Deployment of NTWS on 20 new PC's

[Wei-ming Lin]

Hope this is not an FAQ. We have about 20 PC's to roll out this week
w/ NTWS 3.5. We have configured one machine to have the layout of disk
partitions and files as we want. If this is for DOS/Windows, we know we
can just use packages like LapLink or FX to dump the image from that
template to every other machine, and change, say, IP address later. But
is it possible to do so on NTWS? If yes, how? Please help. We also have
NTAS 3.51 here.

Thanks in advance.

Wei-ming Lin

p.s. OS will be on FAT drive.

[Lee Campbell]

Yes, you can replicate an installation across the network if
all 20 computers have identical hardware. The instructions for
doing this are in the setup documentation that comes with the
cd-rom, I believe.

[Wei-ming Lin]

In article <3vjje1$o...@riscsm.scripps.edu>, l...@salk.edu says...

Sorry I have to do a follow up of my own question. This is not
just a fresh NTWS installation. The "template" machine has also
other packages like MS-Office and Progress on already. It will
be great if we don't have to go through all the steps again and
again and again.

Wei-ming

[Srinivas Kandala]

well depends . There is a utility in the win 3.5 reskit called CPS .
That will allow you to make a image of one NT machine , upload the
image to a cenralized server ( share that dir) , and then run the
download function and u can install 50 machines in just flat 20 min ..
it works like a charm .. but then akl the machines shud have the same
config ( I mean h/w like same n/w card , vga card etc ) ..

read the reskit and u will find the information

-srini

wei...@symix.com (Wei-ming Lin) wrote:

>Thanks in advance.

>Wei-ming Lin

Srinivas Kandala
Intuit Services Corp
srini_...@intuit.com
(708) 515-2956

[Nick Schoonover]

In article <3vjkl9$r...@symix.bkb.symix.com>, wei...@symix.com (Wei-ming Lin) says:
>Sorry I have to do a follow up of my own question. This is not
>just a fresh NTWS installation. The "template" machine has also
>other packages like MS-Office and Progress on already. It will
>be great if we don't have to go through all the steps again and
>again and again.
>
>Wei-ming
>

I take it you're not on a network right now then?

If you are then just tell all of the "non-template" work stations to copy
all, and I mean ALL files from the template machine. Yes I know this is a
pain, but 10Mbs or whatever is always better than LapLink with a copy this
large.

If these work stations aren't networked together yet then here is a good
idea that I have used before. Most computer systems come with an IDE ribbon
cable with two connectors for hard drives. Attach a work station's blank
hard disk to the NT template machine and do the copy like that. Once you
get a couple of the drives done just use a couple of other machines to copy
as well and you'll have them finished by the end of the day.

any questions???

Nick Schoonover

ps You could also have all of the IP's configured if you skip lunch! :)

[Wei-ming Lin]

Thanks for the help. I found this info also on ResKit. CPS does have two
minor and one major problems:
1. It will only take a snapshot of the drive where \WINNT35 resides;
2. Likewise, our softwares on D: and E: drives(both NTFS) have to be copied
manually.

3. If we try to install more than two machines against this server, both of
them will alternately spit out some file locked error message, and a human
intervention is necessary.

Any comment?

Wei-ming

In article <19950801.162344...@UICVM.UIC.EDU>,
srini_...@intuit.com says...