morganw

Isn't that the client implementation rather than the daemon to give out user info? I'm looking for a maintained version of something like this.

Does anyone know of an Ident server for OS X 10.6 (which would hopefully be maintained to work on future OS versions)? I cannot seem to find any current ones.

Do you mean the actually location of the export in the filesystem? I'll preface this by saying that I'm actually using Centrify Direct Control to give mac users a home folder, but in principle it's the same thing... I don't use the standard home folder location (/home/username), I do create a separate location for user folders and then export that. There isn't really a reason that I do this, other than to clearly differentiate between the home folder for a local user and the home folder for network user, and if you had your home folders being created automatically with the skeleton directory options in Samba, it might be more logical to actually keep it all in the usual place as it, in a sense, self-managed. My folders and permissions are setup by scripts and not autogenerated by the server, so (to me) it makes more sense to distance the location from the normal one to reflect this. As dhicks says, the main issue you will encounter with Samba file servers are the correct implementation of a user mapping backend that scales. If you have one server, or it's just for read-only files content it's not so much of a problem, but if you have two or more file servers and a user's id numbers don't match then that's usually not that useful. I also use Debian (with no GUI) and just edit the configuration files manually rather than use any kind of local or web-based configuration tools. For remote configuration you can just use something like OpenVPN to get through firewalls that directly block the remote access ports and then control the entire server with an ssh session. You can use testparm to check your changes to the Samba configuration file before it gets loaded.

It depends on what you restore, the share settings aren't linked to any meta data in the folders. If you the shares are gone you would also have to restore the share definitions back to the registry (HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Shares). Maybe the restore process would handle this for you but it's worth checking the before and after states to see exactly what went on. Folder permissions should be restored as long as you don't stage the restore across another file system that would strip the permissions, e.g. a FAT32 formatted memory stick.

I just found that we have two IT rooms using this motherboard, looks like I'll have to look at self signing the drivers and then scripting them on. This is the official line from the RM website regarding the driver: Please note: The driver cat file for the ALC880 is not signed and you may receive a warning when running setup.exe. No signed driver is available for the ALC880. RM systems containing the ALC880 codec were not shipped pre-installed with Vista and this driver is suitable for systems being upgraded from Microsoft® Windows® XP only. I guess that means that no signed driver exists.

Perhaps more interesting will be the next topic, how to backup 20TB of data? Back to the cupboard full of external drives? Given that there will barely be any data transfer and it's mainly for archiving it might be cheaper to rent the space in a datacenter and let them take care of the backup as well.

It might be worth a try although I imagine there are safe guards to prevent the use of drivers which suddenly appear from nowhere, I might also try a scripted silent install with a hard coded timer to allow the setup to run and finish properly.

The current driver version is 2.60, I managed to find a download link for 2.25. Everything was the same inside the download, pretty much everything signed except the one that I need. I don't think there is a way to insert a certificate and trust settings into a wim file (and anything via group policy would be coming in too late?) so I wouldn't be able to have a self-signed driver installed through an injection, but possibly could run it through a silent install at a later stage. I think I'll have to work through all the various types of PC and see if similiar problems occur, then make a decision based on that.

I don't think it is possible from what I've read about it today, signed drivers always beat a non-signed driver. There is a registry key that levels the playing field between WHQL drivers and ones that use other certification, off by default in Vista, on by default in W7 but nothing in the way of an over-ride for something that is unsigned. Also I think it's part of the security design of Windows 7 to never allow an unsigned driver to be installed by a user or script without prompting for user confirmation, leading onto the 64bit version that doesn't allow them anyway. I did consider trying to remove the Microsoft HD Audio driver from the WIM and then putting it back in where required through MDT driver injections, not sure of the ramifications of doing that though...

There aren't a lot of them, probably about 30 which are mainly in offices rather than in IT rooms. I'm actually installing straight from the original WIM image from the Windows 7 install disc, we've got so many different types of PC that I was really relying on the driver injection to work. Hopefully this is a one off but i'm slightly worried because there are a few more models that are even older than this one. It justs seems an odd position to be in where a working driver is rejected in favour of one that doesn't work.

As an MDT application is doesn't work, it's installshield based but doesn't respect /s /sms properly, plus it pops up a dialogue box asking for confirmation for the installation of an unsigned driver.

