Ghost allows you to create a boot disk which will connect to the server. If you have 300 machines - I presume they are identical - why would you want to boot WinPE at all and go trough the hassle of creating fancy scripts? You can simply boot the ghost client cd with dhcp support & specific ndis driver for the network card. You can then restore the images from the server to your heart's content.
pmshah has it exactly right... Why wait for WinPE to bootup, although it can be done just like Kilimats had said by using penetcfg. You will add the line indicated below to the bottom of the penetcfg.ini file. But, I think you are wasting time waiting on WinPE to bootup. I have the universal bootdisk on cd that loads the bootfiles into a RAMdrive then ejects the cd (so you can move to the next PC) and finishes the bootup on Ramdrive. You can also use a floppy, but it is not nearly as fast.
[NetDrive1]
; Drive = * (to use the first available drive letter)
Drive = Y:
NetworkPath = \\servername\share
UserName = add username here
; Password = (leave it empty to be prompted for a password)
Password = add password here
[PostNetAutoRun]
; StarupFlag = CommandLine
; StartupFlag is a bit field that can take the following values:
; 0 = run hidden and wait (00 00 00 00)
; 1 = run normal and wait (00 00 00 01)
; 2 = run hidden and don't wait (00 00 00 10)
; 3 = run normal and don't wait (00 00 00 11)
1 = Z:\Ghost\Ghost32.exe
The nice thing about the Universal bootdisk (www.netbootdisk.com) is that it autodetects every network card I have in my environment by default (which is around 15 counting laptops). They also have provided a way to add protocol.ini settings to get 100/Full if neccessary. This disk will autolog onto a network (which is not neccessary w/mulitcast) or prompt users each time for credentials. Since you are using multicast you will just provide the sever session name in the command line when you autolaunch ghost.
Automatic Bart PE Ghost Client
in Multi-Boot CD/DVDs
Posted
pmshah has it exactly right... Why wait for WinPE to bootup, although it can be done just like Kilimats had said by using penetcfg. You will add the line indicated below to the bottom of the penetcfg.ini file. But, I think you are wasting time waiting on WinPE to bootup. I have the universal bootdisk on cd that loads the bootfiles into a RAMdrive then ejects the cd (so you can move to the next PC) and finishes the bootup on Ramdrive. You can also use a floppy, but it is not nearly as fast.
[NetDrive1]
; Drive = * (to use the first available drive letter)
Drive = Y:
NetworkPath = \\servername\share
UserName = add username here
; Password = (leave it empty to be prompted for a password)
Password = add password here
[PostNetAutoRun]
; StarupFlag = CommandLine
; StartupFlag is a bit field that can take the following values:
; 0 = run hidden and wait (00 00 00 00)
; 1 = run normal and wait (00 00 00 01)
; 2 = run hidden and don't wait (00 00 00 10)
; 3 = run normal and don't wait (00 00 00 11)
1 = Z:\Ghost\Ghost32.exe
The nice thing about the Universal bootdisk (www.netbootdisk.com) is that it autodetects every network card I have in my environment by default (which is around 15 counting laptops). They also have provided a way to add protocol.ini settings to get 100/Full if neccessary. This disk will autolog onto a network (which is not neccessary w/mulitcast) or prompt users each time for credentials. Since you are using multicast you will just provide the sever session name in the command line when you autolaunch ghost.
GHOST.EXE -buffersize=32 -sure -rb -clone,mode=restore,src=@mc"session",dst=1
FYI.. we saw a dramatic imporvement when we added the -buffersize=32 line
Good Luck,
Cliff