Hardware Deployment Tools

[alexander]

Anyone here do some hardware deployment? As a sysadmin in a small company (300 users) i get to do my fair share, so i am going to share my adventures of rolling out and imaging hardware (in a few parts).

 

Glossary for future posts (listing of parts and what they will focus on):

 

Part one - General overview of who here may be interested in knowing more, and what exactly this exchange/guide will deal with mostly

 

Part two - Everything up to the point when the system is ready to be imaged

 

Part three - Imaging (tools, tips, tricks as well as the ****domhood (yes its a new word i just made up) of some products)

Possibly more parts per future requests

 

 

This is an interactive tutorial making (my new concept) in it's childhood, so this post will deal with the first Part....

 

PART ONE

"So what the hell is this guide going to be about?", you may ask. Some people take it for granted, they come to work and some guy in their IT department goes out and sets up machines for users, and you never stop twice to think about ways that Open-Source products may help you achieve that task (in smaller companies like the one i work for) (Please read Note 1 on this)

The fact is that i will discuss many different tools that i have come to use and experience, the solution is not as much based on one's software ideology, as it is based on pricing, and easiness of use. To that i can say that i have used both proprietary systems and open-source ones, and have done from anything close to 3-400 machines in a month a few months back, to only 5-10 now.

Imaging is an important way to save time and money on setting up new boxes. Whether it is a laptop or a desktop, generally most IT people have other things to do then to sit in front of a machine and uninstall and reinstall software. Some people get afraid to image (the what if it does not work effect) but honestly, there are millions of machines imaged each year, and only a few have problems, so it's safe to assume that imaging is the more right choice for you. Is it hard? Depends on hardware/software you are using, but generally once you get down the steps, it's pretty straight forward, and the more familiar you become with what you are working with, the simpler it becomes.

This guide is just to help push someone out there to either consider another solution, or in a direction they have yet to find to simplify, this seemingly easy task of creating images and deploying them.

 

Cutting this tutorial here will give plenty of ideas and thoughts and questions to people that are interested in reading more, so please post, and thy shall receive :rolleyes:

 

 

Thoughts outside the tutorialish writing in the article.

 

Note1: I am specifically dealing with smaller companies. Large company enterprises can spend money on the large enterprise software for this, that will allow simultaneous roll out of multiple systems with multiple hardware. This is geared for a company with an IT department totaling no more then 10-15 people, and where every next software purchase has to be fought over with the financing people that don't know anything about IT and always want to save money by not understanding why you need what you say you need.

[LaurieAG]

Thoughts outside the tutorialish writing in the article.

 

Note1: I am specifically dealing with smaller companies. Large company enterprises can spend money on the large enterprise software for this, that will allow simultaneous roll out of multiple systems with multiple hardware. This is geared for a company with an IT department totaling no more then 10-15 people, and where every next software purchase has to be fought over with the financing people that don't know anything about IT and always want to save money by not understanding why you need what you say you need.

 

Hi Alexander,

 

Have you worked out a depreciation schedule for your H/W S/W?

 

The depreciation is a component of the entire IT equation that rarely appears in operational reports because depreciation is taken off profits before the calculation of company tax. Depreciation is also intended as compensation for loss of value of the asset over time and was originally intended to be put in a sinking fund for the future replacement of the asset.

 

If you work out a depreciation schedule based on retiring (or selling) approximately 1/3 of your network every three (3) years you will find that the network pays for itself (and you can spend what you spent 3 years ago on a new PC, or buy twice as many PC's).

 

I think that a happy medium can be reached with the bean counters over their depreciation windfall, provide enough for adequate (specified by techs not bean counters) maintenance and expansion of the network, and you can keep whatever is left over. Organisations that abuse generous benefits given to them via the public purse in their quest for profits, can and usually do much worse in the future.