rorton Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 Hi AllNew starter to the forum, so i'll jump right in.Im trying to create a 'generic' XP ghost image, which will work across mutiple platforms. At present we use a mixture of HP EVO Machines, Compaq Evo Machines, Compaq Deskpro machine, and then some older HP Vectra machines.At present i use 2 ghost images. One for the newer HP/Compaq Stuff (Deskpro Being the oldest) then a second for the Older HP Image (Vectra VL400 being the newest)What i would like if possible, is to have a single ghost image for all the machines on site?Reson for using the 2, is issues (i think) with HAL and ACPI, as the Old HP Image wont work on the HP/Compaq and Vice Versa.Using XP Corp, SP1 as the Base OS, then adding additional apps, patches Antivirus etc, then adding drivers, and sysprepping the build, and ghosting upto the ghost server.Am i living in dream land, or is it infact possible to have a base XP Image to work across quite a few types of hardware?Thanks in advance, and sorry for the long 1st post! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattofak Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 Generically its called nLite, and most of the stuff you'll be looking for is in all the unattended setup threads hanging around, check there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tguy Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 If you are looking to create a single 'Ghost' image, check out the Universal Imaging Utility from Binary Research. Http://www.binaryresearch.comIt is used in conjunction with Ghost or other imaging utilities to do what you are looking to do.Right now only supports IDE and SATA drives. SCSI support is coming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radimus Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 you can do it (I have) by forcing a compatible HAL for all the machines in the winnt.sif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeenThereB4 Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 The HAL is only one of many things that always prevented a "Universal Image" from being nearly as good as a fresh install (Even Microsoft will admit this). The problems can be subtle and appear over time, thus many people think they have mastered this. We are in the middle of testing Binary Research's UIU now. It's the first time that we have gotten perfect installs across a wide range of machines. However, if your older machines are non-ACPI, then it won't work for you. You'll still need two images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechnoNRG Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 If you look at the ghost documentation it says you cant create a completely generic image because of the SID. This is a limitation of 2k/XP/2k3. If you really want to use ghost, then you have to take the snapshot of the system at a specific time, as explained in their documentation. This way the final SID and devices are initaliated after the ghosting. To achieve this, make you unattended installation, take you image then just post that image. Make sure that all the drivers etc for all machine are there so they can be found. If you want to force the drivers use a utility that can open the drivers.cab and remove all the stuff that ships with the OS then it will have to look your locations for any match.If you want I think that it would be easier to just keep your two images, and use a program like newsid to change the sid after the ghosting process. For this solution I would create a BootCD with network support and then just write a program that detects with hardware you are using by checking the BIOS ID, just put a choice in the bat file. Then it will just drop down and then in the registry add a run once for newsid. Also remember to ghost before attaching to an active directory domain, otherwise you will corrupt the domain with identical sid's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
un4given1 Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 Yet another perfect situation for RIS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radimus Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 you will not have the SID issue if you run Sysprep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
un4given1 Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 Honestly, you could accomplish what you are trying to do using just an unattended disk and some properly placed drivers files. I used to use one image on a RIS server to build over 15 different model PCs. You just have to take the time and make sure all of the drivers are available for all of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radimus Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 leave your opinions behind... If rorton wanted to know anything about RIS, he would have asked... he asked about Ghost images.Please keep on topic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rorton Posted January 4, 2005 Author Share Posted January 4, 2005 thanks for the reponses guys, sorry i been so long in replying. To Address a few questions, I am using sysprep, and its working well (so no need to regenerate SID's etc). The image consists of XP Pro, on a base machine, complete windows update run (latest patches etc) We then use a deployment utility called 'MARIMBA' to layer any additional apps on the base image, (Office, Antivirus, and LOTS of other legecy images etc), All the drivers for the different HP/EVO Hardware are then in a PnPDrvrs folder, remove any stuff not needed from Device Manager (VGA, NIC, Sound, USB, and any intel related stuff, along with IDE Controllers etc)Then Sysprep the image, and once the machine is shut down, Ghost this upto our ghost server.this single image works well across HP D530's, Compaq D510/D500's and Compaq Deskpro EN machines. All the drivers pickup and basically everything is fine.Sysprep runs OK, and i have allowed sysprep to stop at one point, to allow me to enter the machine name (which is made up from the asset tag attached to the machine) and to allow me to enter a local administrator password. Sysprep then completes once this info is entered, adds the machine to the domain, and jobs done Just be nice to allow this build to work across our older HP Vectra Hardware.I dont think RIS would be of much use in this scenareo. it does take some time to apply the Base OS using RIS to the machine. The having to apply none MS Applications, and our Marimba Client and other bits and pieces, could take upto an hour per machine. At least with a ghost image, the whole image gets applied to the machine, added to the domain in about 7 mins (which i feel is a great time for a 3gig image) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radimus Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 I have a single ghost image running on:evo 500evo 510evo 520optiplex 260optiplex 270latitude d505latitude 500\600latitude 510and I think on deskpro EN400\600 and latitude CPi... basically all I had to do was change/add a line to winnt.sif AND have all the drivers on the PC...MOST of them worked without the line in winnt.sif, but the d505 would BSOD or just fail to start without it, unless the image was created there... which accomplished the same thing[unattended] ComputerType = "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC", Retail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rorton Posted January 4, 2005 Author Share Posted January 4, 2005 thanks for that, so would i be able to add the same entry into my sysprep.inf file? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radimus Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 nope... only winnt.sif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radimus Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 BTW, I do not put the drivers on the UA CD, I copy them to the PC' when I copy the sysprep files.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now