Deployment Solution

I am in the process of rolling out Altiris for my school district.    We have 4 sites total (1 Admin office and 3 high schools).   They are all connected via a Wireless WAN network but I am thinking I want to set it up so each site has Altiris locally in some fashion but I want them all to be the same (if that makes sense).    I came across this Article and I think this is the method I want to explore but I need a bit of clarification.

I have already set up Altiris DS at the Admin office and now want to set it up for each of my 3 high schools.    The article I linked above shows that the secondary site(s) can share the primary database but I am not sure about setting the configuration up so each site has its own PXE Server,  Express Share (For local images and such), and if each site will have its own settings for the AClient/DAGent settings.    Also how will these subsites interact with each other and the primary site?

Each site is on its own subnet and in the case of loss of connectivity to the primary site will the secondary DS Sites be able to operate independently.   I am thinking that is a no since they will share the same database.


Any advice is appreciated as I want to make sure this is done right.   If there are other articles or instructions on multi-site setup I would be interested in seeing them.

Thank YOu.

I would suggest individual servers at each supporting site.  We used to to it that way when we had T1 lines between schools. This keeps things simpler with each server set up the same, but does require more work when doing updates.  The key on your central DB idea would be the speed and reliability of your interconnect network as all actions would require DB interaction and, as you suggest, if the main site were disconnected, indeed the other sites could not operate independently.  They could do things like manually imaging via network boot disk if you had to.  We now have gigabit throughout the district and have 7 servers to cover the district.  Three pairs serve "cones" for a HS and the Jr Highs which feed and the other for the elementaries.   One serves the technology lab and a number of miscellaneous schools and supported facilities.  Each has its own PXE, database, and DS installation.  DHCP is on a single MS server for the district.  All servers are centralized and each serves about 1000 cilent machines.

This depends on what your end goal is.

Are you looking to be able to manage every computer from the same console? or are you looking to have a separate console at each location?

I would suggest just having one DS at your main site.  Then set up separate file servers at each individual location.  You can then use scripting and package servers to direct the clients to pull files, images and software from the local server and still be able to be managed by the central DS server.  I have scripts that check the subnet the computer is coming from and maps drives accordingly.

If you want a simple setup and don't care about managing each site separately, then a DS at each location would work fine too. 

We have one central DS that serves about 1200 machines at 20 different locations accross North America. We did it simillarly as bhawver above with package servers at each location. We did it with hidden shares rather than mapping a drive though. feel free to email me with any questions. charles.caldwell at itt. com