Are there any alternatives to Ghost left?

[gwendolyn8]

Hello,

(If there is a better forum here to post this in, let me know. This was the closest I could find.)

I work in a 225 pc environment with 23 servers and we are currently using Ghost 8.0 and we're looking at our options before automatically going for the latest version of Ghost (which is Symantec Ghost Solutions Suite 1.1).

Firstly, I was wondering if Ghost is the only real product left in this area? It seems like they've purchased all of their competitors and either dismantled them or absorbed them.

Secondly, does anyone have Symantec Ghost Solutions Suite 1.1, and if so, what do you think?

And thirdly, I know this is kind of weird, but has anyone seen a formal review for Symantec Ghost Solutions Suite 1.1? I've googled it and searched a number of tech magazines, but can't find anything on it. I can't believe that that's really the case, since it's a pretty major software release, but I don't really know what I'm doing wrong in my search for this. If someone remembers reading a review somewhere or knows of a keyword I should add/change to my search, please give me a heads up!

Thanks!
Gwendolyn

 

[BlueWeasel]

I dropped Ghost several years ago and have been using Acronis TrueImage since. I only use it on my personal systems, but I believe a Corporate/Server license is available.

 

[gwendolyn8]

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
I dropped Ghost several years ago and have been using Acronis TrueImage since. I only use it on my personal systems, but I believe a Corporate/Server license is available.

That is marketed as a backup tool, though I see that they have something called Snap Deploy for the mass deploying of Images. Does anyone know anything about that?

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
I dropped Ghost several years ago and have been using Acronis TrueImage since. I only use it on my personal systems, but I believe a Corporate/Server license is available.

I'm going to look into Acronis TrueImage since Ghost has been pissing me off lately (and I have Solution Suite 1.0). :|

 

[Underclocked]

I use Acronis 8 - last available iteration but another possible is http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html

 

[Smilin]

Use RIS !!!!!

It comes free with your Windows servers and is REALLY not that hard to learn. Seriously it's easy. There is even a 1-stop howto KB on it.

It is also superior to imaging software in many regards. Here at MS people are always loading and reloading PCs (another new Vista build? ). All it takes is to sit down, boot a machine, hit F12 then pick the OS (and apps) you want. Tada!


For a small handful of machines (talking home or workgroup here) imaging software is great. For a corporate environment of just about any size RIS is the way to go.

 

[alembic5]

Another possibility is Altiris deployment server. It can be expensive, but can actually do some pretty cool stuff. I used that in my last company, and gives you the ability to make hardware independant images, PXE booting capability, and tons of other things. It is a complex piece of software, but works pretty good. Just whatever you do, stay away from the notification server piece. That is the biggest joke I've ever used. I spent more time fixing it than using it! That is just my opinion, and as always, YMMV. Cheers!

 

[Nothinman]

Why upgrade at all? If the current system works why change things around?

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: Smilin

Use RIS !!!!!

It comes free with your Windows servers and is REALLY not that hard to learn. Seriously it's easy. There is even a 1-stop howto KB on it.

It is also superior to imaging software in many regards. Here at MS people are always loading and reloading PCs (another new Vista build? ). All it takes is to sit down, boot a machine, hit F12 then pick the OS (and apps) you want. Tada!


For a small handful of machines (talking home or workgroup here) imaging software is great. For a corporate environment of just about any size RIS is the way to go.

I'm using RIS integrated with Ghost. RIS by itself sucks ass. I'm not big on unattended installs (WAAAY too slow). I can push out a universal image (platform independent) using PXE boot and the RIS menu selection that works on every machine in our company in 7 minutes. And it will configure itself in 30-45 minutes. This includes having the machine renamed and added to the domain. Every application will be loaded and configured exactly the way I want it configured. Fully configured machine in under 1hr. It just doesn't get any better than that. Well it actually does, I was running the RIS/Ghost Server in a VMWare session...on my laptop. Talk about a mobile deployment server. I can also do the reverse. I can save an image to my server using RIS/Ghost, and then cut a bootable backup DVD for the user.

The ONLY issue I have with Ghost is that the multicast feature is not very dependable. If Symantec was able to resolve that issue, I'd have no complaints.

 

[gwendolyn8]

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
I dropped Ghost several years ago and have been using Acronis TrueImage since. I only use it on my personal systems, but I believe a Corporate/Server license is available.

I'm going to look into Acronis TrueImage since Ghost has been pissing me off lately (and I have Solution Suite 1.0). :|

What about it is pissing you off?

 

[gwendolyn8]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Why upgrade at all? If the current system works why change things around?

Not my call, but if had to guess, I think that they just want to know if there's something better out there than we're using now. I don't know that they're really even considering a purchase at this point, just that I'm supposed to present on the options on Monday.

 

[gwendolyn8]

Thanks, everyone, for your answers, so far.

 

[corkyg]

Acronis TrueImage 9.0, bu9ld 3633 will do anything Ghost can do and more - faster too. As I see the task, you need a portable drive image than can be used on several machines?

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: gwendolyn8

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
I dropped Ghost several years ago and have been using Acronis TrueImage since. I only use it on my personal systems, but I believe a Corporate/Server license is available.

I'm going to look into Acronis TrueImage since Ghost has been pissing me off lately (and I have Solution Suite 1.0). :|

What about it is pissing you off?

The freakin' multicast. It just isn't reliable. Some systems it will work perfect, some it will refuse to multicast to even two clients. :|

 

[Smilin]

Question for everyone out there:

What is it RIS doesn't do that you want? (multicasting instead of simultaneous unicast for example)

I get this feeling a lot of people don't know what it is capable of and are avoiding it for some reason that doesn't exist.

