Deployment solution 7.1 provides deployment features like deploying and managing servers, desktops, and notebooks from a centralized location in your environment. Deployment solution offers OS deployment, configuration, PC personality migration, and software deployment across hardware platforms and OS types and offers disk management.
There are several tools and utilities which are part of Deployment Solution 7.1 which are directly or indirectly being used by Deployment Solution console operations; in this article I am trying to cover all these tools and utilities which can be independently used by user without NS server console interface and which will be useful in some of the quick operations. I might have missed some of utility.
Following are the utilities with its usage and short description, some of these tools may already be known to ghost and DS 6.9 users.
Most of the ghost utilities mentioned below will be available at: <NS Server>\ Deployment\Task Handler\ghost\x86
Ghost
It is a well know imaging utility, the same is used in Ghost solution suite and Deployment solution 6.9, this utility independently can be used by the user, this can be used for automating administrative operations and for independent imaging operations.
ghost32.exe /? gives more information about the command line options. There are different combination of the switches and can be used and executed without console, that means can be executed on the un managed machines.To take the image or deploy the image user must reboot the machine in to the automation / WinPe environment and then execute the ghost command. User can make this interactive by just executing ghost32.exe and then selecting the required settings or in a one command line user can provide all the options and without any user prompt the imaging task can be achieved, this will be useful when user is automating some scenarios. User also can gather the logs which will be in the log file Ghosterr.txt which will be generated at the same location from where ghost is executed. User can save the image file locally, remotely, on CD/DVD or on USB drives.
User also can perform the imaging using LTP cable and using Peer to peer imaging options. When you execute a imaging using ghost utility directly this will be a backup image and will not perform any sysprep operation.
You cannot use Ghost32.exe with a disk or partition that has files open during the operation. For example, the system partition. When writing to CD/DVD, Ghost32.exe is not copied onto the CD/DVD.
Example:
Ghost32.exe -clone,mode=create,src=2,dst=1:1\drv2.gho
This command deploys the drv2.gho ghost image to second disk of the machine.
The Ghost implementation guide has more details.
DeployAnywhere
The Deploy Anywhere feature lets you retarget an image to suit a computer that has different hardware from the model computer from which the image was created. This lets you deploy a generic image to a range of different computers and perform a retargeting of the computers, rather than requiring a separate image for each hardware set.
If you want to use DeployAnywhere outside the managed environment, you can run the DeployAnywhere executable, DeployAnywhere.exe, from the command.
Firstly, evaluate the target volume to verify that the necessary drivers are available. If all of the required drivers are available, the evaluation step returns "Success". For this use switch /eval; You should perform this step only after the evaluation step has verified that all the necessary drivers are available.
You need to ensure that the missing drivers are available in the DeployAnywhere driver database; When the evaluation step has verified that all the necessary drivers are available, you can retarget the image. The retargeting step installs the appropriate drivers and performs other necessary configuration tasks.
Example:
DeployAnywhere.exe /target=[Windows disk] /ddb=[DeployAnywhere driver database location]
Ghconfig
The GhConfig tool lets you apply configuration settings directly to a computer. You can use this feature to apply post-clone configuration settings without using NS Console. This utility also can be useful in finding out the OS details.
The GhConfig tool lets you add Microsoft Windows Vista/XP/2000 computers to a domain. However, you must create the computer account in the domain before adding the computer to the domain. For the computer account to work, you must first add the security permissions for the Windows 2000/XP native mode, domain controllers in active directory. User has to create a configuration data file, check Ghost implementation guide has more details.
Example:
Ghconfig32.exe /windows
This command gives the correct version of the windows installed and the windows directory.
Ghostexp
Ghost Explorer lists all of the files and directories that are within an image file. You can add, recover, and delete individual directories and files to or from an image file.
Execute the binary ghostexp.exe and open an image from File->Open option.
Ghregedit
GhRegEdit is a utility for editing the Windows registry. You can run GhRegEdt and GhRegEdit32 from the command line or from a batch file. Before you use GhRegEdit, you should verify that the registry is not read-only.
You can use GhRegEdit32 to edit the registry without starting the operating system. You can also edit the registry as the operating system runs.
You can perform operations like add key, delete key, Enumerate key, export , etc
Example:
ghregedt addkey 1.1:\Windows HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\MyTestApp
Adds the specified key to the registry.
