Rawns Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 My LA has started to use CentraStage for remote support in schools and it's a very impressive package. It allows remote take over, the pushing out of scripts and scheduled tasks, maintenance, monitoring etc. I noticed now that you can use it for free for personal use to help support friends/family's computers (up to 10 devices)! Are you tapped up by your family to help solve their PC problems? Are you constantly being asked to troubleshoot IT problems for friends? Do you marvel at the miraculous ways in which your nearest and dearest can break their computers? Are you too kind to say "no", but looking for an easier life? Then help is at hand. CentraStage is now offering its PC management software free to those unsung IT heroes who keep the PCs of their friends and family up and running. No hidden costs, no marketing ploys, just access to great technology that will make your life easier, help PCs run better, and win you gratitude and appreciation (and hopefully a few beers). Simply sign up to our online service and see how CentraStage can benefit you and your loved ones by taking the hassle out of PC support. We offer remote support, audit and monitoring, software deployment and device management and reporting. All managed through a simple web-based management interface. The free service allows you to download and deploy the CentraStage client software on upto 10 PCs. We like our technology. We want people to use it. CentraStage - Remote computer management for home Simply create a account and then log in. You have to initially install a small agent onto the computers you want to support but once done, you can access the PC via a browser anywhere! Well worth a look! It's going to be useful for when my old man calls up with his PC issues! 1
Edu-IT Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 How does this rate in comparison to LogMeIn?
Rawns Posted November 25, 2009 Author Posted November 25, 2009 How does this rate in comparison to LogMeIn? I've heard of LogMeIn but have never used it so can't give a full comparison. Looking at it quickly on LogMeIn's website, it seems that you can only access your PC remotely and nothing else? CentraStage allows this as well as the automated deploying of software, scripts & scheduled tasks. Plus it's free for up to 10 devices. With LogMeIn, you have to pay to for their LogMeIn Pro package to support more then one device.
Edu-IT Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 Plus it's free for up to 10 devices. With LogMeIn, you have to pay to for their LogMeIn Pro package to support more then one device. No, it supports up to 5.
Rawns Posted November 25, 2009 Author Posted November 25, 2009 No, it supports up to 5. Sorry - my bad. From having a quick scan on their web site, it appeared as if it was only one device for free.
Rawns Posted November 25, 2009 Author Posted November 25, 2009 (edited) That looks interesting. You say your LEA uses the software deployment facility. Is it good? How does it work? Is it better than MSIs thru AD policies? So many questions... I work for the LEA as a Support Analyst for SIMS and we have started using it in the past few months and are slowly moving away from our usual support tools. The software deployment side of things is very impressive. I can't comment compare it to the MSIs as I've not used that method before. We have currently used it to distribute various bits & pieces to the schools we support. One example is a full Fronta export. We would have had to connect to each school server and run a command line to action the export. With over 270 schools, it would have easily taken a few weeks. Using CentraStage, we put the command into a batch file, pushed it out to all school servers and it completed within 2 hours (minus the odd 3 or 4 schools that failed so had to be manually done!) It's easy to set up too. The basic process is: 1. Create a "component" and attach any files you need (bat, exe, vbs, zip, etc etc). 2. Choose the device/s you want to distribute to. 3. Schedule the job to run (instantly, daily, weekly, scheduled time etc) 4. Once it's run, you can see if its passed or failed and view any log files created in the process. Currently, we are looking at it to automate the SQL migiration form 2005 to 2008. Also, we plan to use it to automate the SIMS and FMS upgrades. EDIT: Worht looking here for an overview... http://www.centrastage.com/device_management_and_configuration.html Edited November 25, 2009 by Rawns
Rawns Posted November 25, 2009 Author Posted November 25, 2009 Let me know how the SIMS deployment goes. Also, another question: do you host the service yourself, or do you use it à la cloud? We do host it ourselves. The free home version is hosted at CentraStage's end.
AyatollahPies Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 How does this rate in comparison to LogMeIn? If all you want is remote access then I'd stick with LogMeIn, as it all runs via a broswer, whereas you need to install the centrastage agent on the workstation that you wish to connect from, if you are using Centrastage for remote access. Clearly though, Centrastage does far more than just remote access.
Rawns Posted November 25, 2009 Author Posted November 25, 2009 OK. Can I ask about costs? PM if you can't make anything public. I'll print it out then eat it after reading. Sorry - I did not have any involvement in that side of things. I'm just a user.
