Any post-ghost strategies to avoid renaming hundreds of computers?

[Cody John]

Hello,
Our campus uses Symantec Ghost to deploy workstations,
and lately I have been tinkering with the Sysprep utility
to try to alleve the annoyance of renaming lab-fuls of
computers. I know I have read somewhere about a
Uniqueness Database File which as I recall you can
specify with the sysprep command to name all the
computers automatically. Anybody have any experience or
knowledge they can shed on the subject?
Thanks,
Cody John
MCSA

 

[SplashinessPotato]

Our campus uses Symantec Ghost to deploy workstations,
and lately I have been tinkering with the Sysprep utility
to try to alleve the annoyance of renaming lab-fuls of
computers. I know I have read somewhere about a
Uniqueness Database File which as I recall you can
specify with the sysprep command to name all the
computers automatically. Anybody have any experience or
knowledge they can shed on the subject?
Thanks,
Cody John
MCSA

Cody,
I'm not sure that this is what you're after, but if you specify
"ComputerName = *" in the "[Identification]" section of Sysprep.INF the
computer will be randomly named.

M

 

[Oli Restorick [MVP]]

I wrote a program to do this, called compname.exe (free download from
www.willowhayes.co.uk).

Personally, I use the SMBIOS serial number as a naming scheme, but you may
want something different. MY program can do a variety of different schemes.

The domain join will become more difficult, though. You could look at
scripting the domain join with netdom.exe (support tools on your Windows
2000 CD-ROM), but bear in mind that you need a reboot between the machine
rename and the domain join operation.

Hope this helps

Oli