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Large-Scale Mac Deployment?
UncleRage writes "I've been asked to research and ultimately recommend a deployment procedure for Macs across a rather large network. I'm not a stranger to OS X; however, the last time I worked on deployment NetRestore was still king of the mountain. Considering the current options, what methodologies do admins adhere to? Given the current selection of tools available, what would you recommend when planning, prototyping, and rolling out a robust, modular deployment scenario? For the record, I'm not asking for a spoon-fed solution; I'm more interested in a discussion concerning the current tools and what may (or may not) have worked for you. There are a lot of options available for modular system deployment... what are your opinions?"
Why?
Either go Windows or go Linux.
Macs are the worst of both worlds, plus they cost a hell of a lot more and have terribly unreliable hardware (but don't worry - your complaints will be ignored and any problems will be features!).
If I were the one who had to support the machines (software or hardware) I'd be fighting tooth and nail against it - to the point of where I'd say "It's me or the Macs".
Ever replace a backlight in a fucking Apple Cinema Display? That's 3 layers (and a thousand assorted screws and layers of tape) deeper than Apple's documentation (for certified technicians) goes.
Yeah, NetRestore is what we used I believe.
It works. Except when it doesn't. At least capacious portable hard drives come in the 2.5" size now. You'll be needing to use that method for the few machines that simply refuse to image over the net.
Lots and lots of hammers...
and fire :(
Yeah right, like anyone will buy a network operating system for a server based on shiny pictures and huge features like "mail server" and "calendar server".
It's like they think their regular starry-eyed customers are their target audience with that cute little website they're showing off.
Considering the current options, what methodologies do admins adhere to? Given the current selection of tools available, what would you recommend when planning, prototyping, and rolling out a robust, modular deployment scenario?
Just ask the random basement dwelling momma's boys at Slashdot, reformat their expert advice (using Open Office, of course), and start planning how to spend your pay raise!
Seriously, is this the place "professionals" seek such advice? Scarry.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
cord in my arse
I carry demons
mein scary rod
racism yonder
RMS or cyanide
rods in my care
secondary rim
seminary cord
If you go Mac, I hope your company has the money to pay for it. You will often find yourself forced in to buying Apple's newest hardware and software in order to run your applications.
Apple switches to Intel procs, so Adobe compiles CS3 as a universal binary, but CS4 is Intel only. Sorry. All those PPCs you bought last year are junk.
Apple's XSAN SAN managment software, again, not backwards compatible between 10.4 and 10.5. Sorry. You need to buy new Intel-based metadata controllers, and upgrade all your Macs to 10.5. How long until Apple changes arch again? Seems pretty lucrative.
And don't be surprised when the 20 top-of-the-line desktop Macs you buy with liquid cooling systems start to leak fluid all over the CPUs and die as soon as they go out of warranty. You can always buy another 20 of the newest premium systems, right? You can afford that. Right?
It's a shame Apple is pretty much the same as MS when it comes to lock-in.
Good luck. :)
1. All deployers should don turtle necks
2. Deployers must act smug while promising the world
3. Now lock down everything...and I mean EVERYTHING that you don't explicitly approve or might not approve or might conceivably hamper possible earnings
4. Delay all deployments and roll out machines in a slow trickle
5. Did I mention that you should act smug
6. If problems are reported, deny, deny, deny them and blame it on misuse by the users
7. ????
8. Profit!!!
Think different.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Lets try this again you retarded troll.. Macintoshes are not and have never been more expensive than PCs.
If you actually buy quality equipment it costs more but you don't have to replace PSUs every week. Its amazing that PC bigots think its perfectly expectable that a 300 computer installation has 2-3 computers per week die with PSU and motherboard failures.
I was at a Mac installation of the same size(in a very tough school) and over 5 years about 80 computer needed repair 78 instances of kids ripping the CD trays right out of the computer (if anyone was wondering why macs went to slot loads) one blown USB port and one blown ethernet port. For the same size install of Dells in a public library see above...note i'm not kidding here the Dell tech was in every week replacing Motherboards/PSUs.
Its not funny, unless you consider insulting gay men funny.
There's no word play, no second meaning, nothing clever at all. Like most American comedy.
That's exactly what he said. 0-40 MPH is very easy -- even a MCSE admin could set it up to do that. But once you get to a complicated AD environment you will have a very hard time.
Except the more accurate analogy would be 0-150. Ie: perfectly fine out of the box for the vast majority of environments.
But it can be easily summed up for all MS "technologies": microsoft doesn't scale.
Amazing then, isn't it, that so many huge companies manage to run their infrastructure on them (exhibit A: Microsoft itself).