[OPLINTECH] Imaging software

[Ed Liddle]

There are several free imaging apps available. I have used g4u (ghost
for unix) Its a bootable cd that will let you copy a whole hard drive
bit for bit, compress it, and send it to a ftp server. You can also pull
an image from the ftp server to write it to the computer. I use this to
create an image for a staff machine. I then will use the staff image as
a starting point when setting a computer up for staff use.
http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/

For the public machines I use UDP Cast. This is a bootable cd that can
be downloaded. One computer is booted up to be the sender, the others
are booted to be receivers. after the last machine is booted, press any
key on any machine to start the process. This will copy bit for bit the
contents of the sender's hard drive to the receivers. Then I just check
on it every now and then to see if its done. When it finishes I then go
around to each machine and perform machine specific settings like
renaming them. 
I also use this on the laptops we have for computer classes. The
advantage to this is that you don't need to create or store an image
file. Since we have at least 20 computers all configured the same for
public internet access I am banking on that not all of them will have a
hard drive failure at the same time. 
Its best to use this when the network is not needed or if you have
everything to be "imaged" on its own network. It will flood your network
with udp packets until its completed.  
http://udpcast.linux.lu/


There is also:
Ghost for linux http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l
similar to g4u but uses linux instead of BSD, helpful if you run into a
network card driver issue with g4u. 
 and
Clonezilla http://clonezilla.sourceforge.net/
I want to look more into clonezilla. It looks pretty neat.


One pretty neat commercial product is Altiris
http://www.altiris.com/Products/ClientManagementSuite.aspx

I hope this helps.

-- 
-Ed Liddle
 
Technology Assistant

Marysville Public library
231 S. Plum Street,
Marysville, OH  43040

      * Phone: 937-642-1876 ext.45
      * Fax: 937-642-3457

On Mon, 2007-09-24 at 11:34 -0400, Lucretia Wiley wrote:
> Hello,
>  
> I was wondering what types of imaging software are being used by your
> technology
> departments or are you even using imaging software at all? I am
> currently using Norton
> Ghost to image public computers but was wondering if there is a better
> program or a 
> better way of imaging the public computers as well as staff computers?
>  
> Thanks. 
>  
> Lucretia Wiley 
> Computer Systems Technician
> Warren Trumbull County Public Library
> 444 Mahoning Avenue
> Warren, OH 44483
> 330-399-8807 ext. 141
> Email: wileyl at wtcpl.org
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