UNIX/Linux

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.

So the debate went through our office about what is the best pre-image environment... WinPE, BartPE, Linux or DOS. Consequently, we tried to do a complete analysis of many of the factors and determine what is really the fastest route to take. In the end, it all comes down to how quick we can get our imaging done and move on to other projects.

The Linux preboot has been known to be fast at performing Bare Metal to OS installs under Deployment Solution for Dell Servers, but just when you thought it couldn't get any faster, it did. I can get these "cheeta" Bare Metal to OS jobs to execute in under 5 minutes without skipping any of the configuration steps. Use this step by step article to eliminate all reboots tasks in your deployment jobs saving time and network bandwidth and effectively making deployment up to twice to three times as fast. This job also greatly reduces PXE server strain allowing you to deploy more machines at once!

The following article describes my experience installing the Altiris Agent on Ubuntu Linux. The Altiris Agent for Linux does not currently support Ubuntu, anyway, it can be installed and it works(with some tweaking). While I'm an experienced Linux user, I know it's hard for the new ones... so I tried to explain with full details what's going on and how to proceed with each issue.

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.

This is an easy to configure bash script to install the Linux DS Agent in your environment.