Fully Automated Workstation Imaging

[tech-man]

Hello All,

I have been tasked with implementing and setting up an imaging server to deploy images to bare-metal machines and brand new systems while maintaining our current naming scheme.

I am running Windows 2003 SBS and currently employ the use of MS RIS w/ sysprep to accomplish the imaging. However, the goal is to fully automate this process and as it stands, i still need to touch the system when imaging. I have to purge the drive, recreate the MBR, and prompt the mini-setup to complete the imaging process. This of course is negligible with respect to time, but still an unnecessary step.

I have tried ACRONIS and Symantec GHOST, which appear to do just that be requires alot more configuration, is not very intuitive, and does not accomplish everything. I still needed to a) install a client software onto workstation to be able to see the workstations server-side and b) needed to install 3 separate components just to PXE boot into the system. That project turned out to be more work than it was worth for something that should be very simple in design and implementation.

My question is....if anyone has any suggestions on an imaging software that is relatively simple in setup and implementation and accomplishes the following:

1. bare-metal system imaging - in other words, can i crack open a new system out of the box, PXE boot up to this imaging software and pull down an image and have it run automated.

2. maintain my current name scheme - i need to have systems added to my domain in consistence with my current name scheme automatically - my current RIS does this

3. PXE boot or network boot into software to pull down image

I am sure I am leaving something out, so if you have any questions about what i'm trying to do, i will gladly fill in any blanks.

Thanks in advance!!

[systempat]

This might be a little outside of what most of us are doing with systems here. Suggest you talk to other corporate support types about best tools for this. Don't know what you're talking about with PXE or RIS.
Only thing I could suggest is that you build the image of the standard sytem build. And keep it on a hard drive or as an image on a server. Then copy the image to the drive for the new boxes. Depending on how you do it this may require pulling the hard drive out of the machine to do the imaging. Someone would still have to do any custom build software installs after that. Either you or a desktop support person.

[Force Flow]

The closest thing I've found that would do *most* of what you're describing is Acronis Snap Deploy (Acronis True Image will NOT fit the bill here). You will have do to a bit of prep work with snap deploy to get everything configured and set before you actually get a nearly unattented process going.

[tech-man]

hey all,

my post is quite simple in scope.....i need to deploy windows 7 to my users of 100+ and need to devise the best possible way to do so. Should this be a migration or upgrade and just transfer over settings using USMT?

All current systems are running windows XP Pro SP3 - all or most systems have 1 - 2GB of RAM, basic 256MB NVIDIA video cards or onboard video cards.

We currently employ the use of WDS on Windows Server 2003 R2, however, we are looking for a better, more automated process that will deploy an image from PXE boot on a bare-metal machine while retaining our naming scheme convention in sysprep or in the desired software.

any and all suggestions are welcomed. thanks!

[EzyStvy]

Of the 100+ machines - approx how many different makes and models do you have?

[tech-man]

The majority of the machines are HP DC 7800/7900's - small few are DC 7700's and even smaller few are DELL Optiplex GX620's which will be phased out once we make the migration.

[Khalil]

Hi there tech-man, this is posted in the wrong forum, hope a mod moves it but I will go ahead and answer your question.
First of all some of the older machines with onboard graphics will more than likely struggle with 7 so will older P4 socket 478 and Athlon Socket 754 and older processors.
In my opinion 1GB is not sufficient to run windows 7 well.
As far as the upgrade, we have tried it several times but it does not seem to work properly. We are pretty much doing data migration with format then install of windows 7.

[tech-man]

Hey Khalil,

Thanks for your response, i posted this in a few places as i wasn't sure where i would get the best response, so i thank you anyway for answering.

I do realize that much of the hardware would be outdated to run windows 7, as we are planning to use mainly HP DC 7900's however, my question was mainly geared towards the "how to" on deploying and setting up imaging deployment. I have tried Acronis and Ghost Suite, which requires a bit of a lengthy process to install and doesn't quite capture all that i am trying to do. both require a client app to be installed on the target machine before you can manage it, which defeats the purpose of bare-metal, automated imaging. WDS seems to do most of this but still requires me to "touch" the machine after imaging and perform some tweaking. i understand that the WDS in windows server 2008 R2 is somewhat more robust, however, i'm not sure what i would be gaining as i would need to make a proposal to my IT manager to purchase the licensing, so if its not worth it, i don't need it.

[Khalil]

How much data is on the workstations? Is the software used by the workstations hosted on the server or on the workstations? I am trying to understand how your network (domain) is setup. I have not done exactly what you are trying to accomplish, one of our clients has 75 users and we did the machines each at a time then re-mapped them to the network. Pain in the rear but we could not get windows 7 installed succesfully on the workstations without having to do it that way. The upgrade was from XP pro to windows 7 Pro. All the workstations were AMD 5600 Dual cores or better. The biggest issue we had with that deployment was the fact the client allowed a lot of the data to be stored locally on the workstations which we have now remedied by making them all store on the server, the server by the way is using 2003 Standard R2 64 bit.
I am not sure I am helping you here I am just sharing my experience with a similar project.

[glc]

I merged 3 threads and cleaned up. In the future, please keep everything in one thread and don't crosspost. Thank you!

- Admin -

[tech-man]

sorry, for the crossposts, but was attempting to get the most feedback, as one may not see all in one area, but i will heed the rules, my apologies, and thank you for the "clean up" post

[tech-man]

Thanks for your reply.....there isn't much data on the workstations as we have users save all data to the network....applications are run individually, so each app would need to be installed, hence the need for mass deployment.....because if i can setup a basic image and use a software that will allow me to push it out, join the system to the domain and the user can just login, that would greatly decrease my downtime and deployment time, i'd like to spend just one evening on pushing out deployment image and one weekend saturday troubleshooting, instead of taking the whole weekend just to push out.

One by one deployment is not an option, i need an enterprise solution that will allow this to be done. most of these workstations are duo-core and the most i would probably need to do is beef up memory on all or most of them, other than that, i should be fine in terms of harware specs.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.