The Symantec Ghost package is comprised of several utilities and can be broken down into four basic groups: Drive Imaging, Ghost Utilities, the Ghost Console and Auto Install. These tools can deploy operating systems, change or reset network settings, migrate users, deploy software and much more. Many organizations use the original DOS aspects of Ghost, but few use the entire package. Read below to see if your organization is using Ghost to its fullest.
Hard Drive Imaging
Hard drive imaging is the most basic and original function of Ghost which copies a hard drive to another hard drive, or stores a compressed image of the hard drive for later deployment to other computers. Now, through the use of network multi-casting, Symantec Ghost is able to send a Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, Vista or Windows 7 image (Ghost is not designed for Server level operating systems) to multiple machines across a network in minutes. As an example, a Microsoft Windows XP image of 2GB may be able to be deployed to 20 machines in less than 10 minutes depending on network and hardware speed.
Ghost Utilities
Symantec Ghost Solution Suite Ghost Utilities include the Ghost Boot Wizard, Gdisk, Ghost Walker and Ghost Explorer. The boot wizard creates a variety of DOS floppy boot disks for Ghost. Gdisk is a command line based DOS utility, which allows the users to create, hide and modify partitions. Ghost Walker is a DOS utility that changes the security ID (SID) for Microsoft Windows NT, 2000, XP and Vista, thereby making each machine unique to the Active Directory. Ghost Explorer opens compressed images so the user can extract files. With Fat 32 and now NTFS images, Ghost Explorer can even modify the images by adding, deleting or editing files.
The Ghost Console
The Ghost Console is a Windows application that controls all your imaging needs remotely. Through the Ghost Console, you can reset network configurations for client PCs, such as machine name, IP address, and even join the clients to your domain. The User Migration function copies users, along with their data and settings from one PC, and deploys that data to another. User Migration tasks can also take that data and migrate it from one operating system to another. Upgrading from Windows Vista to 7? Not a problem. with the hardware and software inventory system. Using the Windows WMI feature, you can view and query all the hardware and software installed on each client machine. Want to know which machines don't have the latest patch? Ghost Console can do that, and then help you send the update. Finally, the Ghost Console can deploy and remove software using Auto Install packages, giving you greater control over what is, and is not, installed on your PCs.
The Ghost Console can now create a virtual partition on the client PCs, as needed. This virtual partition handles all the imaging functions without anyone having to touch the PC, and is deleted when not in use.
Ghost Auto Install (AI)
Ghost Auto Install software can be used independently of Symantec Ghost. It is designed to capture the installation of software and create a single executable package, which can then be deployed by CD, across a network, or through the Ghost Console. Installing Microsoft Office can be done in minutes to multiple machines across a network. Should you then change versions, Ghost AI can completely remove the original Microsoft Office installation, giving you a clean slate to work with before installing the new version.
With a little creativity, Ghost Auto Install can be used to remotely delete software packages you did not install, like those applications your users downloaded!
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