Mac rollout

[rh91uk]

Hi all

 

We are just about to put some new macs in! This is the first MAC rollout, so would appreciate any advice on management of the Macs with AD and OD.

 

Also, what do you use for imaging the Macs? I have been looking at Carbon Copy Cloner (Carbon Copy Cloner - Home) and it seems good, although any suggestions welcome! Their primarily for use in the Music Department so you can imagine how big that image will be!

 

Just getting ahead of the game for the delivery on the 7th of December!

 

Cheers,

Richard

[Carter]

I'm on the run right now so will check back later but right quick, if your dealing with imaging and lab image roll out I would take a look at http://DeployStudio.com This is what many techs use to image, deploy and setup Macs.

 

I've been extremely busy lately as I have not gotten back to finish editing my video on how to setup a DS Server.... maybe later today or tomorrow I'll finish it up.

 



[rh91uk]

Thanks carter - deploystudio looks brilliant!

[Kitkatninja]

If you're going to integrate a handful of Macs into a AD environment, take a look at the Apple Certified Associate certification and the prep guide to go with it (Mac Integration Basics 10.6). It shows how to join Macs individually, however if you're going to roll out more than that I've been told that having your own OS x Server is the best route from a management point of view.

 

-ken

[rh91uk]

Thanks Ken, yes we are definetly going down the route of having our own OSX server/XServe.

[HodgeHi]

If you are getting an xserve then you want to be quick as Apple have discontinued them.

[qcomer]

xserves are a pain but if you do the magic triangle and just use them to manage preferences (docks, printers, etc) and join the macs to AD and OD theyre not so bad.

 

You can actually get osx schemas for active directory also as another router.