Re: MAC Imaging

Subject: Re: MAC Imaging
From: Tom Johnson <email@hidden>
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 07:16:57 -0500 (EST)

I am a bit late to this party but I think I will throw in my
little bit before the thread completely dies. For the labs that I run we
use RevRdist both for maintainance (cleaning up the computer at the end of
the day) and for restores of broken Macs (in theory I could do the same
for new Macs but we haven't bought new Macs in two years so I haven't
gotten to play - ah my aging fleet! :-). If I was getting new Macs I
would definately look into using Apple's Software Restore as many people
on this list have mentioned.
One thing that impacts which tool you are using is exactly what
goals you want to accomplish. Tools like RevRdist and Assimilator are
mainly aimed at maintenance of running Macs. They do comparisons between
the files on the client Mac and the server and based on instructions you
have given the programs (in RevRdist it is a very flexible text based
control file) take the proper action. In my labs we use RevRdist to
restore the Macs to a default condition once per day. Our Macs are not
locked down in any way - users are free to install what they want and
delete what they want. RevRdist makes this policy workable because it
cleans up (I wish I could do it after every user but some special
circumstances that I face prevent that - I am still working on that one).
This also allows me to install new software on the Macs remotely. I just
upload the files to the server and modify the control file and the Macs
will install the software the next time RevRdist runs. I believe I have
heard of someone who used multiple partitions and applescripts to do this
same kind of thing with ASR but it sounded complicated and a bit
convoluted - that just made me more curious about exactly how it works
:-). Saddly I deleted that mail and I don't even remember what mailing
list it was on - sigh.
When fixing a broken Mac RevRdist is still very useful. Instead
of having to reformat and re-install everything, we run RevRdist off of a
boot CD which makes sure all of the basic software needed to get the Mac
up and running is installed and is the right copy of the file. Then the
Mac reboots and I have set it up to automaticly connect to the network
and run RevRdist off of the servers to get everything up to date (we
have up to 2 gigs of stuff on hard drives - it doesn't all fit on the CD).
This can make getting a Mac up and running much faster than a full
re-install would take and only requires a person at the Mac for the first
minute of booting off the CD and launching RevRdist - they can recover
the CD later in the day, even after several users have used the Mac if
needed.
When your are setting up new Macs from scratch this file
comparison ability is less useful. ASR uses compressed data so you can
fit more on the CD - RevRdist does not so I can only carry 600 some megs
of data on the CD, the rest has to come down from the network. If I was
getting new Macs I would probably look at using ASR for installing the
software on these new machines.
RevRdist still has one nice ability that I don't know if ASR has
that I make heavy use of. RevRdist's controlfile is scriptable (no, not
Applescriptable, it has its own scripting syntax) so you can add
expressions and variables to the control file allowing some pretty amazing
flexibility. I have written a control file for my Macs that dynamicly
decides what hardware it is running on, how much RAM is installed, whether
a scanner is attached, and what lab it is installed in. Based on this
information it decides what files need to be installed - drivers unique to
the model, scanner software, how much to set the Virtual memory to (yeah,
lots of my Macs are very RAM starved). Also, each of my labs has a
unique set of software installed (licensing issues) so RevRdist only
installs the software for that lab. I only have one CD for fixing Macs
and it works for all of my Macs from PowerMac 7100's through G3 Blue &
Whites including a fair number of PowerComputing clones, yet each Mac only
gets the drivers it needs (i.e. no ATI extensions or Asante ethernet
drivers get installed on my faithful 7500's).
I am a strong RevRdist advocate/bigot. I won't claim that it is
the best too for all jobs nor say that it doesn't have some limitations
(I'll leave that to Microsoft ads :-). However, for what it is designed
to do it is very flexible and powerful and does its job well.

Tom Johnson
email@hidden

On Tue, 3 Jul 2001, Steven Brawn wrote:

> Date: Tue, 03 Jul 2001 08:22:29 -0700
> From: Steven Brawn <email@hidden>
> To: 'Apple Mac Lab List' <email@hidden>
> Subject: MAC Imaging
>
> > We are in the process of trying to "standardize" an image for the Macs on
> > our campus. We have heard that "Apple Disk Copy" and "Apple Software
> > Restore" could be used to create an image and restore it to a blank,
> > formatted HDD. Is anyone using this approach, or know where we can find
> > detailed documentation?
> >
> > Steven K. Brawn
> > Technology Support Analyst, Principal
> > ASU West
> > (602) 543-8295
> _______________________________________________
> maclabmanager mailing list
> email@hidden
> http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/maclabmanager

Prev by Date: On Guard, Rev R-dist, Once Per Day
Next by Date: Mac Imaging
Previous by thread: MM Users, Workgroups and Shared folders
Next by thread: Mac Imaging
Index(es):
- Date
- Thread

Home