Running GSS 2.5 Console as a non-Admin

[Migration User]

I've searched through the Ghost forums, but haven't been able to find an answer to this issue yet.

What I would like to do is allow users (who are not local administrators) to use the Ghost Console, whether through a remote desktop connection or a local login.  I've obviously tried this with a throw-away local user and been given the "You are not a local Administrator." error.  Am I missing a configuration setting somewhere, or is the console simply unavailable to users who are not local admins?

 

Thanks.

[Migration User]

Console does require certain features that are accessible to amdinistrators only. Most of the tools from GSS suite require hard disk access for instance, which is for admin only.

Having said that you should be able to run Console as a power user and then elevate certain feature upon request. We do ship manifests with all our exes so if you are running Vista it should automatically prompt you when more privileges are required. What OS are you running Console on?

[Migration User]

Hmm.  My test user is in the Power Users group, but I'm still given the: You must be a local administrator to run the ghost console message.  The PC with the GSS 2.5 installed on it, as well as the test user are part of our domain, if that makes a difference.

 

This is XP  sp3, Symantec Ghost Console 11.5.0.2113

 

 

 

Thanks.

[Migration User]

Considering the capabilities of the Ghost Console, are you sure that you want users who are not administrators using it? The Ghost Solution Suite, based on its ability to take and deploy images and decommission machines securely (meaning erase hard drives) is a powerful tool whose use should be confined to a small number of users. If you would like these users to have this level of power, why is it that they are not administrators? If the answer to that is lack of experience, this is not necessarily a good idea. Restoring the wromg image to a machine could redult in significant data loss. An option that may be worthwhile is designating tasks as user initiated. This allows a user of a client machine to execute a task from his/her machine for which that machine is a target (done with a checkbox on the task window).

[ShawnOfTheFarm]

If it is because the people ghosting are server admins,  say the helpdesk team that is incharge of deploying and so on and as a help desk person they don't get admin rights to the servers.  Consider giving them there own server (doesn't have to be server grade hardware) that is only running ghost.

It isn't a good idea to set up Ghost and any other services any way so moving to a smaller dedicated helpdesk driven box may be a win/win for security and performance.  One thing that happens when ghostcast sessions are active is that the network and disk utilization can reach maxed out limits and so any other services that are on that server can suffer and become unavailable or unresponsive until the Ghosting session is done.

I agree also with Randall with ghost you can wipe out a system so if you don't trust a user with admin rights to the ghost server do you trust then not to nuke your entire domain with a disk wipe task?

Cheers.

 

[Migration User]

a program called runasuser allows you to run any application as an administrator without giving the user the password. You will find it if you google it. :)