Challenge

• To find a cost effective methodology for rapidly recovering from workstation hard drive failures
• To find a cost effective methodology for rapidly deploying new workstations and/or reconfiguring existing workstations for new users
• To find a methodology for increased reliability and reduced recovery time from a Server hard drive failure
• To improve Disaster Recovery protection

Solution

Implement The FPA Ghost™ "Server" Solution utilizing Ghost™ Corporate Edition software from Symantec

What is Ghost™ “Server” Technology?

Although we call our solution a Ghost™ “Server”, it is essentially a workstation utilizing Symantec Ghost™ Corporate Edition software, a large data drive to store exact copies or "images" of hard drives, and a CD-Writer to create CD-ROM’s for offsite storage of the hard drive images.

What are its benefits?

While restoring the network backup is often the acceptable response to server crashes, workstation crashes usually present unique challenges.  Workstations are rarely backed up, so when a workstation crashes beyond repair, many times it often requires substantial time to recreate the operating system, reinstall and configure all applications, "favorites", and other local user specific settings.  With an exact copy of a hard drive including the operating system, applications, user settings and configurations, the Ghosted copy of the workstation hard drive can be restored quickly and accurately over the network to a computer.  Instead of taking sometimes a day or more to recreate the exact configuration of a workstation, an image can usually be restored within an hour!

In addition, Ghost™ allows systems to be cloned, thus standardizing the process of setting up new workstations and/or users by uploading a pre-configured system.  Using Ghost™ Corporate Edition allows maintaining and organizing the workstation images.  With the addition of a CD-Writer, the Ghost™ "Server" now also provides the ability to create CD-ROMs to store hard drive images offsite.

FPA’s Successful In-house Implementation

We have fully implemented the FPA Ghost™ “Server” Solution internally and have developed a sound methodology based on this implementation.  We have successfully provided the FPA Ghost™ “Server” Solution to a number of clients who have already seen its benefits as well as seen their return on investment.  This is one of the more exciting solutions we've been able to implement due to its inherent relatively low cost to implement and its resulting long lasting benefits.

The Ghost Server Technical Process

Implementing the FPA Ghost™ “Server” Solution begins with the initial configuration of the workstation operating system (usually MS-Windows NT Workstation or MS-Windows 2000 Professional).  This workstation will be dedicated to store the Ghost™ image files.  Once configured, the CD-Writer hardware and software are then installed and configured.  The last step in the installation process is the installation and configuration of Symantec Ghost™ Corporate Edition:

Once configured, the "Ghosting" process begins.  First we start by using Symantec Ghost™ Corporate Edition to create a "Ghost™ Boot Diskette" (GBD) for each machine to be Ghosted.  We then boot each machine with its GBD which connects the workstation to the Ghost™ "Server" as well as runs the Ghost™ software client. We then have the capabilities to create a Ghost™ image and transfer it through the network to be stored on the Ghost™ "Server".   The image is a perfect copy of the hard drive, which can be used later to restore to the machine or as a base for a new workstation.

In addition to the initial configuration of the Ghost™ "Server" and initial Ghosting of all hard drives, our implementation also includes the ongoing management of the hard drive images.  To this end, our implementation includes our CD-ROM Storage Notebook to organize and store the images downloaded to CD-ROMs.  This notebook can be kept onsite or offsite for additional added security.  Throughout the ongoing maintenance lifecycle of the network, we update the workstation hard drive images as needed.

Technical Requirements

Hardware:

Ghost™ "Server" Machine:
Pentium III Processor
256 MB RAM
60 - 80 GB of available hard disk space
Client:
Pentium III Processor
32 MB RAM
10/100 MB Network Interface Card

Software:

Ghost™ "Server" Machine:
MS-Windows NT/2000/XP

Contact FPA

To find out more about implementing the FPA Ghost™ “Server” Solution for your organization, contact FPA at 818-501-3390 or email us at info@fpainc.com.