Software Imaging
OK, might have bitten off a little more than I can chew with this topic, but here it is. Please bear in mind that I’m glazing over a lot of stuff here, as it’s a broad subject. If you have any specific questions, please comment! I’ve used several software imaging products over the years. One that comes to mind is Ghost, and another that is a bit more recent would be Acronis True Image.
Back in 1996, we even had a machine that we could hook up laptop drives to, in order to perform imaging. It had a connection for a master as well as up to two slaves. All it was, was a 486 system that had 3.5″ to 2.5″ drive converters and some proprietary software (could have even been Ghost for all we knew) and an LCD display to work with. It typically failed, so we ended up using Ghost anyway.
Edit 10/24/10: Please read more throughout the article and see comments in red for updated info. Was on a call with Dell when a tech had a question about sysprep in Windows 7, and the lack of documentation about it out on the web. See the Sysprep section for more.
Ghost
Now owned by Symantec, Ghost has been a powerful product from the beginning. In the early days, it did not have support for NTFS, as FAT16 and FAT32 were primarly used in those days until NT became more popular. NTFS support was added in later 1996. OK, enough history, if you want to know more about history, read the wiki here.
I don’t use the GUI when it comes to using Ghost, I’ve always used the DOS version of the program, ghost.exe. You can boot from a floppy, CD, DVD or USB stick to use Ghost locally in its simplest form. This is useful for cloning drives that are locally connected to the same system.
Preparing the workstation
You can also boot from a floppy, CD, DVD or USB stick to connect to a network resource to create an image file, which is the way I use it at the workplace to create images of my software loads for each model computer we have at the office. I start by loading the operating system of choice for that model machine, as well as all current updates, be it Windows or Linux, as well as drivers for that O/S. I then add the very basics that get loaded on a workstation, such as Adobe reader (latest version), Office, a compression utility like WinRAR or 7zip. Since I have an anti-virus server that is tied to a parent server (SAVCE), I do not load anti-virus by default, since it needs to be done later to be joined to the group properly and updated. I also do not join the workstation to the domain for similar reasons. I run sysprep on my image, which prepares the workstation for a new user. I’ll work up an article on running sysprep later and reference it here.
Sysprep
Sysprep prepares the workstation by returning it to an OOBE (out of box experience), and generating a new SID, something critical if joining a domain, or if even using the installation in a workgroup environment. All kinds of strange things happen when there is SID duplication on the network. You will find that using remote desktop does not work properly among many other things. Sysprep is simply put, necessary. It also renames the computer and flushes the driver cache, so the PnP can pick up all the hardware properly. If you are imaging for identical models, this can be disabled. And sysprep is used and installed differently on different operating systems.
Windows XP
I will take this straight from Microsoft:
Insert the Windows XP operating system CD into the appropriate CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then open the Deploy.cab file in the \Support\Tools folder.
Note To make sure that you are using the correct version of the Deploy.cab file for your service pack, use the Deploy.cab file that is distributed with that service pack.
Make sure to extract all of deploy.cab to a folder on the c:\ drive. Sysprep can then be run via GUI or command line. See options below.
sysprep /?
My command line looks like:
sysprep -factory -reseal -mini -noreboot
You can use the -pnp to force driver cache flushing.
Win7
With Win7, it’s built right into the O/S! Just go to c:\windows\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe. This brings up the following UI. Make sure to click “generalize” as this generates a new SID!!!
Bart boot disk
Now that the image is sysprepped and resealed, it’s ready for imaging. To accomplish this I use Bart’s Boot Disk. Create a network boot floppy as per their instruction. The network boot disk is the same as their modular boot disk, but includes NIC drivers for networking. They include some of the most common network drivers, but not all.
If you have specific model computers, you can download their DOS NDIS drivers from the manufacturer’s website and build your own NIC drivers to work with the Bart Boot Disk. Here’s a guide on how to do just that. The problem with this is that a lot of newer systems do not provide DOS NDIS drivers. The Dell Vostro is one such system that only has XP and Vista drivers. In this case, keep a good old 3Com 905TX NIC around! Those drivers are built right in to the Bart Boot Disk!!!
