Ghost Story Part 7

• Attach Ghostcast server and source computer to hub. (The capacity of the device makes a substantial 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

  Name of session is arbitrary but must match the name on the session provided to the client.

  select Dump from client

  Browse to enter the desired destination and 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 using the list box arrow. 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 an itrcast multicast session. Looks like:

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." (Note the creation of images in Old Gym 102C takes only about six minutes!)