Free Deployment/Imaging options?

T

thecrafter

I have LOVED the Cock for
Joined
Feb 11, 2011
Messages
571
Hi everyone!

I work at a simple company. Up until now we've been imaging the worker's PCs manually using Clonezilla. Just sysprep a reference OS, create an image out of it, put it on an external HD, and then deploy it to other PCs using that HD and the Clonezilla CD.

We do have a 2008 R2 server but we are still using workgroups and not domains.

We're looking to optimize the process because we're expanding. I've done some preliminary research and my options so far come down to using MDT, PING, or Clonezilla Server.

Are there any tips or better options/ideas you guys could recommend? Thanks in advance
 
WDS. You already have server 08 R2. Its works well. Just sysprep the reference computer capture it and deploy it. Vorks very slick. You can do XP as well (but you need a different image for each computer that has different hardware. If they are identical machines it works great) with win vista and seven you can have one image and pull drivers from a share. One image for any type of hardware as long as you have the drivers in that folder.
 
Also it needs to run on a computer that's on a domain. The systems being imaged don't have to be on that domain though.
 
If you're expanding take the time to do things right and setup a domain.
Then use WDS. You don't need to reinvent the wheel when you already have all the tools you need built into 08 R2
 
expanding to a domain isn't up to me. I'm actually just a grunt that volunteered to help the sys admin with this because he's quite busy atm. He's putting his trust in me and assigned me a project to build an imaging server. I don't even know if we've got AD on the server and if not I don't know if he'll be willing to set one up. That's why I kinda threw out WDS although I will ask him about AD tomorrow
 
thecrafter said:
expanding to a domain isn't up to me. I'm actually just a grunt that volunteered to help the sys admin with this because he's quite busy atm. He's putting his trust in me and assigned me a project to build an imaging server. I don't even know if we've got AD on the server and if not I don't know if he'll be willing to set one up. That's why I kinda threw out WDS although I will ask him about AD tomorrow
Click to expand...

If you don't have a domain then you won't have AD.
 
I wouldn't want to give advice without bringing up the issue that you are probably ready to migrate to ao domain. It's required for Windows Deployment Service. MDT can run without a domain I believe although I'm a little fuzzy. There is also the Windows Automated Installation Kit for Windows 7 which just runs on a spare 7 computer.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd349343(WS.10).aspx


calvinj said:
Clonezilla! Free, Easy to setup, works
Click to expand...

Have you used the server version in an environment? What's it like and did you have any issues or trip ups, things worth mentioning?
 
/usr/home said:
You can do XP as well (but you need a different image for each computer that has different hardware.
Click to expand...

While you cant use the drivers folder of WDS when it comes to XP, you can still make one image for all types of hardware running XP. There's way to create a driver folder in the Windows XP image and then when sysprep is running, it will scan that folder and apply any applicable driver.
 
Lazy_Moron said:
While you cant use the drivers folder of WDS when it comes to XP, you can still make one image for all types of hardware running XP. There's way to create a driver folder in the Windows XP image and then when sysprep is running, it will scan that folder and apply any applicable driver.
Click to expand...

Yeah. At work I use WDS to image machines. We only have two types of machines so it's just two different XP images to maintain. I found it's a PITA with the XP drivers because sysprep takes FOREVER doing it that way. It works though...
 
/usr/home said:
Yeah. At work I use WDS to image machines. We only have two types of machines so it's just two different XP images to maintain. I found it's a PITA with the XP drivers because sysprep takes FOREVER doing it that way. It works though...
Click to expand...

Ah yeah 2 XP images is not bad at all. I used to service 5-8 different Dell models at one time and I ended up creating one image with a big driver repository. Once I got it working, adding new Dell models was easy though and just had to drop the new drivers in, resysprep and image.

Going to Windows 7, really simplified everything though :cool:
 
Well we settled on FOG for now. The admin threw out MDT. He said they tried it in the past and it gave them problems. Mostly due to how they don't have VLK and he said MDT didn't work well without VLKs, it spat out an error like windows didn't install successfully or something without.

Is that really an issue with MDT?

