Slashdot Mirror

I run 5 mac labs and while I schedule my machines to start up and shut down everyday (off completely on weekends), I do NOT allow my machines to sleep for a very good reason. If I allow them to sleep, os x when used in a server and remote home folder environment (os x server) will tend to freak out when it wakes up especially if someone is still logged in. I've seen machines beachball for minutes before it finally figures out what is going on.

I am planning on not turning my machines off at all soon, this is because I am going to start running folding at home on all of my lab machines when they are idle. I figure the lack of off time is warranted by the fact that I am contributing to the scientific community.

Also, the school is going to start installing SW (bigfix http://www.bigfix.com/content/power-management) on machines that will allow them to track how and where power is used. Then they want to tweek settings so they can show how much power they have saved. What this means for me, is I need to waste as much power as I can during these trials so I can continue running machines how I want to and still show savings. Seems silly but those are the hoops i suppose.

Not being IT I'm not certain on this, but isn't there a means of pushing application updates automatically for normal business applications?

when you can use BigFix and it is even more comprehensive in helping you patch and update various systems on your PC. Check it out. Why rely on a Microsoft-centric tool to manage your system when you run a wide variety of software from various sources? Bigfix rules!

If you are on a small budget, you can just go with simple scripting. Pick a Debian based distro or an RPM based one (SuSE or RedHat only) and you can script all you need. Enable SSH for every system you deploy, desktop and server. Then you just write a few simple scripts _once_ and you can push down any update you need.

Red Hat has their own update stuff and you can pay them extra and run your own update server on your local network. However, where I work we have found Red Hat to be _way_, _way_ overpriced (I work for a multi-billion fortune 500). We are starting to look toward Novell SuSE for our Linux needs. Novell SuSE is _way_ better priced. If you look at a Red Hat Linux solution and an MS Windows Solution, MS will usually be less expensive! I personally don't know what Red Hat is thinking. However, if you go with Novell SuSE, you will see that Novell SuSE is far less expensive than MS. Also, Novell SuSE has some very nice tech that they got from Ximian. As you pointed out, Ximian, now Novell, Red Carpet, is a very nice corporate update client. That is the whole design of the product. You have one local update server and put the client on all your deployed systems and Novell Redcarpet handles the rest.

With Linux you have tons of options. If you have a really bare-bones budget, I would personally recommend a nice Debian solution. I have been using Ubuntu on my desktops at work and at home and have been very pleased with how easy it is to upgrade with out dependency problems. I originally used Fedora Core, however I would run into repository conflicts often because every Fedora repository out there tried to be "The" repository for Fedora. So you would have 3 or 4 versions of every package and they would all conflict. You won't run into that with a Debian based distro.

If you have a bigger budget, look into Novell SuSE (which is still very cheep) and their Red Carpet client/server to handle updates. If your budget is even bigger, you can look into BigFix. However, I think BigFix is priced more as a bigger corporate product, though for our budget, BigFix was still priced nicely per/client.

As I said, you have _tons_ of options with a GNU/Linux deployment. Build yourself a seperate subnet and spend a few days testing to see what level of support you want. Obviously, the less support you or your staff want to do, the more you will pay for your solution. You could spend 10's of thousands if not 100's of thousands (or millions like us) for a complete MS software "assurance" package or you can go very lowlevel and build your own GNU/Linux system like Linux From Scratch (which was very fun for a personal project but _way_ too much work for a professional solution for more than 5 systems).

I persoanlly think your best bet is a hybrid system of Linux and MS Windows. As I said, get a test lab/network. Then use the right tool for the right job. Try to build a lab that is all or almost all Linux servers with mostly MS Windows XP desktops. On your MS Windows desktops try to use OSS software. For example, deploy Firefox and OOo.org. Maybe for some more tech users you could even get some Linux desktops in that mix. For your development needs, use OSS tech such as Tomcat or PHP.

Honestly, I would personally love to be in your position. It sounds like you have the ability to use the "right tool for the right job" without all the PHB crap or extreme OS bias. Where I work we have 140,000 employees and changing technology is like the changing of the North pole ; )

any given company with loose rules tends to be smaller than any given company with tight rules.

Our Linux/Solaris servers just always run and run while our important Windows server are always running with two duplicate servers behind a load balancer so any-one windows server can be brought down to patch.

> What to do without WindowsUpdate? Why AutoPatcher of course.

Or BigFix.

Autopatcher XP is more for fresh installs of Windows XP, not really for keeping machines up to date a secure with the most current patches. The most current version of Autopatcher is March, if the April/May release doesn't come out today or tomorrow. I used to use Bigfix on my 98 machines but it seemed to get behind too frequently

That said, however, Autopatcher has some good things going for it

• Customizable database (add your own default installation items.
• Nice interface.
• Dozens (too many at times) registry tweaks.
• Most components (i.e. direct X
• Some nice freeware, like media player classic.

http://www.autopatcher.com/WebAPXP.htm

Here is what gets installed after Windows XP Home SP1a and all the patches:

1. ZoneAlarm Personal Firewall
2. Norton SystemWorks 2004
3. Lavasoft Ad-Aware
4. Spybot Search & Destroy
5. BigFix
6. Adobe Acrobat Reader
7. Mozilla Internet Suite
8. JGSoft EditPad Lite
9. WinZip
10. Yahoo! Messenger

I find BigFix to be quite useful for being notified about MS patches. I can't confirm that it doesn't send data about installed apps to bigfix, but they claim not to in their privacy statement.

I find BigFix to be quite useful for being notified about MS patches. I can't confirm that it doesn't send data about installed apps to bigfix, but they claim not to in their privacy statement.

Also, companies with hundreds or thousands of machines to administer will probably start buying large-scale third-party automated patch deployment systems. A system like Everguard or Patchlink or Bigfix will let you know where there are unpatched vulnerabilities on your network, help you patch them, and check that they've been patched.

Most of these systems are cross-platform and at least one uses a linux-based server.