Omnifs
OmniFS is a general-purpose utility for manipulating files and directories in a locally attached NTFS, Linux, or FAT file system (including FAT hidden partitions).
OmniFS.exe performs these functions from DOS or WinPE. OmniFS32 performs the same functions but runs them in a Windows environment. The Linux version, omnifs, performs the corresponding functions under Linux. OmniFS performs selected file input/output operations on a file system that is not accessible from a utility's operating environment. OmniFS supports scripting and batch mode execution.
You can execute OmniFS from the command line only. Running OmniFS without any arguments provides a list of the interfaces and lists the access method switches.
Example:
omnifs dir “pf:\c_drive\My Documents”
Displays all preserved files from c:\My Documents.
Gdisk
Deployment Solution 7.1 uses a Gdisk utility to perform the disk operations, Gdisk is very fast and reliable tool for the disk operations. The very basic operations which user frequently perform on the target from DS console are creating a partition and deletion of the partition.
The Gdisk utility is available at: <NS Server>\ Deployment\Task Handler\ghost\x86; You can use this utility independently from command line and cannot be executed for the remote machines without NS Console; Use respected architecture utility for x86 and x64, you will find gdisk32.exe and gdisk64.exe and for linux use gdisk which will be available in respective folders. For the detail supported operations find the information using ‘gdisk32.exe /?’ Command.
Gdisk utility can be executed from different platforms like from production Windows OS, WinPE OS (Automation), Linux OS, but user should make sure they have provided the correct disk and partition number while any delete or erase operations.
Example:
gdisk32 1 /cre /pri /for /q /y
- This command creates a partition on disk 1 and will quick format the disk, /y option bypasses any prompts thrown to the user.
gdisk32 1 /del /all
- This command will delete all the partition of the disk 1.
The Ghost implementation guide which is available with all DS installation (Check at: <NS Server>\ Deployment\Task Handler\ghost) has all the details about the commands and there format, these are very simple and explained in the document with examples.
DriverManager
There are DA driver manager utility – DriverManager.exe & DriverManager64.exe which are present in the NS Server at location: “c:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Deployment\Task Handler\ghost”; You may see a binary DriverDBMgr64.exe which is a wrapper and is used in the UI, so you should only use the utility DriverManager64.exe.
Using which user can perform add , delete operation on driver database, User has to provide the driver database path which should be “C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Deployment\Task Handler\DriversDB” [or at the Altiris installation directory, if not default ] and the location of the DA driver source directory while addition and name of the driver while deletion; Switches needs to use as /ADD and /DEL respectively.
Example:
DriverManager.exe /DDB= C:\”Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Deployment\Task Handler\DriversDB” /ADD=E:\Drivers\
- This command will import all the drivers present from the directory E:\Drivers
DriverManager.exe /DDB= C:\”Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Deployment\Task Handler\DriversDB” /DEL= Adaptec.1.02.063
- This command will delete the driver ‘Adaptec.1.02.063’
Bootwiz
Similar to DA Driver manager a command line option is available for the Preboot database management, Deployment solution uses Bootwiz.exe utility to manage the drivers for the preboot driver database. The utility available in the NS location at : c:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Deployment\Task Handler\bootwiz [or at the Altiris installation directory, if not default ];
Using this utility user can perform different operations to manage the drivers in the preboot driver database;
Bootwiz.exe /? Gives you the list of switches and options possible using the bootwiz utility , this is the exactly same utility which is present in the Deployment Solution 6.9 Console, the users of DS 6.9 must be familiar with this tool
The driver database location for the preboot drivers is at: c:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Deployment\Task Handler\bootwiz\platforms, Winpe2 for windows and Linux for linux drivers.
Rdeploy
RapiDeploy is a disk imaging tool that runs on the Windows (x86, x64, ia64) and Linux (x86, x64, ia64) operating systems. It supports NTFS, FAT (12, 16, 32), EXT2/3, and RAW file system. It also Supports HTTP and multicast imaging options.
ResourceImportTool
The Resource Import tool is used for importing existing Windows and Linux images. It is also used for adding Windows-scripted OS installation files. Browse to \C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Deployment\Task Handler\Tools” or [Altiris Agent Install Dir]\Agents\Deployment\Task Handler\Tools and execute the ResourceImportTool.exe. You can execute this tool from Symantec Management Platform or from Site Server. Ensure that you run this tool only from Symantec Management Platform.