[tmikkelsen]

I'm a lab manager for a lab of 100 Macs used for Digital Imaging. Were thinking of moving to a new server, presently using NT, and I have a few questions. If I can do any of the following it would be worth it to switch. If not the NT server works and can make it another year. So here they are

1) Is it possible to update or install the systems over the network from a disk image? I know of Netboot, but my understanding is that it actually boots off of the server. This just doesn't seem fast enough for high end graphics, not to mention the added network traffic.

2) If that is not possible, are you able to update individual pieces of the system? Say a new version of ColorSync or such? I need to avoid going to a hundred computers personally.

3) Can I send a preferences folder to every computer? Macintosh Manager seems to be able to do this, but I don't want to do it every time the computer starts up, just once a week would be great. Plus we don't want to have to have students log in.

3) Can I restart computers from the server?

4) This I'm pretty sure is a no, but right now we use KeySever from Sassafras to manage our licensees for the software. Can MacOS X do this itself, or does anyone know if there is a different software package compatible with X? This would allow us to move everything on to one computer instead of two.

Thanks for your time, and if anyone else has any ideas on how X will help, it would be appreciated.


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Thomas
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G4 DP 500/768mb/40GB
B&W G3 300/256mb/6GB
imac 500/320mb/30GB
ibook 300/96mb/3GB

[jarends]

Macintosh manager gives similar desktop setups to everyone, and controls logins. Its nice for school lab settings, but I don't think it's something you'd want.

Network Assistant which comes with Mac OS X server will allow you to distribute files, and restart machines remotely and probably every other remote management tast you want.

Mac OS X server does not do anything like key server. That's more of a niche product, so I doubt apple will every implement something like that.

[tmikkelsen]

Originally posted by jarends:
<STRONG>Macintosh manager gives similar desktop setups to everyone, and controls logins. Its nice for school lab settings, but I don't think it's something you'd want.

Network Assistant which comes with Mac OS X server will allow you to distribute files, and restart machines remotely and probably every other remote management tast you want.

Mac OS X server does not do anything like key server. That's more of a niche product, so I doubt apple will every implement something like that.</STRONG>

Thanks, that helps a lot. I was actual wondering about a third party app that would take KeyServers place.

thanks again

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