AlexB Posted June 9 Posted June 9 I know the feeling. I got lucky with a quiet two week at the end of May and got most of my tinkering done. Now, of course, it all dies in another 2 weeks when the 30 days runs out
garethEds Posted June 9 Author Posted June 9 I emailed them earlier and put a push on it. I've been told my licence file/code will arrive in the next 24/48 hours. I've been told to remove the enterprise version as they cannot co-exist on the same server and one will not overwrite the other. So I've prepped my server and re-downloaded the community version ready for install.
garethEds Posted June 9 Author Posted June 9 @AlexB - Cheers Pal. Our licence code just arrived via email. I'll get onto it tomorrow now and start installing the Community version from scratch. Will report back when I've done. G
AlexB Posted June 9 Posted June 9 31 minutes ago, garethedmondson said: @AlexB - Cheers Pal. Our licence code just arrived via email. I'll get onto it tomorrow now and start installing the Community version from scratch. Will report back when I've done. G 🎉🎉 Week off mode here, enjoy tinkering
garethEds Posted June 10 Author Posted June 10 Not going very well at the moment - downloaded the main package but installation is not going through as it should. It's downloading all dependencies except the ADK components from https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2289980 The site works in a browser but the DeployR installer simply refuses to connect to it and download. I've got our LEAs looking at it as all other dependencies are coming through. Even if I install it before running DeployR the software doesn't check and goes on to download (and fail) anyway. Waiting for Reddit Community Support now - but a similar post there suggests it is our firewall blocking the download from within the installer - despite it going through the web browser with no issues.
garethEds Posted June 15 Author Posted June 15 (edited) Well - we are up and running with a test machine deployed. Wish it had a database in there of machine names matched to MAC address/Serial Number like MDT did - but depends on what you are looking for. Anyhow - we are deployed (with serial number machine names) and domain joined. Next step now is to do machine names based on either of the above. Deployment of a bare metal Windows 11 25H2 machine was smooth. Drivers downloaded from the cloud as did updates. Was quite quick as well. So - our MDT/WDS server has now been retired and iPXE is working too. Edited June 15 by garethedmondson 2
AlexB Posted June 15 Posted June 15 Might be worth taking a look at https://github.com/gwblok/2PintLabs/blob/main/DeployR/FrontEnd/FrontEndJSONDriven/FrontEndConfig.json I used this as a starting point and ended up with something that reads the machine asset tag (how we name them) and just asks for a prefix. It adds an automatic prefix for the machine type (we have different suffixes for laptops, desktops and whether they are owned or leased). There is a fallback manual box for those machines we can't get an asset tag into the BIOS for
garethEds Posted June 16 Author Posted June 16 Funnily enough we are using a script from gwblok - advised on the reddit group. However it is a server side script and the Community Version does not allow server side scripting - which has brought my current branch of work to an end - unless I can find another way of doing it.
AlexB Posted June 16 Posted June 16 welshGJE24? I'm RockOriginal7938 over there (oh how I regret letting it auto generated a username for my work account )
AlexB Posted June 16 Posted June 16 Also, 2Pint Software webinar: Advanced step definitions started @ 3
garethEds Posted June 16 Author Posted June 16 6 minutes ago, AlexB said: welshGJE24? I'm RockOriginal7938 over there (oh how I regret letting it auto generated a username for my work account ) Well well well - small world. Are you community or Enterprise version?
AlexB Posted June 16 Posted June 16 Just now, garethedmondson said: Well well well - small world. Are you community or Enterprise version? Enterprise trial (10 days left 😮 ) Hoping to get the Public Sector version long-term, but gotta demo and sell to management later this week.
garethEds Posted June 16 Author Posted June 16 1 minute ago, AlexB said: Enterprise trial (10 days left 😮 ) Hoping to get the Public Sector version long-term, but gotta demo and sell to management later this week. Is the Public Sector version free -0 I doubt it. We were quoted over £2.5k for an Enterprise licence. I cannot afford that at the moment - if ever. Shame they do not give the enterprise version free to schools, as long as we prove we are a school. Gareth
AlexB Posted June 16 Posted June 16 1 minute ago, garethedmondson said: Is the Public Sector version free -0 I doubt it. We were quoted over £2.5k for an Enterprise licence. I cannot afford that at the moment - if ever. Shame they do not give the enterprise version free to schools, as long as we prove we are a school. Gareth Certainly going to try for free. I abandoned the school world about 6 years ago for the NHS, but still hoping that let me play with the Enterprise under the public sector banner https://2pintsoftware.com/pricing/publicsector Quote Please note that all prices shown are for the support component of the license, charged 'per endpoint' based on an annual subscription. The software license itself is free of charge. Have a question about sales, pricing, or proof of concept? See our sales and pricing FAQs page. They suggest I should be able to get the software without taking support, but I guess time will tell #shrug
garethEds Posted June 18 Author Posted June 18 Hi @AlexB - I've asked them about public sector and it is the enterprise version but a bit cheaper. Still too expensive for my school with 700 endpoints at £4.50 each per year. Way out of our league. They will not give us the Public Sector version without support. This is the response I got: Quote Hey Gareth, It is not possible to acquire the Enterprise version without support. As part of giveback to the community, we do not charge for the licence for Education and Public Sector, but we still require that a support subscription is purchased for all our Enterprise software such as DeployR Enterprise. Kind Regards Ranjith So I'm trying to make do with the Community version but it's missing some functionality that makes it equal to MDT (at the moment). I've had a few bits of advice on Reddit about naming machines and re-deploying those already in our AD, but the advice required Server Side Powershell Scripting. It there is another way then there are too many gaps in my knowledge to figure it out. I just need it to work. Ideally they would sell support packages that are not based on Endpoints. They need to realise that school funding is harsh - especially here in Wales. £500 for a simple support package would bring more schools rather then £4.50 per endpoint for 700 (£3150) - we don't have it. Gareth
