Symantec Ghost Solution Suite
By Broadcom Inc
Speed and Efficiency: The software is highly valued for its speed and efficiency in imaging and deployment. Users report being able to "quickly image many computers" and getting "yearly computer replacements done quickly," saving significant staff time.
Centralized Management & Deployment: The single management console is praised for making it "easy to manage many computers" and deploy scripts and tasks to numerous machines without manual interaction, often scheduled for off-hours.
Reliable Imaging Core: Symantec Ghost's core imaging capabilities, especially for cloning and restoration, are considered "highly reliable" and "perfectly well," functioning as an effective disaster recovery tool.
Customization and Scripting: Reviewers appreciate the "broad functionality" and "highly customizable" nature of the tool, including the ability to use custom scripting to deploy specific applications and configurations.
Hardware and OS Support: Newer versions offer good compatibility, including support for UEFI BIOS and the ability to support various pre-boot environments, allowing a standardized image to be loaded onto different hardware configurations (especially when paired with Universal Imaging Utility).
Complex and Tedious Setup: The initial setup and configuration, particularly the server-side installation, is frequently described as "VERY tedious," and sometimes "unstable," often requiring server reboots and numerous driver re-installs. Some users needed to call support to complete the initial installation.
Multi-Hardware Image Management: Managing images for a diverse range of computer models can be a major pain point. It requires sorting and managing many different images to address various drivers and configurations, making the process unreliable and cumbersome for heterogeneous environments.
Network & Performance Issues: The software can be "quite slow at times," particularly when the client needs to communicate back to the server. Furthermore, imaging multiple systems simultaneously can sometimes degrade network performance.
