First image: is it Correct & Help Questions.

Hi All, I’m new to Acronis so still learning, but I’ve downloaded a tried version of Snap and all seems pretty easy but would like to confirmation and pointers and hopefully some real life install setup imaging instructions if possible.

We have around 150 HP Desktop computers coming in the next few weeks and I’d like to have a few Images for them to save me sitting there building every pc manually, this system will also be used in the future for PC Rebuild’s to save time building them manually, at the moment all hardware is exactly the same but the future could be different.

I’ve decided to go with Acronis as I used Ghost many years ago and never liked the interface.

My first question is can someone tell me the main difference between Snap and backup & recovery 10 Advanced Workstation other than the huge price difference.

We are not interested in backing up, we simply want an imaging system, once the pc’s are rolled out we won’t use it until a pc crash’s or dies or we get some more new pc’s.

So I think its Snap Software what I need.

The main image will be for 150 HP Elite 8000 Ultra Small Form Factor PC’s, we will have more than 1 image, for example Accounts Dept, Sales Dept, etc.

We have a Windows 2003 Domain, my biggest concern would be every pc must have a unique SID, Computer name, and hopefully be automatically added to the domain, what I can’t understand is whether I need to use SYSPREP or the Acronis in built feature or both together? Can you please help here? , I really need some advice here as I’ll hate to roll out 150 computers only to find out I messed up.

My Testing.

Problem 1 – Trying to upload an image to the Console from a pc - Offline

I’ve installed the SNAP V3 onto a Server along with the Licensing Server and used the trial license, Created a bootable cd, from my laptop I boot the cd and enter the Acronis Menu, select Snap Delpy Agent, the computer then sits there with the Progress bar sitting on 6 bars, from the server we can see the computer is available for deployment, I don’t see any where I can upload the PC Image ?

So from what I can see is I am unable to upload a image to the console using the Snap System ? is this correct or am I doing something wrong?

Questions 1 – Downloading an Image from the console to a PC – Offline.

So I booted from CD and selected Create Master Image, dump it onto the server share (same server as console is installed). Then from the Console create a new Template associated with this new TIB file, in the Template I enable the SID Change, Computer Name Change and Add to the Domain Change.

Then to download to the PC I boot of the cd and select Snap Deploy Agent, it see’s the server but sits there on the 6 bars, but on this time I can from the console do a manual deployment and dump the image to the pc. This works fine and the pc boots up and change’s its SID then adds itself to the domain with the new computer name.

Is the above correct, or is it this simple ? have I missed any steps ? could I do it better ?
Is sysprep needed? Or can we use the Acronis version ? or do we need both ?, are there any check’s we can do to confirm all is ok ?

Has anyone got any actual walk through’s on creating a domain image ?

My next problem is Office 2010, I know its nothing to do with Acronis but anyone got any tips ?

Licensing

Here i am tottally stuck, i understand i need to buy 150 copies of Snap v3 for the 150 new computers i'm about to buy. But what about the future rebuilds, how would i buy these as i dont know how many i need, is the licensing such that once i used all my 150 it all stops working, or does it just keep going ? I need to be sure here as ocne the 150 pc's are rolled out i dont want to be in a position where i cant use it anymore because i never bought any more liceneces ?

Thanks guys