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Server Imaging?

Chiefcrowe

Chiefcrowe

Diamond Member
Does anyone have a good program to recommend that can make a clone image of a windows 2003 or 2008 server like ghost does for workstations?
thanks!
 
I'm pretty sure I've used the old DOS version of Ghost to image server installs just fine. As should any of the free tools like partimage, clonezilla, ntfsclone, etc.
 
Just a reminder that you don't want to use an image backup if the server is a DC. Otherwise, I use ghost4linux.
 
Depends on what you want to use it for.

Unattended installs I like Windows Deployment Server w/Imagex (dsim now), MOM/SMS, Altiris or Ghost (last solution in ghost for unattends).

For migrations I usually just back up the data and redeploy the OS and migrate date to the new server (excluding Biztalk, Im finished screwing with that thing).

For mass deployments (we call it pressing), I just ghost it and pxe boot and ghostcast on a private network.

Pretty much any of the current tools for windows (or linux) will work just fine. The good thing is that if you screw it up you can just make another image 😀
 
phoenix79 said:
Just a reminder that you don't want to use an image backup if the server is a DC. Otherwise, I use ghost4linux.
Click to expand...

Last I checked G4U didn't understand any filesystems, it always did a block-by-block copy so it's probably the worst of the bunch. You can help make the images slightly smaller by creating a huge file holding zeros before creating the image and then compressing it after, but it'll still be larger than a "smart" imaging tool like partimage or ntfsclone.
 
Actually, G4L does handle NTFS well now. It only images the section of the hdd that is used. It's not the most efficient solution, but in RAW mode it will copy any filesystem.
 
phoenix79 said:
Actually, G4L does handle NTFS well now. It only images the section of the hdd that is used. It's not the most efficient solution, but in RAW mode it will copy any filesystem.
Click to expand...

Interesting, I may have to take another look at it again. I don't image things that much anymore so when I do I just usually bootup Ubuntu from a CD or USB stick and manually create the image myself with whatever low-level tool is appropriate.
 
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