My job has turned from shipping computers - to hardware repair, thin client configuring and management, and admin of its sql server, all special projects such as tablets, and imaging each machine with windows.
Every computer that is replaced or provided goes through me.
My org has 45k PCs, including laptops and thinclients. I also oversee all stock, including peripherals like printers.
I need to image 80 pcs/laptops a day for a project.
I am not the admin for SCCM. Thinclient imaging is easy since I am responsible for it.
Currently I use a winPE thumb drive for each laptop and PC. I have a KVM for each 4 pcs, and a monitor for each pc due to the pcs not posting if there is no output detected...
What opinions or ideas do any of you have for imaging easier? I cant use any paid programs, but if you know of any please tell me
Im aware of how stupid it is, but its my first IT job and Im working on my certs/degree
If you have no fucking ideia what you're doing I'd start using Spiceworks.
It's not a good program , but it's an easy program that allows you to keep track of devices and software installed and remotly do everything.
Then combine that with windows RDC for management and you should be well off for any problem that doesn't relate to hardware.
Adam Perry
I have knowledge on how to create a wim and have been reading microsoft docs but I am not the admin. I have 0 access to sccm, our switch, routers or distribution point.
we are mass deploying manually and Im trying to make it easier.
I want to plug in totally unknown PCs and push an image to it
Landon Bennett
That's literally Spiceworks Job.
Deploy a computer with spiceworks on every subnet you can't scan and it will keep track of that shit.
Austin Stewart
awesome, Ill check it out. thanks
Michael Adams
>Currently I use a winPE thumb drive for each laptop and PC. You're doing things wrong, you should be using PXE to net boot them. And assuming you're not already, you should have implemented hardware independent imaging.
Since it sounds like you dont know what you're doing, did you sysprep the image before capturing it? If not then congrats on fucking up all of your unique identifiers. SIDs dont really matter at all, but this does matter for things like Windows Update.
>I have a KVM for each 4 pcs, and a monitor for each pc due to the pcs not posting if there is no output detected... This shouldnt happen?
>t. Former Altiris admin for over a decade
>Spiceworks. Its shit beyond small organizations which OPs is not if they 45k endpoints.
shut the fuck up about spiceworks.
Leo Butler
3 Things about spiceworks, it's free, It's definitly shit, it's good if you don't know shit.
Landon Howard
I want to do pxe boot- but the admin of sccm doesnt want to set it up. And yes, these new hp pcs are pos. They quite literally will not finish the task sequence during reboots of there is no output.
They can pxe boot
I did not create the image, but it is sys prepped. I CAN create an image. I have 0 rights in sccm and dont have the password
Lincoln Garcia
>I want to do pxe boot- but the admin of sccm doesnt want to set it up Set up your own server then and tell him to get fucked.
You'll need to work with whoever runs your DHCP server to have options added to the DHCP scopes for the relevant subnets. Or if you're just imaging them all in a room and not wherever they are deployed, and you can get your own switch, you can run your own DHCP server as well.
Otherwise talk to your boss, to talk to his boss to force him to set it up. There is a easy business case to be made. Chances are he is incompetent and just doesnt know how, which is why he isnt. At which point if you can implement it, you can try to get them to give you a promotion to be on his team since he is lacking the skills.
>They quite literally will not finish the task sequence during reboots of there is no output. Are you sure there isnt something wrong with your imaging program? Is this happening at the BIOS/EFI or later?
Kayden Phillips
>What opinions or ideas do any of you have for imaging easier I worked for a school district that put an image w/ an imaging utility on a USB stick. All you did was boot from it and it did everything for you, the program mascot was some kinda mouse guy.
Jose Bailey
he is already doing this you tard
David Gomez
But it's so fucking easy, how lazy can you be?
Justin Watson
Read you retard. It doesnt scale at all. What the fuck are you going to do if you need to reimage 1000 endpoints at all once. Send out a large team of people with a thousand fucking thumbdrives to do this? No of course not. There is a fucking reason why networks and servers exist.
Easton Kelly
>There is a fucking reason why networks and servers exist If he's asking here his network is probably some tangled mess of cat5 with 20 year old servers that would shit itself trying to push out that many images.
Nolan Lee
my problem is that I receive 1700 pcs, and I need to have them done in a month.
Looks like I will just need to set up my own server.
John Morris
PXE boot dude
Jacob Kelly
>my problem is that I receive 1700 pcs, and I need to have them done in a month Tell your boss to provide you with the correct infrastructure or else explain the task is impossible.
Matthew Sullivan
>i dont know what multicast is just shut the fuck up
i said shut the fuck up with your retarded ideas
>Looks like I will just need to set up my own server. there is a easy business case to be made
Joseph Taylor
You have no idea what you're talking about
Julian Fisher
Why so upset beaner?
Ian Phillips
Nigger, administered Altiris solutions for over a decade. And you still dont know what multicast is
Benjamin Hill
That isn't going to help him if we don't know what his infrastructure looks like. You've clearly never been tasked with managing a network running on decades old hardware. Pushing out packages and images takes so long it's literally faster to travel to one side of the office than it is to do it over the network.
Wyatt Rogers
>I still dont know what multicast is It dates back to the 1980s you retard
Maybe it's because you're ESL but you don't seem to be understanding what I'm trying to get at. I know what multicast is, that isn't going to help him if his network is so flooded that his boss comes banging on his door complaining the network is unusable, because there isn't enough throughput to push out that much data.
Grayson Nelson
>I know what multicast is no you clearly dont if you're saying retarded things like:
>that isn't going to help him if his network is so flooded that his boss comes banging on his door complaining the network is unusable
Alexander Williams
Nigger multicasting doesn't magically make the network have more bandwidth
Lincoln King
How do you not see what that guy is trying to say. It doesn't matter if you send the image to only the specific hosts that need it, it still takes up network headroom.
Aiden Taylor
You have no idea how mulitcast work.
Access switches have been running at wire rate for god knows how long you retard. This isnt the early 90s with hubs.
