Sysprep, Ghostwalk/NewSID, and Product Activation ?

Question

Ok, here the deal... I just hired onto a K-12 school district where we purchase nothing but Dell Optiplex machines. Come to find out, the techs that have been doing the imaging (using Ghost) did not create the images using sysprep, nor have they been running Ghostwalk/NewSID or whatever to change the SID's before joining them to the Win2K3 AD domain. We have wierd things happening at those sites, go figure. Needless to say, we are running a program now to change the sids after they are imaged. I am wanting to streamline this process as well as maintain fewer images. I have talked to Altiris and a partnering company called Altrinsic in which they have it designed where I can basically have one image... there are other details involved but not pertinent to the main question. I have read several posts about using sysprep and about the Dell's already being activited but when doing sysprep it wanting a key code again.... I have about 1500 stations I will be maintaining (80% Dell and growing) and need someone to explain what I really need to use or do.   Do I purchase a Volume License Agreement for so many copies of XP so I'll have a VLA Key?   I saw sometime back of the key that's actually in a file that's supposed to be the VLA or Master Key Dell uses, so I use that one for my Dells?   Even using the Altiris product and their imaging, still sounded like they used sysprep as a key player and not a sid changer (they are now owned by Symantec and I hear that's what Ghost, also Symantec, will evolve to as far as imaging technology).   Thanks.

tgsmith · Answer

Rgaudet,   Perhaps this link will give you an idea of what the techs should have done with Sysprep and Ghost.  http://blog.hishamrana.com/2006/02/22/how-to-image-windows-xp-with-ghost-and-sysprep/   If you do not wish to be prompted to enter the Product Key on the target system(s) you must answer NO when the Sysprep Setup asks: 'Do you want to fully automate the install'.  This assumes of course that you have a valid product key for multiple deployment and that key is included in the sysprep.inf (or unattend.txt if installing from a CD or DVD).  For example: [User Data] ProductID='A1234-B2345-C3456-D4567-E5678'.    It's been a while (almost 5 years) since I was involved in a situation similar to yours.  My client sold out to a larger corporation.  Now, I pretty much consult and provide tech support to small businesses.   Hope the link I found on Sysprep and Ghost helps.   Tony

jmwills · Answer

With that trouble site, I would suggest resetting the accounts in AD, unjoining those machines from the domain, run NewSid and then rejoin them.

I have been looking at a program that will contain all the driver sets you would need but you can build your own unattended install disc with the help of WinIso and nLite.

Message Edited by jmwills on 11-02-2007 08:42 AM

rgaudet · Answer

That's what the Altrinsic software add-on is supposed to do. It's called HIIS

"HIIS operates as a distinct 32-bit Windows application and is installed within a server environment; running Windows 2003 Server or Windows 2000 Server and Altiris Deployment Solution 6.5 or 6.8. The HIIS application consists of 4 major functionality divisions named by prevailing function: Identify, Collect, Export, and Maintain.

Identify - Use the existing inventory as collected by Deployment Solution or optional HIIS enhanced inventory job to identify Reference Classes - discrete groupings of computers that are capable of sharing a driver pack. This process then allows the administrator to designate driver source system candidates.
Collect -Targets systems that were previously added to the “Selected Reference Class Computer” list to collect drivers and core OS files.
Export - Populates the Deployment Server with a Job to complete imaging of supported computers; or updates the job if already created by the solution.
Maintain - Allows the administrator to automate periodic updating of the imaging process. This ensures that when new computers are added to an environment, that they will be supported by corporate imaging processes"

It was fairly cheap as a add-on, about $2.22/user and it sounds like with my Altiris install, it's going to save me a ton of time that it would take to collect all of the hardware drivers for all the Optiplex models.

rgaudet · Answer

Thanks, tgsmith, that's what I believe I needed.

Windows General

Sysprep, Ghostwalk/NewSID, and Product Activation ?

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