FYI Sysprepare To Clone: It's important to run Sysprep before you make an image that will be used to clone multiple workstations. You can find the Sysprep tool on the installation CD-ROM for Windows 2000 and XP in "<CDROM-DRIVE>\support\tools\deploy.cab." You can also find updated versions for each operating system at The Microsoft site.

Multicasting is another advantage of network-based image distribution. For networkwide multicasting to be successful, however, you need an up-to-date network architecture, where the majority of your switches support multicasting. Also, you should do mass deployments only when network activity is low. Microsoft Windows 2000 Server's RIS doesn't support multicasting, but the other products we tested include this timesaving perk. In our tests, the imaging server started a session and all the clients attached to it, one by one. Upon completion of the transfer, the clients were rebooted and began loading the newly obtained image.

With PXE, you no longer have to carry around disks, but you still might have to visit client machines to boot them. To further lighten the load, Altiris, PowerQuest and Symantec let you manage imaging operations from a server console via a hidden partition. You accomplish this with an optional piece of client software installed on each system. For all three products the client software can be installed in a pull fashion, but Altiris and Symantec Ghost go the extra mile, letting you push the software onto the client remotely. When using this method we didn't have to visit the test clients at all.

The hidden partition works like a virtual floppy disk. Whenever we needed to make an image of a client machine, we used the console to tell the client to set the hidden partition to active and reboot. When the client machine rebooted it loaded the hidden partition, which contains a version of PC or MS DOS, network drivers and some additional executables that let the client connect to the imaging server. As instructed, the client connected to the network, made a connection with the imaging server, and began transferring the image data. The same process is used to restore a malfunctioning client PC.

To Clone or Not To Clone?

How much time do your helpdesk personnel spend troubleshooting end-user PC problems? Let's face it: Today's desktops are extremely complex. A multitude of things can go wrong, and if a problem is taking an unreasonable amount of time to fix, why bother? All four products we tested come equipped with migration tools that automate the process of gleaning a user's personal data--including document files, desktop settings, e-mail and favorites--then transferring a clean installation of the operating system and reinstalling the personal data. The system can be back up and running in a little more than eight minutes. With tools this simple we recommend you adopt a policy that says, "If our staff can't figure out what's wrong with a user's PC in 15 minutes, we'll just reinstall and start over."

Of course, there are a few caveats. Cloning a machine connected to your LAN is one thing; supporting telecommuters is a different challenge. Sending images over low-bandwidth connections can be time-consuming, so be prepared. Another fly in the "just start over" ointment is that distributing a user's operating system, applications and personal data is not all there is to worry about in a Windows-based environment. You still need to address drivers, differences in hardware and those pesky System Identifiers, or SIDs, that are domain accounts for each workstation. Happily, Microsoft provides a tool, Sysprep, that can strip out unique attributes for a workstation (see "FYI"). All the products we tested leverage this tool to prepare a source machine to be imaged and distributed to many clients. After Sysprep runs, your machines will reboot into the Windows setup wizard, which will redetect hardware devices and prompt for information, such as the CD key, time zone, keyboard settings and NT/2000 Domain. (To avoid hardware inconsistency issues, see "Send In the Clones?".)

Glossary PXE: As described by Intel, the PXE protocol operates by having a client broadcast a DHCPDISCOVER containing an extension that identifies the request as coming from a client that implements PXE. The client then discovers a boot server and receives the name of an executable file. The client uses TFTP to download the executable and initiates execution of the downloaded image. Find more at PXE Specification.

In addition, Altiris, PowerQuest and Symantec offer proprietary tools to help address the SID process. We found Altiris' tool the most helpful; it saved us a significant amount of time by eliminating the need to visit each machine after cloning and walking through the Windows setup. In fact, Altiris' Deployment Solution landed our Editor's Choice award. Although it comes with a higher price tag than its rivals, it brings a slew of unmatched client- and server-management features and makes handling those Windows NT/2000/XP SIDs a no-brainer. Ghost, priced much lower, followed closely behind. While it offers a great deal of centralized control, Ghost lacks a Web interface. PowerQuest was next on the scoreboard, held back mostly by the limited number of features that can be controlled from the server's Web console--it lets you create and distribute images from the console, but you have to perform migration, Sysprep, client installation and other operations locally. It's still a nice solution, though, with a decent Web interface and easy-to-use migration utilities.

Finally, Microsoft 2000 Server with RIS enabled receives our Best Value award. If you are concerned only with distributing operating systems and software, you're all set. Granted, it will support only Windows 2000 and XP client machines, and RIS has limited features. For example, by implementing only RIS you miss out on multicast and software distribution, making it better suited for smaller environments. But if your demands are modest, you can't beat the price, and RIS can be a great first step in supporting client OS installations. Symantec's and PowerQuest's products (but not Altiris, which has its own scripted OS installation functionality) can be integrated with RIS as your needs grow.