Using PC-Rdist* at Wellesley and Amherst Colleges

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Using PC-Rdist at Wellesley and Amherst Colleges

• Windows 98
• Susan Hafer Richman
• Project Manager
• Information Services
• Wellesley College

• Windows 2000
• Nicholas Dahlman
• Microcomputer Specialist
• Desktop Computing Services
• Amherst College

PC Remote Distribute software by Pyzzo Software
(www.pyzzo.com)
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PC-Rdist at Wellesley College

• Where we were, where we are, where were going

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Some history

• 1985 MicroLab with IBM PCs and ATT 6300s (no
  hard drives), room locked if no student
  consultant on duty
• Mid-90s more labs, some open 24 hours, filled
  with Gateway2000 PCs problem PCs stayed down for
  a long time.
• 1997 Ghost images on CD used as needed to
  refresh public PC hard drives
• 1998 began using ImageCast and PC-Rdist
• 1999 upgraded PC-Rdist to version 2

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Our Network Environment

• Class B network flat?
• NT domain using TCP/IP
• Typically using GUEST account in Windows will
  soon have domain accounts for all
• Public computers are Macs (refreshed with
  Assimilator) and Windows 98SE Gateway2000 PCs
  (refreshed with PC-Rdist)
• PC-Rdist running from Windows 2000 Server

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Whats in our tool box?

• PC-Rdist incremental refreshing over the
  network
• ImageCast blast the hard drive with image on
  CDs
• Visual DialogScript old version of a Windows
  scripting language

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PC-Rdist in a nutshell

• Master images for lab computers are on a server
  on the campus network
• Run PC-Rdist, which figures out what files and
  registry items are different from what the server
  says should be on the computer
• Delete and add items, then restart the computer
  takes less than 5 minutes
• Can run at startup, as part of log in/out
  scripts, or use outside scheduler

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PC-Rdist setup our old way

• Built a base lab image with OS and all standard
  software, using ImageCast made lab IC image on
  CD for worst case
• Built alternate images as layers on top of lab
  for specialized hardware and software, using
  PC-Rdist
• Some locations our students manually refreshed,
  others used VirusScan 4.0.3 Scheduler

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What we did this summer

• Base image only Windows and IE, one for each
  hardware platform
• Separate images for each program and for
  scanners, printers for each lab
• Windows Scheduled Tasks for some labs, set to run
  between midnight and 7am
• Visual DialogScript

based on information from Steve Tapp from Kent
State at SIGUCCS 2000
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What we have now

• PC-Rdist 2.0.5 and ImageCast 4.5.1
• 231 PCs in the database (80 in labs, 42 in dorms,
  97 in classrooms, 12 in libraries), all running
  Windows 98 SE
• 1 person doing most of the tweaking on the server
• Student consultants follow up automated refreshes
  or do manual refreshes

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AutoRefreshing Our planning

• Create list for each weekday keep refreshes
  10-15 minutes apart
• From this list, create Windows Scheduled Task
  files for each computers image
• Do only a few PCs in each lab each night

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AutoRefreshing Prep work

• Windows Scheduled Tasks runs script
• Script displays Notepad 10-minute warning
• Prep checks for \\tricky2k\auto\local.bat and
  copies to c\windows
• Deletes RunServices key
• Creates RunOnce key for local.bat ltnamegt
• Reboots

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AutoRefreshing Finishing up

• Runs c\windows\local.bat
• Sets name of sender for later e-mail
• Looks for \\tricky2k\x1\pcrdist.exe. No
  creates c\noserver.txt and exits. Yes runs
  PCRDist
• PCRDist runs, and sends e-mail to conference

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Follow-up Procedures

• PC-Rdist automatically e-mails conference
• 830 M-F Students check PCs scheduled for refresh
  in the wee hours
• Weekly manual update of spreadsheet to check for
  delinquent PCs
• Occasionally need to do manual refresh

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Whats coming.

• Windows 2000?

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PC-Rdist and Windows 2000 A Case Study

• Maintaining and Improving Computers at Amherst
  College

Nicholas Dahlman, Microcomputer Specialist
http//www.amherst.edu/nadahlman/pc-rdist
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The Situation March 2001

• 57 PCs in 3 labs running Windows 95
• Base image applied with Ghost via network
• PC-Rdist 1.52 stored locally on hard drive
• On first reboot, PC-Rdist names computer
  readies for network
• Computers manually remade every morning by
  student workers from Mac server (!)

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Our Network Environment Summer 2001

• Newly subnetted network
• Mixed-mode NT domain using TCP/IP personal
  secure network storage login scripts
• Public computers are Macs (refreshed with
  RevRdist) and Windows 2000 Dell PCs (refreshed
  with PC-Rdist)
• PC-Rdist running from Windows 2000 Server

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Summer 2001 To-Do List

• Layering
• One base image on different hardware
• Different labs get different software
• Better User Experience
• New, clean desktop for every user
• Ability to install own software
• Tie in with network resources
• Easy-to-keep
• Manual or automated maintenance
• Ability to remake, check on computers remotely

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Ghost 7 and Sysprep

• Upgrade to Symantec Ghost 7
• Compatible with NTFS, Windows 2000 (mostly)
• Can create, retrieve images over network
• Cannot create new W2k SIDs
• Microsoft Sysprep 1.1 (free)
• Allows you to duplicate a hard drive after
  configuring Windows installing apps
• Runs Mini-setup (for differing hardware)
• Plain-text Answer File allows you to specify
  answers to Setup questions
• Bear to set up very easy when set up properly

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PC-Rdist 2 demo

• PC-Rdist server structure
• The GUI
• Setting files to ignore, delete, etc.
• Creating an application layer

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PC-Rdist and Windows 2000 The Permissions Problem

• Levels of permissions Guest, User, Power User,
  Administrator, SYSTEM
• Administrators cant access all files and entire
  registry only SYSTEM can.
• PC-Rdist runs with permissions of user who
  started it.
• Therefore, just running PC-Rdist yourself wont
  work!

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PC-Rdist and Windows 2000 The AT Solution

• AT command-line Scheduled Tasks
• Administrator-scheduled AT tasks run with SYSTEM
  permissions
• AT can schedule computers remotely!
• Batch files add versatility ease

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Command-line scheduling demo

• What the AT command looks like
• Looking at scheduled tasks
• Clearing schedule
• Scheduling a remake
• Scheduling a lab

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Windows 2000 Interface

• Users log onto domain (as themselves or guest),
  get Default User profile, Power User permissions
• My Documents linked to secure network storage
• Screen saver automatically logs users off after
  specified time

• Batch scheduling command reschedules itself if
  user is logged on

Logoff screen saver from Windows 2000 Resource
Kit
UserOn batch command courtesy JSI Inc.s Tip
1752
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Results

• Very few crashes
• Labs with very different settings, apps
• Increased use of network resources fewer floppy
  disks!
• Bored student lab supervisors
• Expanded to library, departmental labs,
  classrooms (8 labs, 110 computers so far)

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PC-Rdist QA
http//www.amherst.edu/nadahlman/pc-rdist
www.pyzzo.com
Susan Hafer Richman Wellesley College srichman_at_wel
lesley.edu
Nicholas Dahlman Amherst College nadahlman_at_amherst
.edu