 

[Allanv]

try livestate recovery and delivery both symantec products but recovery is far better than ghost and delivery is damn easy to use to build an OS from PXE Boot

 

[dainthomas]

I used Partition Master when I upgraded my hd last time. Worked great.

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: Smilin
Question for everyone out there:

What is it RIS doesn't do that you want? (multicasting instead of simultaneous unicast for example)

I get this feeling a lot of people don't know what it is capable of and are avoiding it for some reason that doesn't exist.

RIS by itself will not push out an image. Just an unattended install.

 

[Turkey22]

Originally posted by: Smilin
Question for everyone out there:

What is it RIS doesn't do that you want? (multicasting instead of simultaneous unicast for example)

I get this feeling a lot of people don't know what it is capable of and are avoiding it for some reason that doesn't exist.

Ease of setup, knowing the product better, time taken to image and set up. There are some situations where RIS might be interesting, but for me ghost takes 6 minutes to image a machine and it takes me 15 or less to rename and add to the domain re-enter the office cd key, redo printers etc. So around 20 min to go from down to up. I'm already familiar with ghost after using it for the past 5 years. Also creating the image is easy, setting it up and then creating it takes almost no time at all either. I've taken MS classes and have seen what you need to do for RIS. I was willing to go that route and work with it, but in the end we figured it would take less time to use ghost.

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: Turkey22

Originally posted by: Smilin
Question for everyone out there:

What is it RIS doesn't do that you want? (multicasting instead of simultaneous unicast for example)

I get this feeling a lot of people don't know what it is capable of and are avoiding it for some reason that doesn't exist.

Ease of setup, knowing the product better, time taken to image and set up. There are some situations where RIS might be interesting, but for me ghost takes 6 minutes to image a machine and it takes me 15 or less to rename and add to the domain re-enter the office cd key, redo printers etc. So around 20 min to go from down to up. I'm already familiar with ghost after using it for the past 5 years. Also creating the image is easy, setting it up and then creating it takes almost no time at all either. I've taken MS classes and have seen what you need to do for RIS. I was willing to go that route and work with it, but in the end we figured it would take less time to use ghost.

Like I said RIS by itselfs sucks, but integrate it with ghost, and you have the best of both worlds (PXE boot and image deployment).

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: Smilin
Question for everyone out there:

What is it RIS doesn't do that you want? (multicasting instead of simultaneous unicast for example)

I get this feeling a lot of people don't know what it is capable of and are avoiding it for some reason that doesn't exist.

RIS by itself will not push out an image. Just an unattended install.

Hm. What does an image gain you? You still have installed apps and everything when RIS is done. And actually it's not an unattended install at all. Ripreping just sets the same registry flags as a sysprep so that minisetup runs...you do the same thing when dropping a ghost image on right?

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Turkey22

Originally posted by: Smilin
Question for everyone out there:

What is it RIS doesn't do that you want? (multicasting instead of simultaneous unicast for example)

I get this feeling a lot of people don't know what it is capable of and are avoiding it for some reason that doesn't exist.

Ease of setup, knowing the product better, time taken to image and set up. There are some situations where RIS might be interesting, but for me ghost takes 6 minutes to image a machine and it takes me 15 or less to rename and add to the domain re-enter the office cd key, redo printers etc. So around 20 min to go from down to up. I'm already familiar with ghost after using it for the past 5 years. Also creating the image is easy, setting it up and then creating it takes almost no time at all either. I've taken MS classes and have seen what you need to do for RIS. I was willing to go that route and work with it, but in the end we figured it would take less time to use ghost.

Yes on a very small scale I can definately see where imaging would be better. If you have to execute those extra steps you mentions it would definately fall under small scale.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Like I said RIS by itselfs sucks, but integrate it with ghost, and you have the best of both worlds (PXE boot and image deployment).

Doesn't the latest ghost do PXE? (it's been a while for me)

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: Smilin

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: Smilin
Question for everyone out there:

What is it RIS doesn't do that you want? (multicasting instead of simultaneous unicast for example)

I get this feeling a lot of people don't know what it is capable of and are avoiding it for some reason that doesn't exist.

RIS by itself will not push out an image. Just an unattended install.

Hm. What does an image gain you? You still have installed apps and everything when RIS is done. And actually it's not an unattended install at all. Ripreping just sets the same registry flags as a sysprep so that minisetup runs...you do the same thing when dropping a ghost image on right?

The problem with just RIS and Riprep (bascially an unattended install with sysprep) is that first and foremost, it takes WAY too long to complete. Secondly, I can customize an image down to every minute detail, with just RIS and Riprep, it is very tough to do. When I say minute detail, I mean minute. I can shift the showdesktop icon two places to the left, set exactly how I want the icons to appear on the desktop, options turned off or on in each program, whatever. And finally, if I want to have a machine imaged at a remote site in our remote office in Japan, I can cut a bootable DVD and mail it to them. I also send HP our image to have it preloaded, and it gets shipped straight to the user. We don't even touch it. If we need to reimage a machine, we boot off the NIC, hit the RIS server, pull down the image in 5-7 minutes (this is a 5GB image), let sysprep run, name the machine (we have a script that auto names the machine), and then add it to the domain (script that automatically does it). In about 45minutes, the machine is fully built and ready to go. With RIS, that is enough time to just install Windows XP. And like I said, that is if we just need to rebuild a machine. If it is a new machine, we just ship it to teh user. Done. ZERO build time.

 

[sourceninja]

we use zen imaging.