AlexB Posted June 18 Posted June 18 7 hours ago, garethedmondson said: Hi @AlexB - I've asked them about public sector and it is the enterprise version but a bit cheaper. Still too expensive for my school with 700 endpoints at £4.50 each per year. Way out of our league. They will not give us the Public Sector version without support. This is the response I got: So I'm trying to make do with the Community version but it's missing some functionality that makes it equal to MDT (at the moment). I've had a few bits of advice on Reddit about naming machines and re-deploying those already in our AD, but the advice required Server Side Powershell Scripting. It there is another way then there are too many gaps in my knowledge to figure it out. I just need it to work. Ideally they would sell support packages that are not based on Endpoints. They need to realise that school funding is harsh - especially here in Wales. £500 for a simple support package would bring more schools rather then £4.50 per endpoint for 700 (£3150) - we don't have it. Gareth Yeah, I got basically the same thing today Their wording sits very poorly for me and that is me being generous because I rate the software so much. Guess I'll make the most of the Community version when they let me in
garethEds Posted June 18 Author Posted June 18 27 minutes ago, AlexB said: Yeah, I got basically the same thing today Their wording sits very poorly for me and that is me being generous because I rate the software so much. Guess I'll make the most of the Community version when they let me in Fair comment. I'm not good enough with Powershell to write my own scripts that do certain things. I was happy when one of their developers pointed me to a script he had written and actually thought "Yay"!!! - but then he messaged me to say he didn't realise we were on the Community Version. The lack of being able to re-image a currently joined machine is a red line for us. I don't really want to delete all my machines from AD just to re-image. However I'm sure one of the posts I've read said we could give the machines a new 'owner' which would let them write what is needed to the AD.... Or did I dream that? Cheers
AlexB Posted June 18 Posted June 18 10 minutes ago, garethedmondson said: Fair comment. I'm not good enough with Powershell to write my own scripts that do certain things. I was happy when one of their developers pointed me to a script he had written and actually thought "Yay"!!! - but then he messaged me to say he didn't realise we were on the Community Version. The lack of being able to re-image a currently joined machine is a red line for us. I don't really want to delete all my machines from AD just to re-image. However I'm sure one of the posts I've read said we could give the machines a new 'owner' which would let them write what is needed to the AD.... Or did I dream that? Cheers Gary I suspect, his github is incredible. I live for the code, one of the reasons I like DeployR so much. The delete isn't an issue for us as we have long been required to delete the AD object before a reimage here. That said, at my last school, it would have been a major headache. I'm assuming that is the offline domain join that doesn't play nice with existing AD objects? I know 2Pints are discouraging stored credential domain join, but I look at it this way.... that is how MDT does it now. If you're happy to accept the ongoing security risk to do it the same way as MDT, I wrote a script to ask for AD credentials and then domain join and I assume (haven't specifically tried) that it would work over the top of an existing AD object. Ironically, I don't use it now, but it isn't like I deleted the code
AlexB Posted June 18 Posted June 18 Yes, I think I saw something about making the deployr server object the owner, but didn't pay attention
DrCheese Posted June 18 Posted June 18 (edited) £3.1k a year is nuts. We may have loads of endpoints, but we don't reimage *that* much. May have to force myself to carry on with getting OSDCloud to work how we need it. Edited June 18 by DrCheese
garethEds Posted June 19 Author Posted June 19 9 hours ago, DrCheese said: £3.1k a year is nuts. We may have loads of endpoints, but we don't reimage *that* much. May have to force myself to carry on with getting OSDCloud to work how we need it. I agree totally and have raised this with them. They offered a discount but even that was an amount too large for what the software does. We're muddling through with the Community Version but there is that one little annoyance of re-deploying a machine already in the AD. Little things make all the difference. I'm of the opinion that education (schools) - should be free - wrong opinion maybe but there we are. Gareth
Arthur Posted June 20 Posted June 20 On 18/06/2026 at 22:32, DrCheese said: £3.1k a year is nuts. The other annoying thing the massive price disparity between the various currencies. 700 * £4.50 = £3,150 700 * €4.50 = £2,732 (cheaper by £418) 700 * $4.50 = £2,380 (cheaper by £770) 2
garethEds Posted June 22 Author Posted June 22 This is the email I had today when I asked about Non-Profit pricing. We do not have that sort of money. Companies really need to research their target market a bit more. Quote It's great to hear that you're interested in moving forward with the Enterprise version. I understand that the Community Edition isn't meeting your requirements compared to MDT, and that's exactly where the Enterprise edition is designed to help. Our standard non-profit pricing would be £4,500 for a one-year term. However, if we're able to finalize this before June 30th, I can offer a special commercial discount and bring the price down to £3,250 for the year. That's the best pricing we're able to offer. Let me know if that's of interest, and I'll be happy to send over a formal quote. Thar first sentence is the kicker for me "that's exactly where the Enterprise edition is designed to help" - almost makes you think they know exactly what they are doing when they limit certain things. Perhaps I'm being too negative here and I understand people need to get paid. It's not as if the software does much really - beyond deploy machines. I don't understand why they need to price per endpoint. Just sell me a cheaper support package that isn't based on endpoints- Once it's set up, I doubt it will get used much - and I doint there will be much support asked for. I don't have the time or the energy to make it work. If they want to give back to the community then schools need to be looked after a bit more.
MYK-IT Posted June 22 Posted June 22 @garethedmondson you could always spend the similar kind of money (e.g. $3,150) in addition, on DeployR training... starts tomorrow! 🫣 Mastering DeployR - Live Training on the DeployR Platform
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