Ghost Story Part 9
DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT

Using Ghostcast Server to clone

using

  1. The PCs to be cloned should have a mouse and keyboard attached. A monitor is not necessary but attaching a monitor to one PC will enable you to monitor the progress from the client side. You should also have a sufficient number of properly setup Ghost boot disks. All the clients and the Ghostcast server should be connected to the hub.

  2. The Ghostcast Server must be assigned an IP in the range used on the client boot disks. It is easy to forget this if you are using the server to connect to the campus backbone with a campus IP assigned. We are using 169.168.167.2 and up for the clients. For example, use 169.168.167.20 for the server.

  3. Start the GhostCast Server on the PC with Symantec Ghost installed and images saved:

    Start > All Programs > Symantec Ghost > Ghostcast Server

  4. Enter parameters into the Ghostcast startup screen

    1. Session Name. The name must match the name used on the client side. We are using itrcast on the client start up disks so itrcast must be used in the session name box on the server.

    2. Load to client should be selected by default

    3. Click on Browse to select the image file. On the Ghostcast server PC in use as of May 19, we are saving these in the c:\images directory. The \images\sys\base directory contains the images for the base Dell model. It was created on April 16. Base models delivered later may have hardware differences (e.g. more memory, upgraded video drivers etc.) The name of the image file created on April 16, 2003 is \images\sys\base\itrbase.gho.

      \images\base\sys\split\ contains an image which can be copied to multiple CDs for loading from CD.

    4. Enter parameters in "Client command line options" area of the screen. Disk (rather than partition should be selected by default.) Click on the list arrow next to Disk and increase the value to '1'. This means that you are cloning disk 1 on the clients. Selecting 1 will automatically cause Ghost to fill in the following parameters: -clone,mode=load,src=@mcitrcast,dst=1

      Add the following: a space, followed by "-sure" followed by another space, followed by "-fx". -sure suppresses verification of the process on the client side. -fx causes the client to be left at the command prompt rather than rebooting.

    5. Select Accept Clients

  5. Boot the client PCs from the boot diskettes. You should see the clients appear on the list in the Ghostcast server PC. After all the clients are listed, click on Send to start the copying of the image to the clients. A progess indicator bar should appear on the client's monitor and the progress will also be reported on the server.

  6. A transfer complete message should appear on the server screen when finished. With the hub we are currently using the cloning process should take about 55 mins.

  7. Remove the diskettes from the clients and turn off the PCs. If you restart the PCs now the Windows setup will begin.
To load image from CD:

Boot PC from Ghost Boot Disk with generic CD support

Insert CDs as requested

Registry marker for cloned PCs:

hklm\system\setup\clonetag