Symantec Conjures Up Ghost 8.0
Symantec is basking in the spirit of the Halloween season. The Cupertino, CA software group has conjured up version 8.0 of Ghost Corporate Edition, which is now available directly and through a network of partners and resellers.
Ghost 8 introduces new hardware and software inventory management tools, beefs up its support for Linux, adds support for removable storage, and attempts to exorcise the bandwidth demon that has plagued prior releases.
Version 8's inventory management tools allow IT administrators to query PCs on their network to inventory the complete hardware and software environment. For instance, if it is found that PCs are without a particular hotfix, they can be singled out and placed into an area dubbed a "Dynamic Folder."
Once identified and placed into the special folder, another new feature -- Multicast File Transfer -- simultaneously pushes needed patches to each machine to be executed with support for switches where necessary.
In its briefing to BetaNews, Symantec also detailed better Linux compatibility - namely, native GRUB and LILO support on EXT2/EXT3 file systems. It is unclear whether or not Symantec intends for Ghost to supersede PowerQuest's product line, the company's recent acquisition.
Other new features in Ghost 8 include full USB 2.0 and FireWire support that allows IT to perform back up and restoration tasks from portable media and hard drives, rather than soaking up and taxing limited network bandwidth.
A Symantec spokesperson proposed that the feature would be most handy on the road when a salesperson may have limited access to a broadband connection, or even be relegated to dial-up conditions.
"A new image for his/her laptop can be sent out via a USB 30GB hard drive, or a bootable DVD Ram disk. The sales rep can plug in the device, or boot from the DVD disk and upgrade or refresh painlessly," the spokesperson told BetaNews.
Bandwidth issues were zeroed in on during the development of the Ghost 8.0 release. How a new feature known as "Client Staging Area" works is analogous to old LP record player.
"Ghost knows where the first and last sector of the Client Staging Area is, so it can effectively "pick up the needle" when it reaches the first sector, and "puts the needle back down" after the last sector," said Symantec.
The staging area is local on each PC, containing: images, personal files, packages and other user specific resources that need not be overwritten. During a cloning, this space is maintained, eliminating the need for a storage server that would redistribute personal files back to a machine once the process was complete.
All in all, the Client Staging Area intends for machines to be refreshed on a regular basis with less heartache.
Symantec has included 12 months of maintenance into the asking price for Ghost 8.0. Product pricing starts at $36.20 per license for 10 to 24 licenses, and drops to $21.10 for 250 to 499 licenses.