Computer Deployment / Imaging

NightShade03

I was wondering what everyone else out there is using for computer deployment or imaging. I know that Ghost is quite a popular solution, and here at work we use SCCM. Is your deployment completely automated or is there alot of work involved afterward?

dynamik

WDS for smaller deployments.

kriscamaro68

we use a program called ping. we have a basic desktop server that runs linux with a 200 gb hd and have all our images on there. Then you just put the ping disc in the computer to be cloned it then pix booting to find the server and you select the image that you want and thats it. takes about 5-10 min to clone a 7 gb image. once its done the computer reboots and is ready to go with a fresh install of windows. nice thing is ping is free and doesnt need a fast computer to run just a gigabit card and storage.

wd40

we use PXE Lite server to image the machines & SMS - SCCM to deploy applications.

blargoe

Our desktop support groups uses Ghost, and I use WDS for servers.

TravR1

I have found an army of illegals can also be an effective deployment solution.

Bdeadbuddy

We used Ghost for years but we switch for WDS 3 months ago.
i'ts the first prod server i setup in and that has been used as a template for other sites.

we'll probably use SCCM when upgrading our SMS server in couple months, i guess

Forsaken_GA

PXELinux, wget, tar, and a script to change to a few parameters like hostname and network interface information

wweboy

Acronis True Image. Small shop of 200 computers. When I moved up to the big dogs of 5000+ it was Ghost and SCCM for apps.

Hyper-Me

WDS.

Using it in sites with up to 500 machines.

I had over 100 going yesterday on a server with a single NIC and it ran fine. A little slower than with only a few but still decent.

rsutton

We use Ghost - I would guess it takes about 15 minutes setting up a system after the image is loaded. The loading process itself takes about 25 minutes.

Lamini

wweboy wrote: »

Acronis True Image. Small shop of 200 computers. When I moved up to the big dogs of 5000+ it was Ghost and SCCM for apps.

same here, Acronis. But at a smaller scale. I got sick of ghost after all the problems of getting corrupted images, or when it has update problems so i used acronis. im not an avid user of ghost, but i like how acronis has universal restore feature, ie i can image a computer and use that image to restore another unlike hardware computer. ive imaged my quad core raid0 desktop and actually got it restored on a sony vaio dual core.
i can ghost up a panasonic cf51, and toss that 5yr old computers image on a panasonic cf52 released this year, ie i have one master image i apply for 5+ models. In the IA portion of my job, this is a huge boost as I dont have to lock down every single computer. i also like how i can make a bootable DVD with the DRD on it (for some reason, having an ISO of ghost and tossing the image on it makes it no longer bootable), and make my usb stick a bootable acronis boot disk, all built in to the software (acronis bootable media creator). not sure if ghost does that. also not too fond of how ghost does updates; you have to be plugged on the net, acronis i just download the update. I dont think there are VLK versions of Ghost, called symantec myself on that. also dont like how ghost has to be already installed on the computer to make backups, it eats up services, memory, and several hundred megs of hard drive space, where acronis does not. one day i'll actually get into Ghost

snap and deploy vs ghostcast, havent tried it as i only work on a few numbers. no experience on pxe either

paintb4707

Lamini wrote: »

also not too fond of how ghost does updates; you have to be plugged on the net, acronis i just download the update.

The updates for Acronis are absolutely terrible. In fact, I wouldn't even call them updates, they're complete reinstalls. Biggest pain in the ass ever to go around reinstalling the program and rebooting every server.

Lamini

paintb4707 wrote: »

The updates for Acronis are absolutely terrible. In fact, I wouldn't even call them updates, they're complete reinstalls. Biggest pain in the ass ever to go around reinstalling the program and rebooting every server.

true that.

my scenario has different requirements as my systems are tactical and not part of the local network so im not dependent on the internet once i have the updates i need after I have it already downloaded (where ghost requires the same action to be applied on all machines and all have to be plugged in to the internet), otherwise i would be with you.

Xcluziv

wweboy wrote: »

Acronis True Image. Small shop of 200 computers. When I moved up to the big dogs of 5000+ it was Ghost and SCCM for apps.

Yea, we use Ghost @ my job. Worjs fine with our imaging and deployments