Rawns Posted November 25, 2009 Author Posted November 25, 2009 (edited) If all you want is remote access then I'd stick with LogMeIn, as it all runs via a broswer, whereas you need to install the centrastage agent on the workstation that you wish to connect from, if you are using Centrastage for remote access. This is true if you want to use Ultra VNC or RDP for remote access to a client. However, I found that you can use the Java VNC connection in the CentraStage web interface without having the Agent installed on the local computer you are using. You do need the agent installed on any PC you wish to connect to still. Edited November 25, 2009 by Rawns Clarified post....
localzuk Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 This is true if you want to use Ultra VNC or RDP for remote access. However, you can use the Jave VNC connection without having the Agent installed on the computer you are using. You'd still need a VNC server on the client - CentraStage installs one in its agent.
dude10028 Posted December 9, 2009 Posted December 9, 2009 Hi. I've used CentraStage in an education support environment and think it's top stuff. The web based remote control is good but other features put it way above the likes of LogMeIn. Ability to push installations to and run scripts on selected clients (and get return values) is excellent. Audit features are very useful too (hardware, software etc.). Thing i relied on most was the monitoring tool which could email when specific events appeared - v.good for failing drives and audit events! Andy
BKriel Posted December 9, 2009 Posted December 9, 2009 Hi all, Our LA has been using Centrastage for well over a year now and like the others who have posted before me, the Remote Control features are only the tip of the iceberg really. Our SIMS support team have used it for various rollouts from a basic file copy to many sites to full blown updates. I do curriculum support for primary schools and have been using it in part to deploy msi installations (as part of the command you can run the msi package plus any mst files you may require for a totally silent install) Sometimes AD MSI deployment still has its uses but if you can script it, then centrastage should be able to run it. At some of my schools we shut all the PCs down on a daily basis at 20h00 as the Components you create can be scheduled. Last time I heard, there was work being done to enable Wake On Lan functionality but that could take a while to get sorted. When we first started using Centrastage, we had existing remote access solutions in place so we could create AD Login scripts to install the remote agent without visiting the site. Then one of the first things we used Centrastage for was to enable RDP access on the workstations and to uninstall the VNC client. Cheers Bry
scottb Posted December 9, 2009 Posted December 9, 2009 Hello Everyone, We've been using CS for about a year now and have used it for all sorts of things e.g. Sims Upgrades, Service packs, checking AV defs and MS patching levels, identifying older PCs in need of replacing... the list goes on! We will also be rolling out SQL2008 to our managed Sims Servers using this. I would recommend CS to any LA who current remotely support school's machines. Scott
SMBC-Damian Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 We have been using / trialling Centrastage for quite some time now (Over a year providing feedback & development suggestions), but have only recently installed on all of our School SQL Servers. We have a requirement to assess the suitability of all our SQL Servers for future updates from Capita (Sims) and SQL versions to find out if they meet minimum spec. The initial roll out of agents across the servers had provided us with all the information we need with regards upgrades and also highlighted a couple of issues like missing Service Packs / correct AV products etc, that have been able to be resolved remotely. We also plan to deliver the latest SQL updates via CentraStage using an overnight scheduled task therefore enabling out technicians to get on with the upgrade task without having to wait for file downloads. This is only the 'tip' of the iceberg as it were when it comes to utilizing CentraStage..... Already we have a very detailed overview of the state of our SQL Servers and we have been able to address issues which may have gone unnoticed. The information provided by CentraStage gives us the necessary information to make accurate plans for future service delivery and migration, and enables us to target specific equipment that is in most urgent need for replacement. Currently we are very pleased with the capability of CentraStage and are looking for new ways to utilise it... D.
Jose Posted December 14, 2009 Posted December 14, 2009 there seems to be a lot of newly registered users with only 1-3 posts supporting this product.
Rawns Posted December 14, 2009 Author Posted December 14, 2009 I noticed this too! SMBC-Damian's post reads like an advert!
