Deployment

With the recent release of Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3, Altiris administrators might be taking this opportunity to build a new base image for their environment. There are dozens of ways to build this base image and with more than a dozen documents circulating in the Altiris community related to creating Hardware Independent Images it can be frustrating to find all the information necessary in one document. The purpose of this document is to provide a step-by-step process that walks through every step necessary to build a Hardware Independent Image.

Here are some more tips and tricks for those who use Deployment Solution for Dell Servers 3+ to manage their Dell Server hardware. This article builds on its predecessor, providing more shortcuts and clues on how to make your job easier as an IT manager over Dell systems.

Active Directory and Altiris Notification Server seem to have a love hate relationship. The Active Directory connector loves to import user names and computer names, but it hates to do anything related to group membership. A common request has been the ability to incorporate user group information from Active Directory into collections in order to allow user based software delivery. In other words, install Quickbooks to all of the users who are in the Accounting OU. This tip steps through how to accomplish this.

A COM class is code which is capable of instantiating or creating an object, or multiple objects for that matter. These objects can have methods and properties which allow manipulation of the object and or its contents. An example COM object which could be used with everyday use is the "FileSystemObject". Instantiation of a "FileSystemObject" will allow you to manipulate the file system using methods and properties of the "FileSystemObject".

This document is intended to outline how to deploy BESR and BESR LightsOut Recovery remotely and silently. You can use this method to mimic how Altiris Local Recovery Solution Pro was deployed to some degree. LightsOut Recovery allows you to recover a computer in a pre-boot state without needing the System Recovery Disk (SRD).

After using a product for awhile, you tend to learn a few tricks that save time. Unfortunately it may take you doing a certain action dozens of times before finding a better way. This article is meant to be a miscellaneous compilation of little tricks that I learned over time that save time and frustration when deploying machines with Deployment Solution for Dell Servers 3+.

When scripting the installation of Windows XP, it's pretty important to install all the latest patches. We've had various mechanisms for doing this over the years, from actually going to Windows update, to slipstreaming, and even to running an in-house VB application. No matter what approach we tried, we found that a lot of time had to be dedicated to maintaining the patches - it all seemed a bit complex for something which should be so simple.

Deployment Solution for Dell Servers 3.1 has introduced support for Bare Metal to Windows Server 2008 scripted installs via WinPE. This article will show you how to speed up this job by utilizing the Linux environment in the hardware configuration phase, which also has the benefit of giving you a wider range of hardware you can configure.

Scripted OS deployment has always been a crowning feature of Deployment Solution for Dell Servers. The recently released version 3.1 continues this legacy by offering scripted OS deployment of Windows Server 2008. This new scripted OS installation process offers more freedom to the IT administrator while keeping with the tried and true interface of previous versions of Deployment Solution for Dell Servers.

Ever since Deployment Solution for Dell Servers burst upon the scene, it has been the tool of choice for IT administrators who want a worry-free deployment and maintenance tool for Dell hardware. Now with Deployment Solution for Dell Servers version 3.1 released and built upon the Deployment Solution version 6.9, Dell server management has never been easier.