Suggestions for new deployment software

[edutech4schools]

You could keep it really simple and use winpe with gimagex free from MS. In about 20 mins you can have a bootable CD or USB drive that boots into a windows PE enviroment and you capture the image from this. You can download a drivers pack that supports most computers around today so no fafing around with drivers. Dell also do a driver pack for WinPE that supports all their machines.

 

If you want you can then add a desktop with other tools and utils.

[teckedd]

I took a look at the website - it looks great - asked for prices (out of curiosity, though if the price was right?) - even with educational discount at around £13 per desktop it isn't cheap and around four times the price I was offered on Altiris..

I think it will have to be MDT2010 and WpkgExpress this year..

 

That price is about right. You should be able to offset the cost of it against the technician time saved. I plan to have Windows 7 installed on 600+ computers in 3 days over the summer, all I need to do is right click on an OU and select reinstall, then send a WOL packet to the computer to turn them on. They should install the Windows 7 image I created followed by all the applications deployed to that location. Then we will just need to visit any that might fail.

 

What cost is did get quoted for Altiris, as I looked at this originally and it was more expensive. I just asked for a fresh price for Altiris OS and Application deployment and they want £17.63 per computer and you need an SQL server licence.

 

Thanks

Edd

[carvjo]

..I was offered Altiris at about £4.50 per desktop - this was an upgrade price as we have Symantec Solution Suite.. I did tell them that I only paid £25 for the Solution Suite media and have no licensed workstations - but it made no difference - the salesman from Codework wanted to make a sale and said I could have upgrade pricing..

I think I would go for Specops Deploy if I could get it at the right price as our work on MDT and the creation of installation packets with Prism Deploy Packer (for deployment with WpkgExpress) would still hold good.. Alan at Specops UK didn't seem to think there was a lot of room for movement on price though..

[the_quick]

I was in same situation about 2 month ago. And I was told about FOG, not a Linux user myself and I did managed to install it on CentOS with out much of the problem. FOG manuals give step by step guide - really easy to follow and when it is done, you do rest on web interface (no need knowledge of linux). I had bit of a problem with LinuxSE, but found on one forum how to disable it and it worked like charm. Now I have used it for more than 60 PCs and it is very easy to use and most important fast. I have image with windows xp and drivers, nothing else - it takes just above 1 minute to reimage workstation. All the rest of software is allocated after PC is joined to the domain. But you can any image you want, and make is like sysprep - so after reboot system will ask you standard windows install questions like computer name etc.

Easy to use and you don't need to have skills in Linux to install it, really simple installation. My works on xenServer as VM - no probs

[carvjo]

Ref. my earlier posts - I decided to trial Specops Deploy to see how easy it really is and how much time it would save us over our home brewed solutions..

 

A simple cost-benefit analysis shows that it will save me more in time than the cost of the software (esp. as I can put off employing another technician).. I have placed an order!

 

I am happy enough to show it to anyone interested - I am in Oxford..

[teckedd]

Hi Carvjo,

 

I am glad are finding Specops helpful. I think it's the best tool in my belt. If you need any thing just drop me a PM.

 

Edd