EWF and Distribution of cloned disk images

[Dan J]

Does anyone have any experience/advice regarding utilizing EWF and the
making cloned images of your drive?

In this case, I have a c: and d: drive. The C: drive is the protected
volume. There is significant unpartitioned space of the drive for the
EWF partition. I am using a disk overlay.

When FBA runs, it creates the EWF partition. I have significant
changes to make before my image is complete. I then disable the
overlay, commit changes and everything is good.

Next I next to use Symantec Ghost to take an image of the drive to CD
to it can be deployed to units already in the field. I can't seem to
get this to work. When I create the image (including the EWF
partition), the target machine does not have "a protected volume."
It's like I can't turn EWF on.

I am trying using FBAreseal but that seems to undo some critical
changes made during the configuration process.

Anyone with experience using Symantec Ghost or similar product and EWF
- any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Dan J

 

[Doug Hoeffel]

Dan:

This has been discussed a lot. Do a google group search on EWF and Ghost if
you haven't already.

I currently deploy the RAM-based EWF partition via Ghost on HD's. It was a
challenge. I know that Ghost V7.5 cannot duplicate the EWF partition. I'm
not certain about more recent versions. There are other ways around this.

HTH... Doug

 

[Daniel Simpson \(MS\)]

Hi Dan,

See if the following instructions work for you. Please let me know if you
run into any problems.

--Using EWF with Cloning--

If you use both the Enhanced Write Filter and Cloning components in your
run-time image, there are additional configuration steps that you need to do
to successfully clone your write-protected image. Because EWF creates an EWF
volume during FBA, the EWF volume must be created on all of the devices onto
which you are deploying to.
Only EWF RAM and Disk overlays require an EWF volume. If you are using an
EWF RAM reg overlay, you do not need to create an EWF volume. For more
information, see Configuring EWF RAM Reg
OverlaysxegrfConfiguringEWFRAMRegOverlays.
Use the following procedure to deploy an EWF-protected run-time image to
mass systems.

To use EWF with Cloning

1. Open your configuration in Target Designer and add the required EWF
and System Cloning components to your configuration. For more information on
the required components, see Enhanced Write Filter and Mass Deployment.

2. Configure the Enhnaced Write Filter to start disabled.

a. Expand the Enhanced Write Filter component node in the configuration
browser pane and select Settings. The EWF Configuration Settings appear in
the details pane.

b. Clear the Start EWF Enabled check box.

3. Set the System Cloning Tool component cmiResealPhase to 0.

a. Select the System Cloning Tool component in the configuration
editor. The component details are displayed in the details pane.

b. Choose Advanced in the details pane. The Advanced Component
Properties window opens.

c. In the cmiResealPhase box, enter the phase during which the reseal
will occur. For more information, see Creating a Run-Time Image for
Cloning.

4. Check dependencies, build, and then deploy your target image. Boot
your run-time image and allow FBA to complete.

5. After FBA is finished, install applications or make additional
configurations to your run-time image. Also, verify that EWF is configured
properly on your test system by checking the \Windows\FBA\FBALOG.txt file.

6. After you are finished modifying your run-time image, create the
gold master image that you will deploy to deploy to your devices. Reseal the
device with the fbreseal.exe utility.
fbreseal.exe

You run-time image is ready to be mass-deployed.

7. Partition and format your target media. If you are creating an EWF
RAM or Disk overlay, the media must be marked as fixed. Media that is marked
as removable, such as some compact flash devices, cannot be partitioned. The
media must be updated to be marked as fixed, or you should use EWF RAM Reg
overlay.

8. After you copy your run-time image to your device you must enable
EWF. If you are using an EWF RAM or EWF Disk overlay, you must create the
EWF volume on the media. If you are using EWF RAM or Disk overlays, create
the EWF Volume by booting the run time image on the device and running the
following command:

rundll32 ewfdll.dll ConfigureEwf

This command creates the EWF Volume on the system and enables EWF.

9. Verify that EWF is enabled and running by using the ewfmgr command:

ewfmgr c:


Dan Simpson