I got them from the Realtek website (latest version). In the driver bundle that you download in the 'HD Audio' range you get about 20 or 30 different .inf driver definitions, only two aren't WHQL signed. My hardware matches one of these. Hardware IDs: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0880&SUBSYS_10430000&REV_1008 HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0880&SUBSYS_10430000 Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5RD2-TVM/GB/1394 (This is an OEM board found in an RM Ascend 2020b, RM don't have a signed driver for it either)

I've just come across an unexpected problem while setting up drivers for a migration to Windows 7 (32bit Enterprise) via MDT2010. On the first model of computer that i'm working on it seems impossible to install an unsigned driver from Realtek due to it always having a lower driver ranking than the signed Microsoft HD Audio driver (which doesn't seem to be able to actual produce any sound). The deployment process will install unsigned drivers without any problem as the Radeon graphics driver was unsigned and installed with no problems. Is there any way to allow unsigned drivers to have an equal ranking in the selection process so that newer driver / best match would be installed rather than a signed driver that doesn't actually work? Or am i missing something else for the Microsoft HD Audio driver to function properly?

I'll also say that we use LanSchool as a replacement for RM Tutor. I chose it based on the user interface (very self explanatory) and easy deployment (very easy to automate installation and setup). I also bought the SpecOps Remote Admin tool which is an easy way to quickly do basic management tasks from ADUC.

You might want to check out WPKG which is very similar to RM package management. I think eventually I'll aim for SCCM but the initial setup seems rather epic. It's probably a wise long term goal though, especially if you are on a Microsoft licensing agreement as they are pretty much giving it away compared to the commercial pricing. For Windows 7 deployment with MDT2010, this guide will show you everything you need to know. I've not used CC4 but I imagine it's based on some kind of WDS/MDT setup for OS deployment. I do miss the RM Management Console when it comes to setting up new users (creating home folders, setting permissions, settings AD user properties). In the end I wrote a script to do it. If you can use Group Policy Preferences then everything else is pretty straight forward without any scripting. The biggest change will be what you decide on for support, none, some (maybe even on an adhoc basis), or full setup and support by a third party. The last option would probably be similar to using an RM solution, if you don't use their GPOs and scripts you will probably invalidate your support (to some degree).

I think a dual-boot system would require two Windows licences. I'm not sure how this would work if you have a Microsoft agreement, but if you are using OEM licences then I don't think that this is legal approach.

...or ask about CC4 Anywhere which is there XenApp solution which can work with thin clients and also gives remote access.

I don't think they have any official routes for thin client solutions, not that they wouldn't sell you something but it would be customised to your requirements. You can use anyone's solutions or your own, just create a new OU for the terminal servers, block inheritance, create GPOs and use loopback processing for user settings.

It's never failed me yet but (as others have stated), as long as it works, SOLUS3 should be the final solution to all deployment and upgrade problems. I've never been able to get staff to be able to run the upgrades without making them local administrators even after implementing all of the permission changes from the simsperm batch file. I just hope that the style of deployment it uses can be incorporated into an unattended workstation build, I won't be impressed if I have to push or re-approve an installation of SIMS on a workstation after triggering a rebuild.

This is my deluxe version which you might have to adjust a bit, just comment out the bits you don't need to make separate scripts for FMS and SIMS.

With group policy preferences you can create HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum\{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C} Type = DWORD Value = 1

For Windows XP I think FOG is the most flexible option, syspreped images that incorporate HAL switching and driver installation normally works across a broad range of hardware. You also get additional services to set the screen resolutions, track logon and loggoff events, install software, hardware inventory, auto-logoff, automated shutdowns... For Windows 7 I'm not so sure, I'm currently implementing WDS + MDT2010 + WPKG + WPKG-GP for more flexible driver selection and application deployment. Part of the problem is that we are getting more and more laptops which means WOL rebuilds aren't particularly useful to manage or update software. Also some of the FOG services haven't been updated to work properly with Windows 7.

I went through everything list on that page and still couldn't get it to work properly, the fileserver I was using was 2008R2 though so maybe some fixes only apply to older Windows products or Samba shares.

I've been using it for the last couple of days but I don't think I'm going to keep it. The main problem is that my laptop isn't that new, and compared to using a Debian desktop system this is using twice the CPU time and twice the RAM. I've had a few programs lockup and crash but the real deal deal breaker is the window management. The maximum resolution I can use is 1280 x 800, when I open a 1024 x 768 remote desktop session it becomes impossible to move or resize, it breaks the 'program menu in the title bar' paradigm and there is nothing you can use to adjust it. It also interferes with the dock on the left making it sometimes not pop-up when you move the mouse there. I can move it to another workspace with the workspace switcher but that's it, when it's there it still cannot be moved or resized. I found the Unity interface to be okay although I think there is a lot of wasted space on the screen. With this and the new Gnome shell quite blatantly aimed at tablet devices, one wonders what people without tablets will end up using.

Maybe try and get one on it's own circuit instead then.