Provisioning software or disk images to hundreds of clients
 

Hi,

I was recently having a discussion with my boss, who's in charge of a set of end-user labs with over 1,000 boxes, mostly Windows and some Mac (Intel). I'd love to see some of those boxes dual-boot with Ubuntu, but decided that the best way to try and get the doors open for Linux was to start by getting some other FOSS on the Windows installs - OpenOffice, etc.

The main reason I was given against this is that, currently, machines are re-imaged over the network individually, so updating even a single lab (for a pilot program) would take days.

I was wondering:
1) Does anyone know about image distribution/management systems that would use *multicast*, so an entire lab subnet could be imaged in (slightly more than) the time it takes to image one machine? Preferably something that's vendor-neutral, so it could handle Ubuntu?

2) Does anyone know any resources for managing *large* (hundreds or thousands of machines) installations of Ubuntu or another common "beginner" distro? Some sort of software that could handle machines in groups and individually, doing updates over the network, installing software, maybe some administration too? I know CFengine or Puppet could do this, but is there anything a little more user friendly?

Thanks for any advice.

PS - I'm not the one in charge of the machines. I just know that if I have any hope of convincing them to give new software, like OpenOffice, a try - let alone dual-boot - it's only going to happen if it isn't much work for them (or if I can suggest something to make their current setup more efficient).

Forget about the linux management right now, you are thinking the right way to want to establish free software on Windows first.

Start with Firefox.
Do any of the machines use firefox now? How did firefox get on them?

OpenOffice.org (note: "Open Office" is different, in different countries) is the next one - you'll also want "Quickstarter".

For that matter - how is new software normally deployed across all those machines?
Free software can use the same methods.

Yes, Firefox is on all of the machines. It got there because it has near 50% market share.

Sorry for my breach in nomenclature.

I understand that FOSS can use the same methods. The issue is as follows:

The software isn't "deployed" across the machines in a traditional sense. They use full-disk images for everything.

They only rebuild the master image that the machines are cloned from once a year or so. They rebuild it over the summer, in August, when labs are closed for upgrades. They push the image out over the network to every computer, in series. The process takes a few WEEKS. So, when I mentioned OpenOffice.org, I was told, essentially, maybe they'll think about it in august if they don't have anything else to do, but their time is valuable, and they're so overloaded they don't want to deal with any changes they don't have to.

So, the bottom line is that this imaging process is both a burden to them and a barrier to spending their time in more interesting and beneficial ways.

I was thinking the way to go about suggesting OO.o would be to say, "hey, look at X, you can image all of the machines in a quarter of the time, without any new hardware, and maybe spend that time adding some new software options."

I didn't ask "why" but "how". You question asked for methods of getting free software on thousands of machines. My answer was: the same way firefox gets on all those machines.

If "Market Share" is a factor, consider:
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/...Share_Analysis
--- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOff...g#Market_share

Presumably, deploying OpenOffice by the established method involves only updating the master image. It must be updated occasionally (usually once a month - to keep up with patches). Similarly, the network machines must have their patches and AV systems upgraded periodically. (AV daily, patches each month for non-critical fixes.)

Learn how it's done and offer labour. If the workload is really the barrier, they will jump at the chance.

Your sysadmins have chosen a very inefficient way to manage their machines. However, imaging and deploying images over a network is well supported in linux with a range of packaged solutions. eg.
http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/19486.html

Multicast deployments are the kind of thing you do with a script in linux. Though Paragon (for eg) have a tool for the job.

Fact is - until the admins change their deployment method, the imaging approach will always be a significant barrier to change and innovation. You need to persuade the person who writes their paychecks that a change is needed first.

If you got to be in charge of a project, you have more clout - you can usually arrange to have a small network off the main imaging circuit (less work for the win guys) which you got to manage how you want. Once your project is a success and everyone's raving about your IT management then you will be able to get a general change going.

Meantime - look up those studies showing that gnuLinux deployments require less admin overhead.

http://www.levanta.com/linuxstudy/
http://www.cioupdate.com/article.php/10493_1477911
... there was a particular one I'm thinking of but I didn't find it.



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