How to Multicast a Ghost image (GhostCast) using the Altiris Deployment Console 6.9

We recently needed to image a large number of machines in a short amount of time.  Anyone who has dealt with Altiris and use Ghost as their method of imaging know that Altiris wont by default Multicast the image and will instead push it out individually to each client that connects. So here is a little tip on getting your images pushed out via Multicast.

When you have created your imaging job, enter the properties of the imaging task and replace %IMAGE_FILENAME% to @MCSESSION with SESSION being the name of the GhostCast session we will create in the next step.

Now that we have configured the job to tell Ghost to connect to our GhostCast session it is time to start up GhostCast (which can be found under <DS installed path>\Ghost\GhostSrv.exe). Once the window is open we can say that we are going to restore an image and now select the Ghost image that we want to restore (Usually under<DS installed path>\Images\OperatingSystem\..) and now select Accept Clients. Now that we are ready to image, we can boot the computers we want to image into automation and run the imaging job we configured earlier to them. Click on the image to the right to see what your GhostCast window should look like.

Now you will see once they have booted up and started the modified imaging job that they will be at the Symantec Ghost screen waiting for a GhostCast session to start.  We now simply need to go into GhostCast and start sending out the image.  You can see that all of the clients have also appearing in our GhostCast window.

Using Workgroup Manager on Mac OS X Server to set the homepage for a group of Macs in your Apple environment

So my first post about managing Macs.  We have a lab of them, not a large amount but it would take a considerable amount of time to log onto each one and change the settings on each one (which we’ve done in the past mind you).  So to add to the blog I will also share every now and then tips and tricks on performing administration tasks on Macs.  So let’s begin. Today I’m going to show you how to go about setting a homepage for the browser (typically safari) on your Mac environment from Workgroup manager (this works like Group Policy on windows in concept but is a little different under the hood).

So first off we need to add in some extra features to Workgroup Manager. Why these aren’t included to begin with is beyond me, but alas, it’s easy once you know what to do. Start-up Workgroup Manager, click on the preferences tab, click on the details tab and at the bottom left click on the Plus button.  This will load up an add dialog, we need navigate to /System/Library/CoreServices and under this path find and select ManagedClient.app and add this to the Workgroup Manager.

So now how do we go about setting the home page.  Under the Details pane, click Internet Configuration.  Now select the Pen button towards the bottom and click to highlight the Always line.  Now we want to add a new key so click the New Key button at the top and select Home Page. Simply enter the desired location and click add.