Moving current GSS implementation to a new hard drive on the same hosting server

Products

• Ghost Solution Suite

Issue/Introduction

The server where your Ghost Solution Suite (GSS) Console resides is running out of space. It is down into the MBs making it very hard to use. You have tried everything in your power to clean it all out, but it has not been enough. At this time what you would like to do is either purchase a bigger drive and move the GSS Console to the new drive or move the Console completely to another machine.

What is the best way to safely backup everything you need to be able to transfer it?

What you need to accomplish is:

• Back up Ghost including all of the files needed.
• Replace that drive completely with a larger one.
• Restore all Ghost Console to the new drive.

Is this possible?

Environment

GSS 3.x

Resolution

For those running out of space in their System drive (if you don't have another allocated drive for your GSS implementation), it is very hard to clean up the drive because the OS was constantly consuming the disk space with other processes. So, there are two approaches from where you can decide according to your needs:

1. Migrate to a new GSS Server where you'll need to setup the disk allocation according to what you need. In this case, the C:\ drive for the OS and default applications and another drive, like E:\ (for example) is needed for your GSS implementation. Also, it would be a good to add more resources and have the most recent GSS version installed as a way to update the OS. You can refer to the KB article Migrating Ghost Solution Suite to new server to assist with your migration.
   
   
2. If you just to add more space by adding a new hard drive due to running out of space because there are too many large image files, then you'll need to added a new drive, then move the images to the new drive, and use the "mklink" command to map the new drive so GSS could keep using the previous references. For help with this refer to KB articles Using mklink to store images in an alternative location and Store images at different network location by mapping an additional drive in Ghost solution suite 3.x
   
   
3. If the issue of the space is because other applications are consuming the disk space, then consider re-installing GSS on the same server but now pointing the installation to go to the new drive. You can follow follow Steps to Uninstall/Reinstall Ghost Solution Suite 3.x for guidance as needed.
   
   A few other things to consider, if you decide to keep the GSS server on the same hosting server but just move it to a new drive, are:
   
   
   1. Install GSS on that new hard drive,
   2. If the images are in a different drive already, just point to it (the database already has that reference, since it is not changing, nothing special is needed),
   3. If the database is in an off-box SQL server, you'll need to point to it when you are installing GSS,
   4. If the database in on-box and in the same hard drive, you could leave it there or install/move SQL server on the new hard drive and move the database to that drive,
   5. OR, If SQL server is on-box, you could back it up just in case the GSS database, and then install SQL Server in the new hard drive and use the backup copy if needed,
   6. All references of your computers and jobs/tasks will be available when you connect to the database,
   7. The physical path to the images should match that of the jobs. Just check that when you are ready to deploy an image,
   8. If you are using a driversdb then copy that folder to the new drive and any preboot drivers for bootwiz:
      
      
      DriversDB is located under ...\Program Files (x86)\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\DriversDB
      
      Since these are drivers are used for DeplyAnywhere, these will need to be imported again once they are copied over. So copy them somewhere else then import, then they will end up in the deployment server\driversdb.
      
      
   9. If you are using PXE, then you will need to build new configurations,
   10. then, after GSS is installed, you can copy whatever files (outside of the standard installation files for GSS, like drivers) that are custom to the new location:
       
       You can move the files under:
       
            C:\Program Files (x86)\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\Bootwiz\platforms\Winpe11\x64\Drivers
            C:\Program Files (x86)\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\Bootwiz\platforms\Winpe10\x64\Drivers
       
       If you have custom drivers, there would be a folder called CUSTOM in there. That is where all the user imported drivers are:
       
            C:\Program Files (x86)\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\Bootwiz\platforms\Winpe11\x64\Drivers\custom\drivers