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.
Drive Imaging
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 multicasting, 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
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
is a Windows application that controls all your imaging needs
remotely. However, it does much more than capturing and deploying
images. 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. There is a User Migration
function which 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.
Beginning with Ghost 8.0 (and available in Ghost 11.5) is 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 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.
Starting with Symantec Ghost 7.5, and available through Ghost
11.5, 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.
The Auto Install (AI)
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, 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, Auto Install can be used to remotely
delete software packages you did not install, like those
applications your users downloaded!