Drive imaging in a corp envirnment with WGA

Greetings

Appologies if this has been asked and answered, I looked around but didn't
find anything on it.

We're about to start upgrading about 300 PCs from Win2K to Win XP. When I
say "we" I actually mean I. The last time this happened - going from NT to
2K, I created a generic configuration, then used the program Ghost to create
a set of CDs that I was able to use to drop that configuration onto the PCs,
effectively upgrading each box in about 14 minutes. The CDs I created
already had all of the current updates on them, as well as the necessary
software and configurations. All I had to do was change the name and IP
address and I was good to go.

My worry now is that doing that will give me 300 or so boxes with the same
WGA profile with which the fine folks at MS will understandably take issue.
Please note, I am NOT looking for a way to bypass WGA. I'm just wondering if
there's a way to make it work with drive imaging. For instance, is there an
option to re-enter the CDKey for each machine during the initial update
following the imaging?

Any suggestions will be cheerfully accepted.

Thanks a ton

From: "GernBlanston" <>

| Greetings
|
| Appologies if this has been asked and answered, I looked around but didn't
| find anything on it.
|
| We're about to start upgrading about 300 PCs from Win2K to Win XP. When I
| say "we" I actually mean I. The last time this happened - going from NT to
| 2K, I created a generic configuration, then used the program Ghost to create
| a set of CDs that I was able to use to drop that configuration onto the PCs,
| effectively upgrading each box in about 14 minutes. The CDs I created
| already had all of the current updates on them, as well as the necessary
| software and configurations. All I had to do was change the name and IP
| address and I was good to go.
|
| My worry now is that doing that will give me 300 or so boxes with the same
| WGA profile with which the fine folks at MS will understandably take issue.
| Please note, I am NOT looking for a way to bypass WGA. I'm just wondering if
| there's a way to make it work with drive imaging. For instance, is there an
| option to re-enter the CDKey for each machine during the initial update
| following the imaging?
|
| Any suggestions will be cheerfully accepted.
|
| Thanks a ton

Each PC will have its own WinXP license. It will be on a sticker on the PC.
When you use sysprep just enter one OS ID in the sysprep.inf file.

There will be no issue.

--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm

David,

Thanks for responding so quickly. I took a look at SysPrep and the
associated tools and those look like they're mainly for doing an automated
setup. What I'm looking for is basically a way to take a fully configured PC
- with all the applications and settings we use, make an image of the hard
drive, then put that image on the destination PCs directly.

So far - since all the PCs we have came with Win2K installed, I haven't
really worried about the specific CDKey because I've got the licenses both
the COA stickers on the PCs, and the license certificate that came in the
box.

If there's a way to update the CDKey following the imaging, or to manually
enter a new CDKey when doing the WGA unpate that would be perfect.

Thanks again for your help.

"David H. Lipman" wrote:

> From: "GernBlanston" <>
>
> | Greetings
> |
> | Appologies if this has been asked and answered, I looked around but didn't
> | find anything on it.
> |
> | We're about to start upgrading about 300 PCs from Win2K to Win XP. When I
> | say "we" I actually mean I. The last time this happened - going from NT to
> | 2K, I created a generic configuration, then used the program Ghost to create
> | a set of CDs that I was able to use to drop that configuration onto the PCs,
> | effectively upgrading each box in about 14 minutes. The CDs I created
> | already had all of the current updates on them, as well as the necessary
> | software and configurations. All I had to do was change the name and IP
> | address and I was good to go.
> |
> | My worry now is that doing that will give me 300 or so boxes with the same
> | WGA profile with which the fine folks at MS will understandably take issue.
> | Please note, I am NOT looking for a way to bypass WGA. I'm just wondering if
> | there's a way to make it work with drive imaging. For instance, is there an
> | option to re-enter the CDKey for each machine during the initial update
> | following the imaging?
> |
> | Any suggestions will be cheerfully accepted.
> |
> | Thanks a ton
>
> Each PC will have its own WinXP license. It will be on a sticker on the PC.
> When you use sysprep just enter one OS ID in the sysprep.inf file.
>
> There will be no issue.
>
> --
> Dave
> http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
> http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm
>
>
>

