Microsoft System Center Products Advice

[sandeep2504]

I've been looking into this recently and really like the look of the product and from the posts I have

 

Can someone advice me on which product to choose for a school environment?

 

Will the product work with a cc3 network? i'm more interested in the inventory and power management features.

 

Can i use the product to deploy windows xp images and update drivers easily?

 

Our environment is a mixed domain, one cc3 domain and one vanilla domain supporting in total 400 desktops/laptops and 1200 users.

[jamesfed]

Although I can't say for sure (no longer at a RM school) I don't see any reason why System Centre (I'd assume you are thinking of using config manager) shouldn't work.

 

You could use it to deploy Windows XP images but then you would have to SmartClient them after however.

[sparkeh]

I can't really see the point of using config manager if you have CC3 as its just paying to replicate a lot of features you already have but that will be much less integrated (ie why use sccm to image a machine then smartclient it? Doesn't make any sense, just use CC3 build process).

 

If you are looking at inventory why not look for a free solution such as Spiceworks?

[sandeep2504]

I can't really see the point of using config manager if you have CC3 as its just paying to replicate a lot of features you already have but that will be much less integrated (ie why use sccm to image a machine then smartclient it? Doesn't make any sense, just use CC3 build process).

 

If you are looking at inventory why not look for a free solution such as Spiceworks?

 

having numerous problems with the cc3 build process namely sound drivers missing when rebuilding pcs and software problems with out of date sound drivers - really want a more efficient and faster process.

[jamesfed]

Could always just try installing it on a testing server (if you have some spare RAM in your PC run it inside virtual box) and just have a go with the trial version before comitting.

[AngryTechnician]

Bear in mind that RM will not support System Center, and if experience is anything to go by, they will actively use it as a scapegoat for anything that goes wrong with CC3 from that point on.

 

In terms of inventory, the free version of Lansweeper does a better job of inventory that SCCM for a school's purposes. For Power Management, you could give Group Policy Preferences a go (not perfect but does a decent enough job). I used both of these on my CC3 network until I ripped it out last summer.

 

For deployment, you could use WDS/RIS (depending on your Windows Server version) in combination with deploying the SmartClient via Group Policy to install the RM bits once your base system is set up. WDS/RIS are free features and don't require SCCM to function.

Edited December 14, 2010 by AngryTechnician

[krazy]

In terms of inventory, the free version of Lansweeper does a better job of inventory that SCCM for a school's purposes. For Power Management, you could give Group Policy Preferences a go (not perfect but does a decent enough job). I used both of these on my CC3 network until I ripped it out last summer.

 

i agree with AngryTechnician, the Lansweeper Network Inventory Software is a better choise for schools, especially because of the pricing, SCCM itself is not that expensive, until you think of the CALs you will need to purchase, about 70$ per CAL i believe (or was it 40, cant remember). for the price of 10 licenses you already have the Full lansweeper version. we compared both, and for SCCM we needed to hire a company to set it up since its not that straightforward as it should be, we had Lansweeper up and running in a couple of hours. they have a free version available which is almost complete, so you can already start with that. personally i find lansweeper the best price / value, just because its that cheap

[AngryTechnician]

Not wanting to disagree with someone agreeing with me, but it's worth mentioning that SCCM CALs are much cheaper than even $40 a pop on Schools Agreement.

[oxide54]

Not wanting to disagree with someone agreeing with me, but it's worth mentioning that SCCM CALs are much cheaper than even $40 a pop on Schools Agreement.

 

to the point where, if you are buying one system center product to run on multiple vm's e.g DPM you may as well get all the suite via enterprise / datacenter licensing.

[jc1875]

SCCM cals are included in the desktop core bundle (or were). So if you've got desktop (windows, office etc) you're covered.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/calsuites/en/us/products/default.aspx

Edited January 11, 2011 by jc1875

[oxide54]

thats correct for cals, I was talking server licensing.