In the past in our environment we've utilized multiple smaller workstations running Windows 7 to serve as Ghost Consoles with v2.5. This has served us well for many years.
One problem we are running into now when using GSS 3.0 is the mapped network drive requirement. In order to perform any imaging work via the Automation Folder the workstation has to boot to WinPE, map a network drive, launch Ghost and then image. If you use Windows 7 as your 'server' you are limited to a maximum of 20 mapped drive connections (in practice closer to 15) and therefore a maximum of 20 workstations per GhostCast Multicast session.
My question is why isn't there an option to roll the imaging tools into the WinPE environment within the Automation Folder? During the Boot Disk Creator process the user is prompted with an option to "Run existing WinPE 5.X automation agent contained in the local pre-boot environment." for the Automation Agent Location so why not do the same with the imaging tools?
Has anyone else tried a similar setup and experienced the same issue? Were you able to resolve it? If so please share how.
I know that the "Best Practice" would be to utilize a true Windows Server. Unfortunately Server licenses cost money and office policies and politics prevent desktop administrators from having access to server operating systems.