managed network

[Rozzer]

Hi all,

 

Well at the school i work at we currently have a windows 2003 domain with group policys etc.

 

We are looking at going to a managed network eg; RM etc

 

Just wonder what other managed network software you can get and what you would suggest.

 

Look forward to your reponse.

 

Regards,

 

Ross

[ChrisH]

Most people on here seem to have moved away from such solutions to the kind of setup you have already and never look back. Why do you want to make such a move?

[Rozzer]

Its more the ICT manager is looking into. I just wanted to do some research. What is your experience of a managed network?

 

Ross

[_Rob_]

We use RM Connect 3 and RangerSuite on some of the networks in my LEA, our experiences of RM CC 3 have been generally poor, with many performance issues, as for RangerSuite, we have been fairly impressed, however there have been issues with using wireless technology with it.

 

But I can't really see the need for you to make the move if what you're doing works.

 

Rob.

[Guest]

Hummm how strange. The schools I support couldn't wait to get out of RM / Ranger setups. Now run W2K3 / XP and have never been happier.

 

To go the other way is just barmy.

 

What are your IT mangers reasons for the change?

[ajbritton]

Is there perhaps some confusion here about the term 'managed networks' and 'managed service'? Is Ross2K5's ICT manager perhaps seeking a managed network (i.e. a network he does not need to manage himself but is managed by a service provider) rather than network management tools?

 

Just wondering...

[Dos_Box]

To be honest, the features a 'managed' solution you would most like are mainly at the server end. You would save yourself a fortune by investing in NetSupport Manager, and some proprietary user\print management software. Active Directory would fulfill all fo the other things a managed solution provides. Keep it simple and keep it native Windows, you really won't regret it.

[plexer]

Have to agree with everyone else else would never go back to any of these other systems again previous school where I set the whole network up we went with a native windows network from the beginning and last year changed our current setup from winsuite to native 2k3.

 

Next upgrade is going to be to Server 2003 R2

 

Ben

[Michael]

I have to agree also that using a native 2000/2003 server setup is definitely the way to go with 2000/XP workstations. I've never had to migrate from an RM setup, but I did from an NT4 Tiny Network Manager setup. To put it simply, it was Pants with a capital P

[Quackers]

When i started at the school there was an RM Connect 2.4 System in place. The first thing i did was rip it out and install a vanilla 2003/XP system.

 

I see no advantage of going to somthing like RM Connect 3 or Ranger. Only disadvantages.

 

Costs a fortune in licences too!

 

The way i see it is when the kids go to College or into a job they are not going to see an RM Logon screen (maybe if the college has monkeys for tech's they may) or RM Explorer etc. Its going to be a plain, normal Windows XP look and feel. So having the school network the same at least gives them an interface they will be use to when they leave us.

 

Stay with a vanilla setup. You can make it do what ever you want then.

 

RM Systems are designed for schools without tech's, where you sit there with a dummy in your mouth (Normally the head of IT lol)

[Rozzer]

I am personally looking a software called lan desk.

 

I suppose we are looking for a central concole for the whole network.

 

Thats why i started this thread to see what others opinion is on it and to speak to the manager and kinda make him see sense.

 

Ross

[plexer]

What I do is have a folder on the desktop of my server called admin tools and in here are shortcuts to everything I need i.e active directory users and computers, group policy management console, dhcp, dns, scripts for creating accounts, etc... That way I have a centralised resource of tools that acheives what all these other products do.

 

Ben

[Rozzer]

yeh i know that with admin tools. I mean for imaging, deployment etc

 

Ross

[ajbritton]

You may want to have a look at the WIKI page on the subject of network management systems here. It's very much a work in progress, but may be of some use.

[plexer]

I don't get what you mean about yeah with admin tools but imaging and deployment. Software deployment is via gpo's so have the gp management console takes care of that and a shortcut to ghostserver takes care of deployment?

 

Ben

[Ric_]

I don't get what you mean about yeah with admin tools but imaging and deployment. Software deployment is via gpo's so have the gp management console takes care of that and a shortcut to ghostserver takes care of deployment?

 

Ben

I concur about software deployment via GPO but would go one step further and suggest you look into RIS so thatyou don't need to license an imaging product.

 

As others have done, I have removed RM Connect 2.4 and replaced it with vanilla Windows - I tried Ranger but found it unreliable and restrictive (I believe it may be somewhat different now but you do still have the additional cost). IMHO cherry-picking the individual tools for print management, network monitoring, etc. rather than buying a suite is a far better idea.

 

(If you do want a one-stop solution, try looking into NetSupport DNA )

[alan-d]

This came to light on another post here - may be what you are looking for - it looks like it could have the benefit of having some managed services but still allow you to make changes through the native environment.

 

MLNM

 

I've not read it all but it looks promising, also for most people it would be free.

[plexer]

You could also look at http://unattended.sourceforge.net/

 

I use ghost with a great dos network boot disk that will boot any machine I have the problem when I tried RIS was having unsupported network cards. Unattended looks like it may be good.

 

I bought 15 ghost licences and just use them to run ghost.exe rather than install the whole ghost console. Now I've started replacing older machines that wouldn't pxe boot with new ones that do I want to get rid of needing a floppy to boot them from anyway.

 

Ben