Distributing a disk image

Products

• Ghost Solution Suite

Issue/Introduction

Distribute a Ghost image file to managed computers to deploy a previously created disk image. Ghost Solution Suite supports hardware independent imaging through DeployAnywhere (DA).

Environment

GSS 3.3 RUx

Resolution

DeployAnywhere creates a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) and updates network drivers and storage drivers. It performs post-imaging functionality while you are still in automation mode.

You can use the following switches with DeployAnywhere:

• /logPath that specifies the fully qualified path where the DA log files are written.

• /logID that specifies the ID to prepend to the log file name.

Distribute a hard disk image using the New Job Wizard or adding the Distribute Disk Image task when building new jobs. You can create the disk image file using the Create a Disk Image task.

Note:

If you deploy a Windows image over a Linux computer or a Linux image over a Windows computer, you must change the path of the Ghost Solution Suite Agent for the Windows log file.

To distribute a disk image

1. In the Jobs pane in the Ghost Solution Suite Console, select a job.

2. In the Details pane, click Add and select Distribute Disk Image....

3. In the task window, select the location of the image to be deployed. Click on the Select options.

4. (optional) Additional Parameters are displayed when you select the Ghost tool for imaging. You can modify the Additional Parameters if required.

   Note:

   Ensure to enter the additional parameters correctly, else the imaging task fails.

5. If you select a Ghost image, the Enable Partition Imaging (Ghost Only) option is enabled. You can specify the partition number of the source image that you want to deploy on the target computer. Select the Drive number and the Partition number of the target computer.

6. Select Prepared using Sysprep if the image was captured using Sysprep.

   Click Sysprep Settings to open the Sysprep Advanced Settings dialog.

7. In the Data transfer mode, select if the image should be distributed using either of the following:

   • GhostCast Server

     Enter the Session Name that should be used.

   • Multicast using Ghost

8. Select Automatically perform configuration task after completing this imaging task to restart the computer and push the configuration settings to the imaged computer.

   Note:

   If you clear this option, a warning appears, confirming that you want to remove the configuration step after the image is deployed. As a result, the imaged computer may not reconnect to the network.

9. (Optional) Select the DeployAnywhere option if you want to do hardware independent imaging.

   (Optional) Click Advanced and browse to the Windows Directory and set additional parameters.

10. (Optional) Select the Boot to production to complete configuration task.

11. From the Automation pre-boot environment (WinPE/ Linux) drop-down list, select the required pre-boot environment to perform the Distribute Disk Image task. By default, the Default Automation (Auto-select) type is selected.

12. Click Next.

13. (Optional) Set Return Codes.

14. Click Finish. The task appears in the Task list for the job. The disk image is distributed when you run this task.