We are doing a trial of Gruntwork now. I'm not completely sold on it. It provides a few essential services…
- automated maintenance routines and malware removal
- a hosted munki repo preconfigured with common packages
- integration with bluesky for ssh access to all managed computers
What I really like about it is the automated maintenance. It will run permission repair and disk repair on a routine basis. It clears caches. It will run a memtest on a regular schedule. It removes malware. All without interrupting the user. If it needs to run maintenance that requires logout, it reminds the user to logout at the end of the day so it can run at night. In theory, this means fewer help desk tickets because little issues don't turn into big issues. If we go forward, it will be because of this one feature. If the automated maintenance means that one of my techs has to spend 1 minute less time dealing with each Mac we manage, then I come out ahead. I'm not certain that I'll achieve this benefit, but this is what has me interested.
The munki repo is less of a selling point for us, because we've already put the time and effort into building our own munki infrastructure for managing updates. If I didn't have munki in my organization, I would definitely consider Gruntwork just to get started using munki. Of course, if you have the time (and no money) then you could build your own munki server and do this yourself without paying for Gruntwork. If you're starting from scratch, setting up munki and learning autopkg / autopkgr is probably a 2 week project, plus more time to get proficient.
Bluesky (which is a separate product, but bundled with Gruntwork) is a nice feature. It sets up an SSH tunnel to all managed computers so you can get to the command line or run screen sharing (VNC) over the tunnel, even across subnets or NAT connections. VNC over the SSH tunnel runs a lot smoother than Logmein, Teamviewer, et al.
Alternatives…
maintenance - you could write your own scripts to automate the maintenance, but you'd also have to write all the logic to run when the computer is idle. Pretty tough to duplicate this part, but you could try. A simple solution would be to put some maintenance scripts in your munki managed software center as tasks that the user can launch as needed (ala Self Service in Casper Suite).
munki - well, the alternative here is simple, just make your own munki server and automate with autopkg / autopkgr. It's a steep learning curve, but there is a large community of Mac Admins working on this.
Bluesky - I don't really know of any free alternatives here. Logmein and Teamviewer pricing is available online for comparison. If all the computers are on your school network and you never need to reach anything off network, then just use ARD with remote management enabled on all your Macs.
Rewind Tech has helped a number of organizations in Colorado implement munki to manage updates and to provide self-service packages to their users. If you have 150+ Macs, we could help you set up the server and train your sysadmin staff on how to use it for about the cost of 1 year of Gruntwork. You'd still have some pieces to fill in, but you'd get most of the benefits, plus you would have full control over your repo and zero software licensing costs for year 2+
Regards,