This is for those of you in the tech-industry; specifically IT departments.

What kind of deployment system do you use?

We just did a demo for the KBOX, and I'm trying to find out if anyone uses it that has any feedback (positive or negative) on it.

I think it's super awesome and it would help us be a lot more proactive than we have been in the past, but hearing from people who actually use it is always nice.

SMS, WSUS, GPO

edit to add: with a few rare exceptions (mostly bandwidth/packet related) I detest specialized appliances because they are ALWAYS expensive and limited.

We're currently using Altiris, which is mediocre at best from what I can tell, and I don't have much knowledge since I'm new to the whole IT world. There isn't a way to do group deployments, or Wake-On LAN, which is what we're really really wanting to do.

The KBOX does all that plus a whole bunch of other cool shit.

Testes.

Want me to try and find the e-mail for an Altiris specialist?

Nope.

we use WSUS, GPO, and Altiris .


and if you think Altiris is weak sauce.. you are a total fucking it n00b.

Goto a class on it.. it'll do wonders.

I don't want to offend, but I have to ask.

Why is a help desk/technical support person (with no experience) involved with evaluation and selection of a software deployment system?

i was hawking macrovision products for a while. altiris was our main competitor if i remember correctly.

shane, that made me think of wonkavision. i was like

i wish.

I'm not in charge. I was just trying to get feedback. My coworkers are also asking around to people they know in the industry. So is the director of the department.

Yes, Kurt. I am a fucking IT n00b. I've been working in IT for a whole month now. Get off your fucking high horse. Everyone here has gone through training and classes. We're not happy with the way it works so we're getting something different.

wait...so Kurt's the asshole and I'm not?

WTF is wrong with the world? cats and dogs living together.....MASS HYSTERIA!!!

It's all about how things are worded.

Hm. I thought he was quoting "Ghostbusters 2".

oh he was. But thats a cat and a dog that live together.

Odie and Garfield do too.

sorry to come off as an ass.

with that said.. we currently use it in a fortune 500 company with very little issues. the roll back capabilities of it, and the snap shot features are *awesome* when it comes to windows patching. its cut down the amount of time it takes to load server by 80%. We've only scratched the surface of it and its been awesome for us. Its currently managing well over 300 machines right now.

But it *is* a monster and needs to be setup correctly. Most times, that means a consultant to come out and do most of the start up, and then training classes. Then again so is any corp product that can handle over 10,000 nodes.

If you seriously are looking for something different, there is also IBM Tivoli and HP Openview. I'm in the process of demoing them to swap out our Nagios installs for system monitoring. If you want more information on Openview or Tivoli I would be more then happy to PM you the details. Just remember, both products a suites/frameworks so you only have to buy what you need.

mods move this to the tech forum please.

its all about Macrovisions Flexnet Admin Studio.

buy it!

I have nothing but for you Kurt.

We've only got 250 total machines at this company, and we need different images for each department and have yet to figure out a way to do a group policy. The last person at Altiris that someone here spoke to said that Altiris doesn't do that.

There are only two people (myself and the guy training me) that even do desktop support/help desk stuff, so it's super important that we have an appliance that makes our lives easier.

Here's the site for the KBox and all its awesomeness:
http://www.kace.com/products/kbox1000.php
http://www.kace.com/products/kbox2000.php

How many servers do you have vs desktops?

I know you can create profiles based on hardware and software, but it does require someone to be the baby sitter. Like, you create dell profiles for all your dell laptops, same with IBMs. We do the same with servers. The only issue is that laptops change more then servers. I think if you are using something for laptop/desktop roll out then you will have a lot of the same pains you currently have. I know our helpdesk has a standard as to what is loaded on X machine. Then the'll make an image of each machine type and save it in an archive. Its cumbersome but it works.

What you might try doing going forward, is form standards as to which laptop/desktops people can only buy. That way you can keep the amount of hardware down to a more manageable level. If at all possible.

I just reviewed this.

Honestly, if you have 250 machines now, you've already out grown it.

You might want to open up a dialog with the Gartner Group. http://gartner.com/ the've already done the bulk of a lot of the research you are doing. We use them all the time. Great information. You have to pay for access, but its totally worth it. Chat with your IT manager about it. Really nice people, with really awesome information.

edit.. the key with gartner tho is to have a needs and wants list already mapped out and down on paper. that will make your dialog with them an absolute success.

We have...*thinks*...um, I have no clue how many servers. I can picture our server room but I can't remember the exact number. I'm going to say probably about 10. Maybe more. I'll get you an exact number tomorrow. Desktops are at about 170 or so, and we've got 80 or so field reps on laptops.

We've got different images set up for the different machines, but what we're wanting is an OS image, then sub images (for Accounting, Claims, Marketing, etc). We haven't found a way to do that.

Honestly, I'm probably explaining all of this in a way that isn't making too much sense, because there are a lot of other factors that have led us to the decision to use something else.

As far as already being outgrown for the KBox, I don't think I understand. It comes with 100 nodes. We're purchasing more.

no0b

I'll definitely look into that.

Thanks for the link.