multiple devices on your network, and will cause your disk imaging to fail.
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Josh Hoskins
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 10 of 18
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 10 of 18
At this point you select your final options for your disk. If you are using DHCP then you can safely create multiple copies of this disk image, but if you are using static IP’s you will need to go through the process again to assign a different IP to each disk set. You can also format your floppy disks directly from this screen, so you do not have to that separately in Windows Explorer or through a command prompt window.
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Josh Hoskins
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 11 of 18
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 11 of 18
You will now open your GhostCast Server. This can be installed on a server or a desktop. It does not have to be installed on the system that will house the image, though that will improve performance. From this screen we can take an image from a system or restore an image from a system. While you can restore an image to multiple systems simultaneously through this window, you can only take an image from one system at a time. You can overcome this though, by simply opening multiple copies of GhostCast Server and using different session names.
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Josh Hoskins
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 12 of 18
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 12 of 18
Since we will be cloning the disk of our test system, we will select the option of Create Image. We will then name our current session. This name is used by Ghost clients to connect to the server. Finally you will choose where to copy the image file created, and name the file. You can save the image locally, or you can choose to store it on a network drive using either a UNC path or mapped drive. When you have you options set, you need to press the Accept Clients button. Your clients will fail to connect unless you press this button.
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Josh Hoskins
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 13 of 18
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 13 of 18
You will then boot your client system to the boot disks we created previously. Once Ghost is loaded you are presented with this screen. We will select the GhostCast option, as that is the type of imaging we are doing. We will select a MultiCast session, which will allow other Ghost clients to access the server. While this is not needed when taking an individual image, it is needed when deploying the same image to multiple systems simultaneously.
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Josh Hoskins
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 14 of 18
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 14 of 18
We are then prompted to input the Session name to join. We will use the Session Name we set in the GhostCast Server console. You can also have the client connect to only the GhostCast Server’s IP address as this will reduce broadcast traffic across your network. Whether to use this option is up to you, and your individual network needs.
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Josh Hoskins
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 15 of 18
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 15 of 18
You will then select which disk you wish to image. This is fairly straightforward if you only have one disk in your client system. If you do not, the easiest method is to know the size of the disk you wish to clone. If your multiple disks are the same size, you will need to know the number of the drive. How you determine the number is different whether you are using ATA or SCSI drives. SCSI drives follow their place on the SCSI chain, while ATA drives typically go in order Primary Channel Master (1), Primary Channel Slave (2), Secondary Channel Master (3), and Secondary Channel Slave (4).
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Josh Hoskins
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 16 of 18
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 16 of 18
You can then choose to compress the image file created. Higher levels of compression will cause your image to take longer to make and to restore, though the disk space taken by the image file will be less. This is an option you must decide on based upon your disk space available, and the rapidness you need in making and deploying images. The Fast compression option is generally a good choice, as it provides a good medium between speed and size.
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Josh Hoskins
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 17 of 18
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 17 of 18
As soon as you choose your compression option your imaging process will begin. The client will display your current progress, including the count of megabyte’s copies, and your average speed per minute. It will also give you a fairly good estimation on the time remaining. One thing to note about the client is that it will not automatically reboot. You will need to manually reboot the client (remembering to remove the start up disks) when the imaging is complete.
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Josh Hoskins
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 18 of 18
Ghost Corporate Edition Version 8 - 18 of 18
You will also receive feedback on your GhostCast Server console as the image is being taken. Once the image is created, you can immediately begin sending the image out to other systems. This is done in this same window by simply selecting Restore Image, selecting the session name; the image file and pressing accept clients. The client portion is also identical, save the wording of the prompts warning you that you will be overwriting all data contained on the disk you selected. Also, you can deploy the image to multiple clients at once through this same manner. Simply point them all at the same session name (remember to select MultiCast), and the GhostCast server can send the image to them.
© CNET Networks, Inc.
Josh Hoskins
