One of my first IT jobs was working on a 2000-seat
desktop migration to Windows 2000. Our team
faced a daunting set of challenges: preserving locally stored data, managing the array of drivers required to
keep a diverse installed base humming, efficiently deploying managed desktops across a campus. We dubbed our
eventual solution "the octopus cart." It was a four-wheeled
cart with a server running Symantec Ghost, a switch, and
a bag of patch cords. We rolled our cart into an office and
idled a dozen workers for two to three hours while we ran a
custom backup script, deployed the new OS, restored data,
and then dealt with BIOS and driver issues.
With more robust networks and more cooperative
hardware and OSs, organizations today prefer desktop
deployment over the network to the in-person utility-cart
method. Imaging software is at the core of these strategies.
I tested three popular tools to find viable imaging solutions
for desktop deployment and backup for a small or midsized
business (SMB). Symantec Ghost Solution Suite offers
systems management features in addition to imaging. The
other two products I reviewed—Acronis True Image Workstation and Paragon Software's Paragon Drive Backup
Professional focus more narrowly on imaging for backup
and deployment.
Key Features
Imaging at its most basic is bundling an entire drive or
partition as a file and then restoring it to another partition
or drive. Imaging products can serve a business of any size
as a long-term investment. Distributed organizations can
benefit from centrally controlled imaging that a system
administrator can deliver and track from one location.
I used three criteria to evaluate Symantec Ghost Solution Suite, Acronis True Image Workstation, and Paragon
Drive Backup Professional. First, I looked at how well
each application backs up and recovers individual files or
complete disks. Second, I tested how the product performs
desktop deployment. You can use any desktop imaging
tool to make an exact copy of a hard drive and restore it
on other identical machines, but more sophisticated tools
can also automate the Microsoft Sysprep utility and driver
injection to deploy and manage an OS on varying hardware
platforms. Third, I examined the performance of the three
imaging products. I used each application to do an identical
imaging and restoration job across a network to compare
the applications' speed.
Symantec Ghost Solution Suite
The venerable Ghost, purchased by Symantec in 1998, has
gone through several iterations over the years. The most
recent version, Symantec Ghost Solution Suite, bundles
imaging and deployment with some desktop systems
management capabilities. Version 1.1 of the suite, which
I tested, includes Symantec Ghost 8.3, Symantec Deploy
Center 5.6.1, and Symantec Client Migration 3.0.2. In addition to imaging and deployment, Ghost Solution Suite
can track the installed base, inventory installed hardware
and software, and install new software packages remotely.
Think of Ghost Solution Suite as a competitor to Microsoft
Systems Management Server (SMS) with a focus on desktop
deployment.
Ghost Solution Suite has an elegant backup and recovery
feature. Differential backups can be regularly scheduled and
triggered remotely for managed computers, including groups
of computers. Each backup or recovery requires the client
computer to boot to the Ghost environment, idling anyone
who might have been trying to use the computer at the time.
The other two imaging products in this review cleverly utilize
Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to create the
image without interfering with current operations.
Although Ghost Solution Suite is capable of creating
images of Linux machines, it's clearly geared toward Windows, with many Windows- and Active Directory (AD)-specific integration points. For instance, Ghost can migrate a
Windows user's data and state. Ghost Solution Suite retains
the features that made Ghost the gold standard for imaging,
all controlled via a central console. For example, tasks such
as deployments can be scheduled.
One particularly useful tool for deployment is Ghost's
multicast feature. When you initiate a larger scale image
deployment, multiple clients can download a single image
transmitted from the console, significantly cutting down on
the bandwidth required for remote deployment. Midsized and large companies can benefit from multicasting to reduce the impact of deployment
on the network. In addition, Ghost can limit
throughput so that a deployment won't saturate the network.
Creating a 4GB image over a network connection took 30 minutes. Restoring the same
image to the same workstation took 20 minutes.
A new feature in Ghost Solution Suite is
the ability to edit existing images as files. Thus
you can make configuration changes or add
upgraded applications to an image without creating an entirely new base image.
For midsized and large companies, Symantec offers a panoply of features at an inviting
price. These include the ability to inventory the
enterprise's software and hardware and deploy
software. Considering the array of features, the
interface (which Figure 1 shows) is quite clean.
However, I'd prefer to see more wizards and
fewer tabbed dialog boxes. Ghost Solution Suite
has a more gentle learning curve than that of the
desktop management powerhouse Microsoft
SMS and is significantly easier to set up. However, Ghost does require some significant energy
from the IT team to realize the product's benefits.
It's my selection for Editor's Choice, although it
has more features than what a small business
would typically want or need.
Summary
Symantec Ghost
Solution Suite
PROS: Automated deployment features; multicasting and throughput limitation features,
some systems management features, reasonable price
CONS: Backup and restore processes take over
machine, idling users; extra features mean
added complexity for small IT staffs
RATING: 4 out of 5
PRICE: $39.20 per seat with volume discounts
RECOMMENDATION: The Editor's Choice product and not just for imaging anymore, Ghost
Solution Suite is a management and deployment tool that approaches the capabilities of
SMS for less than half the price.
CONTACT: Symantec • 800-441-7234 • http://
www.symantec.com
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