Anyone know of a better, less steps Imaging/Deployment software?

**d2fanatic007** · 07-10-13, 07:23 AM

Hey guys,

I haven't been on here in quite sometime. But I figure I would ask you guys cause someone probably knows a better product or has suggestions. I'm working in a school district for IT and they have us at a vocational school to image about 400+ Macs, which I have been using Casper Image, and about maybe 120+ PCs. They have use using Symantec Altiris and they have complained about issues with it not connecting PCs even with agent installed and that the program is just slow in general and a bit confusing to some. They are in a process of updating the network in this school as well so I can see that we will probably run into issues with dropping connections and such.

I was wondering if any of you guys have experience with Altiris that might be able to shed some light or if you can suggest a better/easier program for imaging and deploying software to PCs. I do believe the license for Altiris is going to expire in about 6-8 months and I heard they dont know if they gonna renew the licenses.

Thanks for your time,
D2Fanatic007

**morbidpete** · 07-10-13, 08:52 AM

I used ghost cast once for 47 laptops at a middle school. Setup a tiny PXE server and loaded ghost cast, took 2 days to get them all imaged, but it worked.

**CableDude** · 07-10-13, 05:17 PM

I used the built in window 7 imaging software.....

**RaisinCain** · 07-10-13, 05:39 PM

True Image is what I use.

**idavid4attdsl** · 07-11-13, 01:34 PM

Another fan of True Image here.

**YeOldeStonecat** · 07-11-13, 03:16 PM

True image is a disk cloning system, typically used for cloning a hard drive...one at a time.
What the OP is looking for is a systems deployment package...this is where you can deploy huge masses of workstations at the same time, setting them to pull their images from a centralized server that holds many different images....and they pull the image across the network and within a reboot or two to settle in some sysprep and other special tools that help them handle bare metal installs smoother.

True Image is made by Acronis...but the Acronis tool he would look for is "Snap Deploy"....similar to the Symantec Ghost Cast that Pete mentioned above (we used to use that years ago).
Although I prefer Paragon Software over Acronis for that stuff, their equivalent is Deployment Manager. But I don't think they touch crApples....

**RaisinCain** · 07-11-13, 05:46 PM

Yep. Snap Deploy or Ghost. They both do pretty much the same thing. Nothing wrong with Apple Ye

. LoL

**Karla Berg** · 07-12-13, 04:48 PM

Hi,

When you say they are using Symantec Altiris, I'm assuming you mean Deployment Solution. The current builds of DS have limited support for imaging Macs. However, we will be launching DS 7.5 this year and it will have much more Mac functionality.
In some cases, speed issues can be mitigated. Here are some documents that you may find helpful:
Slow Deployment of Images: http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH172846
Slow Imaging Troubleshooting Guide: http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO1037
I hope this helps.