Imaging computers in remote locations over the network can be a hard task without many effective solutions available to get this done considering you want little impact or downtime upon the clients.
Recently, I had overseen and implemented the Amkor Technology Windows 7 Migration. Part of which, were just over one hundred machines located throughout the United States in different states in Remote Offices. In five different states we had around 20 machines in each office. We needed to upgrade all of them in a small amount of time and also had to back up their old Image for redundancy. Over the network this would have taken 12+ hours to back up a hard disk (depending on how much data was on the disk) and then 12+ hours to reimage and install their applications and restore their personal data.
The Plan:
Create a Mobile Altiris DS Server, with the image, and software needed to deploy and bring it with me to each location sparing three days time (Migrating at least seven machines per day per location on average) for each Remote Office. I was to take a total of 18 days to migrate over one hundred machines in five different states with room to spare, and only one employee - me!
Implementation:
For the hardware, I used a Thinkpad T410 Laptop with a Core I-5 Processor, 4GB of RAM with a 40GB Intel SSD. Taking with me, two 2TB External hard disks, a Linksys Router and two 8 port GB Switches. Also I had brought fifteen CAT5 cables, some spare hard drives in case one crashes, and one giant can of confidence! Prior to going to each location, I had ordered, imaged, and shipped "Loaner" machines for the users to use during the time I was to be migrating their machines. It was necessary to provide them something to use in the interim in my situation but may not be in yours.
For the Server, using Windows Server 2008, I installed Altiris DS with MSDE (Auto configures the DataBase for you) to cancel out the need for a SQL Server as well as the PXE Server and PXE Automation environment, WINPE. I stored the Image and all Software Packages needed for the trip on the Local C: drive and it was ready to go!
Once done, I practiced using this Mobile Altiris DS in office to migrate the next twenty machines on the schedule, they all went fine and the software installations as well. I backed up their hard disks (scheduled all at the end of the day using the old disks in dummy laptops) to the external hard drives and that also worked out great. The 2TB external Hard Disks I chose to use were both 10,000 RPM with eSata and the ThinkPad T410 had an eSata port which worked out great. It had only taken about 30 minutes to back up the hard disks (doing five at a time) while I had also had five machines being imaged. Their were a couple of "pains" I should mention though: The Server must be set up with a Static IP for PXE to work of course and had to be set to not go into sleep mode which was something I also overlooked at first LOL! The computers all had to have the Altiris Client point to the Mobile Altiris DS for the software jobs to go through and then point back to the main Altiris DS when finished. Set aside these few things, there was no better way to do it!
True Performance!
One of our Remote Offices are in Santa Clara, California (Silicon Valley). The Santa Clara office had 55 machines that had all needed to be migrated. I allowed five days and planned to get as much done as possible in the first four due to day five being the Christmas Party which I really wanted to attend instead of working!!! I had worked non-stop for 16 to 20 hours on day 1 and day 2. By the end of day two I had already migrated 36 machines and had their old hard disks backed up to the external drives. The following two days I had wrapped up all but five machines which the only reason I had not finished everybody is due to the scheduling I had planned. I planned to do 12 machines a day and I was able to "bump" some people ahead of schedule, with their permission of course. On days three, four, and the final day of the Christmas Party, I had pretty much nothing to do other than four or five hours of work and then go sight seeing! This was truly a great setup that I recommend to anybody having to upgrade machines in remote lacations.
Feel free to contact me with any Q & A about this setup and I would be obliged to share with you!