From: "GernBlanston" <>

| David,
|
| Thanks for responding so quickly. I took a look at SysPrep and the
| associated tools and those look like they're mainly for doing an automated
| setup. What I'm looking for is basically a way to take a fully configured PC
| - with all the applications and settings we use, make an image of the hard
| drive, then put that image on the destination PCs directly.
|
| So far - since all the PCs we have came with Win2K installed, I haven't
| really worried about the specific CDKey because I've got the licenses both
| the COA stickers on the PCs, and the license certificate that came in the
| box.
|
| If there's a way to update the CDKey following the imaging, or to manually
| enter a new CDKey when doing the WGA unpate that would be perfect.
|
| Thanks again for your help.


I gave you the answer you needed. I gave you it based on my experience using Symantec
Enterprise Ghost, and using Sysprep.

There is no need to change the CD key after the image. I have done this with Win2K and with
WinXP. So you have 60 platforms using the same CD key. It doesn't matter. You are
licensed via the OEM license that came with the PC or an Enterprise license.


Sysprep is not necessarily for an automated setup. It is to strip the SIDs from a PC such
that when to image the PC it will not cause a problem by having numerous platforms having
the same SIDs.

The objective is to install all software. Install all OS updates and Critical Updates.
Install all application patches and security fixes. The configure all software completely
down to the size of the IE cache to default folders used in applications.

Once the PC is fully configured the profile that wad used to install and configure the PC is
copied onto the "Default Profile". This will make sure that all users who subsequently
logon to that PC will inherit all the default settings.

One the profile is copied to the "Default User" profile you can sysprep the PC. You can
enter ONE CD Key into SYSPREP.INF or not. If you don't, you will have to type it in when
the system is restored and booted on the destination PC.

Once you Sysprep the PC, the PC is shutdown and then the PC is imaged.

The image is model related. That is a Dell GX-270 image has to be restored to a Dell GX-270
platform. There *may* be situations where you can cross platforms but the platforms must
share 99% of the same motherboard chip-set. Peripherals can be different, they will just
be Plug 'n Played. An example would be IBM ThinkPads. A ThinkPad A22m image can be
restored to a ThinkPad A21. A sample of a failure would be restoring a Dell GX-270 platform
to a Dell GX-400 platform.

One you have an image, you can restore it to the destination platform,. After the image has
been restored, the destination PC is booted from the hard disk. At this point it will run
the Mini Setup Wizard. It is here that you can set the distinct machine name, join the
Domain and set the IP address. If you did NOT enter a CD Key number in SYSPREP.INF then you
will also need to enter the CD Key during the Mini Setup Wizard. If you did enter the CD
Key into SYSPREP.INF then you will not have to enter the CD Key during the Mini Setup
Wizard.

As I stated, I used Symantec Enterprise Ghost. I setup a Win2K workstation as a Ghost
server. The "C:" was a 20GB hard disk and has the OS. The "D:" drive was a 80GB hard disk
and was used to store all platform elated Ghost images. The Ghost server used a Server NIC
to improved network performance and was connected to a Ethernet switch with low latency.
The Source PC and or Destination PCs would be booted from a Ghost Boot Disk and each floppy
disk had its own unique TCP/IP address and the PC (source or destination) would be connected
to the Ethernet switch. By using a Ethernet switch, the Ghost Server and the
source/destination PCs can be in Full Duplex mode for increased performance. Since it is
the Enterprise version of Ghost I could take advantage of the Multi-Cast IP capabilities of
the Ghost software. Using Multi-Cast IP, I can restore the Dell GX-270 platform image to
many Dell-GX-270 platforms at the same time. This saves much time in deployment. Instead
of taking 20 minutes to restore an image per PC, I could restore one image to 10 platforms
in that 20 minute period (otherwise it would have been 10 times 20mins. taken over 200 mins.
to restore to ten platforms

--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm