Ghost Story Part 7

• Attach Ghostcast server and source computer to hub. (The capacity of the hub makes a difference in the time it takes to create and distribute the image.)

• Assign IP address to Ghostcast server in same range as the IPs used on Ghost Boot disks. We have been using 169.168.167.2 and up for the boot disks. You can use 169.168.167.20 for the Ghostcast Server. (In the future we should investigate automatic assignment of these addresses.)

• Start the Ghostcast server

  Start > Symantec Ghost > Ghostcast Server

• Enter parameters in Ghostcast window

  session name: itrcast

  select Dump from client

  Browse to enter the desired name for the image. The current ghostcast server is storing images in c:\images\sys\base for the base model; in c:\images\sys\mid for the midrange model.

  Increment disk count to 1. This will automatically show the options which will be executed on the client computer.

  Add the following options
  -sure -fx
  Be sure these options are separated with a space.

  -sure suppresses confirmation prompts; -fx leaves the computer at the DOS prompt.

  Select Accept Clients

• Boot source PC with Ghost Boot disk. These disks were created with an autoexec file which automatically starts Ghost and joins the itrcast multicast session.

Note that the process starts as soon as client pc boots up. There is no opportunity to intervene.

It took about 1 hour and 16 mins to create the image on the base model (20 GB hard drive with 4 GB of data). The default compression setting is not clearly stated. Might be "fast."