Conference decwet::windows-nt

5823.0. "yet another cloning question" by BHAJEE::JAERVINEN (Ora, the Old Rural Amateur) Thu Mar 20 1997 06:25

    (Yes, I've checked the other topics about cloning).

    The following scenario:

    I have a number (say, 5000) 'diskless' PCs, currently running Windows
    3.1x, which is booted from a Novell server. 'Diskless' means that the
    PCs do have a disk (big enough for NT), but it is currently not used
    and not partitioned.

    The goal is to install Windows NT to all these workstations as
    automagically as possible. (Note this is not an upgrade, as the local
    disk is totally blank).

    I could use Ghost (see 5318, 5348) to get NT onto the workstations over
    the network. The question is: how can I automate the
    'individualization' (above all, setting the individual NetBIOS name) of
    the workstations.

    There's another tool (ASCOT) which is more flexible than Ghost in that
    you can preload a database on the server with the machines' MAC
    addresses and the individual parameters for that machine; it then does
    an unattended installation based on a (modified) script which can be
    generated e.g. with SETUPMGR.EXE. Ghost is faster, and one could
    prepare a complete standard workplace including the standard
    applications and get it all onto the workstation in one go.

    As the customer will use SMS after their migration to NT, we could
    install SMS into the existing Novell environment to inventory the PCs.
    This would give me the current MAC address -> name mapping (and a host
    of other configuration information).

Hi Ora,

	I cannot speak from ghost as I do not know the product to well.

	But ASCOT provides a lot of flexibility here, you have essentially 
	three installation types :

	1 - Physical backup (same as ghost)
	2 - Saved system. You install the OS (ie NT) plus any products, save
            it using ASCOT. ASCOT will then automate its installation plus
	    system name change, ip address etc. This does not remove the SID 
	    problem, but there is a script to automate the joining of a domain.
	3 - Scripted install + products.

	Option 2 is very quick(if speed is your problem. 
    
    Also with ASCOT the are a number of tools available to read A SMS
    database or other datafile to populate its database, or you can have
    the installation request from the installer the information.


    Mark

    

    Can anyone supply details of the Acsot dealers (preferably in the UK?)
    
    Jon.
    

    Better ask them directly (www.datakon.com) - there are a couple of mail
    addresses.