Pushing software to a new machine?

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InorganicMatter

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After building a machine, I want to be able to power it up, boot from the network, and have all the software (OS, drivers, apps), pushed down to the machine. Basically, I want to eliminate the two-hour process of installing Windows, updating, installing apps, finding drivers.

What is needed to do this? A dedicated server to do the pushing seems logical, no?

All this is in Microsoft Windows: 2000 on the servers and XP Pro on the workstations.
 
MorfiusX said:
RIS, WSUS, and Active Directory is the Microsoft solution.
Click to expand...

QFT.

RIS + WSUS + SMS + MOM would be the ultimate Microsoft solution though.

Symantec Ghost works well though. Norton's Ghost product (same thing just the home version) does not (last I checked) offer GhostCast Server or Console, pivotal parts of implementing Ghost in an Enterprise.

If you have alot of similar machines then Ghost is certainly a viable solution - however if you have many varied system configurations, RIS is going to be better for you.
 
Couple of things, though:

1. AFAIK Win2k Server doesn't support RIS.
2. You're going to have to go through that "2 hour process of installing Windows, etc" at least once in order to build out your initial image before you can push it out to multiple machines.

I would personally suggest Ghost anyway, it is far quicker and easier to set up and use than RIS / SMS, etc.
 
Stellar said:
Couple of things, though:

1. AFAIK Win2k Server doesn't support RIS.
2. You're going to have to go through that "2 hour process of installing Windows, etc" at least once in order to build out your initial image before you can push it out to multiple machines.

I would personally suggest Ghost anyway, it is far quicker and easier to set up and use than RIS / SMS, etc.
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1. Wrong. Deploying Windows 2000 Server via RIS isn't supported by MS. 2000 still has RIS though.
2. Wrong. A basic RIS setup only copies the contents of the i386 folder to the server. You can customize it by adding the necessary drivers to it. You would only need to do the full install first if you plan on creating a true image and using riprep.
 
MorfiusX said:
1. Wrong. Deploying Windows 2000 Server via RIS isn't supported by MS. 2000 still has RIS though.
2. Wrong. A basic RIS setup only copies the contents of the i386 folder to the server. You can customize it by adding the necessary drivers to it. You would only need to do the full install first if you plan on creating a true image and using riprep.
Click to expand...

#2 was in reference to if he was going to use Ghost, which would not require AD or even Win2k Server on his network (which is why I maintain that it's easier to setup).
 
Stellar said:
#2 was in reference to if he was going to use Ghost, which would not require AD or even Win2k Server on his network (which is why I maintain that it's easier to setup).
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Ahh, Sorry. :) While yes Ghost is easier, you have to maintane multiple images for different hardware, OSes, etc. One thing I like about RIS is that I can add drivers to it and let it do an automated "regular" install and detect all the hardware.
 
MorfiusX said:
One thing I like about RIS is that I can add drivers to it and let it do an automated "regular" install and detect all the hardware.
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And that is exactly what I want. Thanks. :)
 
i didn't even know RIS existed until i saw this thread.

i installed server 2k3 on a leftover p4 we had lying around, and am going to set up RIS tomorrow at our company.

thanks guys
 
holy f this thing takes a lot of configuring to get it the way you want it.

not to hijack, but does anyone have any suggestions on putting drivers in this RIS image so that it does a completely unattended install?

i need drivers for some machines, like nic, multimedia, etc.

any suggestions? i would like one image with every driver i need in the company so that it's easy for everyone to use.
 
Yes, it will take some time to get it working 100% the way you want it. It took me about a month to fully deploy the solution. You can do a Google search for "add drivers ris" and there are a bunch of tutorials. It's trial and error. You will eventually get it right.

On a related note, better deployment options is supposed to be a big selling point for Vista in the enterprise.
 
MorfiusX said:
Ahh, Sorry. :) While yes Ghost is easier, you have to maintane multiple images for different hardware, OSes, etc. One thing I like about RIS is that I can add drivers to it and let it do an automated "regular" install and detect all the hardware.
Click to expand...

Sysprep - 1 image (unless they require different apps)
 
Nasty_Savage said:
Sysprep - 1 image (unless they require different apps)
Click to expand...
In my environment, we have defined default builds for each department. This is what gets loaded prior to being delivered unless otherwise specified. Yes, different departments have different application requirements. I don't install Outlook if it's not needed for example.

Also, with deploying the software packages through AD, you gain a couple of benifits.
- If the program get corrupted, it can possibly be repaired.
- If some how the application get uninstalled, it will be reinstalled on reboot.
- Upgrades can be completed very easily.
 
MorfiusX said:
In my environment, we have defined default builds for each department. This is what gets loaded prior to being delivered unless otherwise specified. Yes, different departments have different application requirements. I don't install Outlook if it's not needed for example.

Also, with deploying the software packages through AD, you gain a couple of benifits.
- If the program get corrupted, it can possibly be repaired.
- If some how the application get uninstalled, it will be reinstalled on reboot.
- Upgrades can be completed very easily.
Click to expand...

We do this too. Generally we make a standard image which is used for most departments. If a department needs there own image, we have a syspreped image that hasn't been resealed (factory switch) that you can add your modifications/programs too, then reseal it, this way you can make a several images off of your main standard image.

You can use AD to deploy apps and this is fine for smaller shops, but it gets tricky when you get to large domains. Your best bet if you have it is SMS. Just setup packages for each of your apps, and then push then to the workstation. You can use AD and GP to do this either by user or workstation and create groups for the installs or do the installs by OU. You can also just do it within the SMS console and push the packages to the machines you choose.
 
ND40oz said:
Your best bet if you have it is SMS.
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Agreed. AD/GPO is handy, but limited in functionality. It can only use MSI based packages. It can't remove rouge software with out trickery. If you are going to an fully automated solution, it would be wise to look into a more scalable software deployment solution.
 
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