Here is a copy of my BBD. I’ve added NIC drivers, so that it has support for the following model computers:
- Dell Inspiron 600m
- Dell Inspiron 8500
- Dell Inspiron 9100
- Dell Latitude C400
- Dell Latitude C610
- Dell Latitude C640
- Dell Latitude D600
- Dell Latitude D610
- Dell Latitude D620
- Dell Latitude D400
- Dell Latitude D410
- Dell Dimension E521
- Dell Optiplex GX280
- Dell Precision 370
Create a bootable USB stick
So there are a couple of ways to accomplish this. Here is an article that walks you through creating the USB boot stick (pronounced like in Army of Darkness “This is my BOOT STICK!!!”). Another option is to use a utility created by HP that is supposed to do the trick quickly. I’ve not tested it, but I do know that it won’t install on Vista that I’ve seen so far. You can download it here.
This is the way I create it, however. I usually have a laptop laying around, or you can do this from your desktop as well. Download a bootable disk of your choice from http://www.bootdisk.com and create a boot floppy. Disconnect any hard drives from the system you choose to work with. If you don’t have a floppy drive on the system, you should get yourself a USB floppy drive, since you will always need one anyway to upgrade firmware, etc. Boot from the floppy you created. I typically use a Windows 98 SE boot disk. Run fdisk and delete any partitions you find on the USB stick. It should come up as drive C:\ (again, make sure to disconnect any hard drives from the system you are working on!!!). Create a partition on the USB stick, either FAT16 or FAT32. Reboot with the floppy and run “format c:\ /s” to format the USB stick and copy the system files over to it. If you are already working with a formatted USB stick, you can simply run “sys c:” to copy the system files over, as long as your boot floppy has the sys.com utility on it. This creates three files on your USB stick, which may be hidden, msdos.sys, io.sys and command.com. Do not copy over these files! They are necessary to boot. Walla, you have a bootable USB stick.
Another thing to keep in mind about booting from USB. Not all USB sticks are equal. You will have problems booting from the larger variety for sure. I’ve had trouble with 1 GB sticks even. I’ve had good luck with 256 MB and 512 MB SanDisk USB sticks. So if you’re not booting, you know why.
After creating the boot disk, simply copy the BBD files to the USB stick, excluding command.com, msdos.sys and io.sys.
Creating the image
Now you should be able to boot to the network! You will want to create a mapped network drive, and you may need to login with domain credentials. Bart’s Boot Disk allows for local workgroup or domain login. It also supports static or DHCP assigned addressing. Once at a command prompt, just type “net use x: \\server\share” to map a drive letter. If you’re networked to a Windows domain, make sure you log in with proper credentials. Change directory to your Ghost directory and run Ghost. Now all you have to do is choose to image from drive to image file and point it where you want to put it. You can use compression to get some compression out of the image, but it slows down the imaging process, so if you have the space, run it uncompressed!
Acronis True Image
Acronis is some really powerful software, and I actually like it better than Ghost. The latest versions I’ve had experience with is True Image 11. There are newer versions that I have not yet used. Be aware also that Acronis is O/S specific. So TI Workstation will cover XP and Vista systems, but not 2003. They have versions for Linux as well, but I haven’t worked with them yet either. The truly wonderful thing about Acronis is that it has the ability to backup and image the machine while it is running. Not only can it perform a full image, it has scheduling built in, and allows you to create incremental or differential backups to your data. In addition to that, the resulting image files can be mounted into a virtual file system (similar to Ghost Walker), for the retrieval of individual files. For server operating systems, they also provide advanced features for database backups, and special considerations for server systems. You can choose to create rescue media to ISO image or burn to CD for recovery. As Acronis is updated, so are the RAID and NIC drivers for the rescue media. Truly impressive.
I’ve set up my customers with this solution in order to maintain backups of their servers or workstations for mission critical recovery capabilities. One thing I have learned, however, is to make sure to either back up to a network location, or to a separate hard disk. I’ve tried external USB drive solutions, but those driver letters tend to change depending on what day it is, and I’ve had trouble with scheduled jobs.
Very powerful stuff. Also IBM Thinkpads can only be imaged with Acronis. I had a fleet of IBM Thinkpads (T42, T60, etc) that I had to image for new users. You have to image from an external source (network or external USB drive) to the internal drive on an IBM. IBM sets up the drive geometry to the drive internally, and this is the only way to image an IBM (Lenovo), outside of a degree in IBM software creation using their tools.
Acronis has other truly powerful software, such as Acronis Disk Director. Much like Partition Magic, it can extend partitions, but unlike PM, it can merge partitions without any loss of data!!! This is truly amazing, but only one of the features I found useful over PM. It also has support within Vista, which PM does not.
Learn more at http://www.acronis.com.
No Comments »