AyatollahPies Posted December 14, 2009 Posted December 14, 2009 (edited) This sounds rather Deja-Vu esq. Wasn't there a similar thread a year or 2 ago about Centrastor, and a few "new" posters raved about madly? Edit: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/8951-a.html Edited December 14, 2009 by AyatollahPies
RinSewand Posted December 14, 2009 Posted December 14, 2009 There's a lot of tips of icebergs in here too... RwD
SMBC-Damian Posted December 16, 2009 Posted December 16, 2009 There seems to be quite a lot of us starting to use this service and trying out it's features, I was hoping from Posting that I would get some idea of how successful other users had been and possible start off a few..... .... "We did this project and it worked really well...." or even some "We tried this and this didn't quite work as well as we had hoped.." I would welcome other users of CentraStages comments, by PM if not on the forum. It goes against the grain to re-invent the wheel, so if I can skip straight onto the 'real time savers' that would be great!! Regards, D.
rh91uk Posted December 16, 2009 Posted December 16, 2009 We will be using CentraStage soon in our LEA too so would be greatful for the comments!
Rawns Posted December 17, 2009 Author Posted December 17, 2009 As of yet, we have not used CentraStage for any "major" projects as such. The "biggest" thing we have used it for to date is the SIMS and FMS backup process. Originally, each school had a scheduled task on it's servers to action a SIMS backup, FMS backup and a tidy routine on a daily basis. Since Capita removed compression, we have had to rethink and create a new backup, compression and checking process that runs against each school every night. We have doe this and push it out on CentraStage. It's only been running for a couple of weeks against around 270 school servers but seems to be on average about 99% successful. Using the post-definitions in the CentraStage job, we have set up error checking so we can see why a task failed. In most failure cases up to now, it's usually down to a drive space issue or a power cut at school overnight. Overall, we are very pleased with how it's working out. We are currently looking at automating the SIMS and FMS upgrade process now using CentraStage, and also will be looking at the SQL Migration too. I'll keep you posted.
dude10028 Posted December 17, 2009 Posted December 17, 2009 Hi All @Jose, Rawns, AyatollahPies, RinSewand Looking at the posts I can see what you mean. Can't speak for the others but i have used edugeek to get information for some time - when i saw a post about something i have some experience with i thought i would post - no conspiracy here. Maybe the posts are actually positive because it genuinly is a good product for education networks? Sure it's not without problems. One issue we experienced was with domain users being members of local admins. This meant that they were able to access the centrastage client settings. In the end we just had to put up with this since removing users from local admins caused issues with the older curric software. Another is that there is no support for Linux clients (but being based on Windows WMI this is no great surprise). Still, even with a few issues, it's still a good product. Sure it does not provide anything that cannot be achieved (for a lot less cost) using separate systems i.e. RDP/VNC for remote control, WSUS for M$ patches, logon scripts and GPO's for software installation and updates, WMI based logon scripts for device audit etc. Anyone who has actually used GPO's for software installs knows this is not without issues too! Plus with centrastage you do get all the features in one centrally managed interface. As someone who used separate solutions for several years to support over 200 schools i can say that centrastage made my life somuch easier. PS. The fact that BETT is aproaching fast and redstor/centrastage have alcholic refreshments has no bearing on my comments at all @Rawns Hands up - i might be a little biast since i was the one that originally installed and configured centrastage in Somerset and then left before you got it rolled out to all clients. Still, it's a hellofa lot better than Tivolli which is what you'd have (eventually!) ended up with otherwise. Andy 1
ful56_uk Posted December 17, 2009 Posted December 17, 2009 we use centrastage here on our server I think we paid £10 per machine and got it from Ergo. Love it. As well as for ur server I bought licences for our feeder primarys to look after there servers as well.
Rawns Posted December 17, 2009 Author Posted December 17, 2009 Hi All @Jose, Rawns, AyatollahPies, RinSewand Looking at the posts I can see what you mean. Can't speak for the others but i have used edugeek to get information for some time - when i saw a post about something i have some experience with i thought i would post - no conspiracy here. Maybe the posts are actually positive because it genuinly is a good product for education networks? I guess we can be rather suspicious sometimes. Apologies if any of you were offended! @Rawns Hands up - i might be a little biast since i was the one that originally installed and configured centrastage in Somerset and then left before you got it rolled out to all clients. Still, it's a hellofa lot better than Tivolli which is what you'd have (eventually!) ended up with otherwise. Well I think its a quality product so far! One or Two small teething problems, and I can see a few areas that can be improved/added to but I'm sure that CentraStage will make the product even better as time goes on!
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