He also said that they'll use the machine to image many machines over WAN so we need multicast and he said no to installing WDS on our 2008 R2 server =/
 
If you are expanding I would suggest that you setup a domain anyway.makes things so much easier, and a VLK doesn't require anything special to set up. could set that up on the server you have now.
 
Exavior said:
If you are expanding I would suggest that you setup a domain anyway.makes things so much easier, and a VLK doesn't require anything special to set up. could set that up on the server you have now.
Click to expand...

I'm not the sys admin so I don't have control on how they run things here. As for VLK I meant we don't have the actual volume license keys themselves. We use the keys that come with the PCs, the individual licenses
 
thecrafter said:
I'm not the sys admin so I don't have control on how they run things here.
Click to expand...
This is the second time you've mentioned that. Maybe your admin wouldn't be so busy if he setup a domain where he can automate a lot of his daily tasks without having to manage workstations separately one by one.
 
thecrafter said:
I'm not the sys admin so I don't have control on how they run things here. As for VLK I meant we don't have the actual volume license keys themselves. We use the keys that come with the PCs, the individual licenses
Click to expand...

ok, that would make a difference, then yes that won't work. Understand that your not the admin and ultimately can't make any choices like that. just making a suggestion. To me it seems odd to have a need for an image server when you don't have a proper network in place to start with. But depending on how much of a dick the current admin is he might not like somebody suggesting how to improve things. my coworker could cause the entire network to go on its ass and still insist he isn't doing anything wrong and that anyone giving him suggestions on how not to knock it on its ass is wrong. Some people just like being "sys admin" go to their heads. hell, me, if you want to tell me some way to do my job easier or have it automate itself to some degree. Then go right ahead. I like having things report to me when they start having problems so that i can react head of time. printer down to 10% toner, let it send me an email so that i can make sure i have a replacement on hand. response time of the mail server slowing down, let me check if there is DOS going on before i start to getting one call after another about the server not responding. I like to think that if i'm doing my job right then nobody knows that there was ever any problems with anything or starting to be any problems with anything.

cyr0n_k0r said:
This is the second time you've mentioned that. Maybe your admin wouldn't be so busy if he setup a domain where he can automate a lot of his daily tasks without having to manage workstations separately one by one.
Click to expand...

agreed, it would make so many task so much easier and save him a LOT of time. need to update every screen saver, --> group policy --> done. Need to change the admin password on every computer --> group policy --> done. need to map a share for every user --> group policy done...

Being one of two admins at a small company with a split of the work load of 70 / 30 with me on the 70 side, i know and understand how you can still be busy with an AD in place, but it still makes everything so much easier for everything. I couldn't imagine having more than 3 computer up and running and not having some type of active directory domain network in place. If nothing else just to be able to easily take care of share. Especially when you already have a server edition of windows. it isn't like it is anything that extreme to setup. install the active directory role with DNS. Add the computers to the domain, create your users on the server and have everyone log in with that new account and you are done with a basic configuration. if you aren't doing anything special already with your network you dont' need to worry at first about doing any special with AD. but then down the road can start to put stuff in place to make everything so much better from the admin side. Up until this past fall we manually mapped everyone to shares that they needed and there wasn't anything consistant about share letters, one person might have M mapped to \\server1\shareA, another person to \\server1\shareB and another to \\server2\shareC, then for those three maybe one will have N mapped to something different while one has it mapped to what one of the others had M mapped to. Finally got tired of it, blew out all the shares, restructured them all, then setup a policy based on security groups to map people to any share that they are member of the group for. Now never again so i have to worry about mapping somebody to a drive when they log in somewhere else or we swap out their computer. Hope to soon do the same with printers. no more forgetting to map a printer when we change out a computer. Just bring it up and it automatically maps the printer, come time for sure to change a printer out just change the policy and all computers automatically remap themselves and get rid of the old one. You can even install software that way. Create policies to install / update software. It would definitely save him time.
 
Last edited:
Group Policy is awesome. Especially for stuff like printers and mapped drives and software installation. Need access to a different printer? Add them to the group, log off and on and you have it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top