Automated Deployment of Windows XP using Ghost

[roomie76]

I have run a RIS server for a long time and like the fact that I only
have to do 2 minutes of setup in the beginning in the mini-boot and
then can walk away while it installs the OS/patches/Applications and
configs.

My new group would like to use Ghost instead of RIS because the speed
at which just ghost works is faster than RIS. My question then is there
a way to automate a Windows XP deployment without doing much keyboard
interaction. What I would prefer is that the keyboard interaction is in
the beginning so we can walk away and let the computer do the rest.

From what I read, using Ghost and sysprep, you can get to a mini-boot

so that you can type in the AD information but that is after the ghost
has been deployed from my understand meaning my coworkers and I would
have to wait for the ghost to finish before we could finish our part of
the install.

Is there any way to automate with Ghost so that there is minimal setup
on the sysadmin's part?

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Easy. All one needs to do is put the requisite GHOST images on
either a disc (DVD-R) or on a PXE-enabled server and run GHOST
against one of those images. That is, you build an image of the
desired Windows configuration (default settings and apps) and
GHOST it to disc or server. If you're only using a single
motherboard model, this method can't be any simpler. Once the
GHOST image is re-installed (on the target PCs), you can run a
WMI script to patch in any additional supplemental info
(ie. product key, domain name, etc.)

HTH....MR