Deployment Solution

Every night, we refresh 35 PCs from a classroom with a disk image.
In the image the PC's are set to use 1280x1024 display resolution in WinXP .
One PC however should always be in a lower resolution 800x600, because
it's connected to a beamer and text displayed in 1280x1024 resolution desktop
can't be read easily from the back of the classroom.

I would like to have the resolution for this one PC be changed
immediatly after a Restore of an image, via the Post-configuration
that Deployment does after restore.

This is what I did:
- booted that one PC
- manually set the screen resolution to a lower value
- in Altiris Deployment, selected that PC / right-click/Advanced/Get Inventory
- verified with right-click on that PC /Properties / Hardware / Display that the
value is indeed recorded as 800x600

Normally after a Restore of an image, Deployment server in its
post-installation should change the resolution to 800x600 as is specified
in the Properties recorded in the inventory for that one PC. (The Restore job
has the option 'Automatically perform configuration tasks after completing
this imaging task' checked.

But no, it does not change the resolution :-(
(it does change the Windows MS networking Computer name so post config
at least does that change well)

What can be wrong with that resolution change and how to remedy?

Try doing a "backup registry" event for this machine before imaging. I think that will save off the registry entries for all users, thus having a configuration to be brought down after imaging. Also note that I believe each user's settings are saved/brought back, so which user are you setting the registry for? Have you made a local user and saved this by copying it to the "default user" so all first-time logins will get those settings?

Thanks for your reply. You mean 'Add'-ing a task 'Back Up Registry' before the task 'Distribute Disk Image' in the RestoreLab job? If I understand you well, the shear fact of doing a Back Up Registry, would also automatically force Altiris to restore the whole registry for every PC again to every PC ?
I'll try that...

Concerning users on that Windows system: I have two users: admin (administrator rights)
and uauser (Limited user: no admin rights). The students and teacher in the classroom use the
uauser username, never the admin username. I have not done something like 'saving this by
copying it to the "default user"', but when I change the screen resolution either for user
admin or for the user uauser, the new resolution is also in effect when logging in as the other
user (in short: changing for one, changes for all).

Backing up the Reg. is not a task in the list generally made for a lab(we tend to use the lab creation wizard when setting up a class or group). You wouldn't necessarily have to send the registry (via restore registry or the "restore lab" task to the whole lab, just the machine whose video settings are unique to that lab. We tend to use the "Deploy Lab" exclusively, which pulls down the image, sets configuration, then pushes registry to the server. You could try a "deploy lab" for that machine, which would pull down the image, then restore the registry from the server.

quote:

---

Originally posted by: darmitage
Backing up the Reg. is not a task in the list generally made for a lab(we tend to use the lab creation wizard when setting up a class or group). You wouldn't necessarily have to send the registry (via restore registry or the "restore lab" task to the whole lab, just the machine whose video settings are unique to that lab. We tend to use the "Deploy Lab" exclusively, which pulls down the image, sets configuration, then pushes registry to the server. You could try a "deploy lab" for that machine, which would pull down the image, then restore the registry from the server.

---

If I look at a DeployLab task example, it does
Distribute Disk Image, Modify Configuration, Back Up Registry in that order.
Isn't that contradictory to your last sentence 'restore the registry from the server', it looks
to me the other way round? I don't grasp...

Appologies. The last entry should have read ...restore lab... vice the delpoy. Sorry.

pdon ... sidenote ... any links, pdf, on learning to create/deploy images for a classroom? How'd you learn for your classroom?

I asked in this forum way earlier but nobody answered, but now since we're on the topic. I'm trying to do it so I can eliminate as much as possible having to touch every PC. I would like to "refresh the PCs" every month for example. Thanks, if you can!

Let me give you a little on our environment first. We use Novell for login and file system access. We don't deal with MS domains. We have a XP corporate license so we don't deal with sidgen. We use Novell's "Dynamic Local user" which creates the MS user on the fly, then, for the student machines, deletes the user on logout. Additionally, we use deep freeze on our labs to ensure the student data and login stuff goes away. One of the reasons we do this is that the user, for antivirus updates and some programs, must be administrator equivalent. The students as well as the teachers have individual logins including network drive space for saving any and all class material. Some things this means is that for some programs when the teacher wants the lab machines to look in a certain way, this must be set up for a local user with printer installed, any license server info plugged in, etc. Then, reboot and copy this local user profile to that of "Default user" so that any and all students get the same look and feel. Also, on frozen labs, the security monitoring is "disabled". We don't need update messages. Also automatic updating is "disabled". Periodically, we will thaw a lab, run updates as required, then re-freeze the lab. Some programs, namely those which include a database manager of some kind, must be installed after the image comes down, or install the database part after the image comes down, as databases don't like to work if you change a machine's name, even if the db is local. An example is Autodesk Inventor. I always install the content libraries after the image comes down. Our Autodesk license server info needs to be set as part of the install. It needs to be run and registered after the image comes down and before being frozen. The content libraries get installed later. Sorry to ramble, but that should give you an idea of what we do for most of our labs in genera and what I do for one of my labs specifically.

quote:

---

Originally posted by: darmitage
Appologies. The last entry should have read ...restore lab... vice the delpoy. Sorry.

---

Hi, I tried and it did work. But it's not a ideal situation:
whenever you add programs in your WinXP, the registry of that model-WinXP is of course
different from the registry saved some time ago from the beamer-PC (set in 800x600 mode)
because of the new programs. Now, when, after creating a new image of het model-WinXP, and
then restoring to the classroom, the Restore Registry task that comes after the Restore Disk
image task, will replace the registry of the beamer-PC with an **old** registry ...

You will have to remember every time when you want to deploy a newly changed image, to
first take away that restore registry task, do the restore to all PCs, then manually change the
resolution of the beamer-PC, do a Backup-Registry and then re-add the Restore Registry task ...
This not so user friendly ..

Which brings me to my initial question: why can't Post-configuration not change the video
resolution, whereas it can change the Windows computername, both parameters are part of the
'inventory' which you can save with 'Get-inventory' ??

quote:

---

Originally posted by: siritla
pdon ... sidenote ... any links, pdf, on learning to create/deploy images for a classroom? How'd you learn for your classroom?

I asked in this forum way earlier but nobody answered, but now since we're on the topic. I'm trying to do it so I can eliminate as much as possible having to touch every PC. I would like to "refresh the PCs" every month for example. Thanks, if you can!

---

Unfortunately, I must say I have never found such document. I had to plough through the entire
Altiris Deployment manual (hundreds of pages) and seeing what did apply and not.
A think a 'booklet' (PDF of webpage) specifically dealing with classrooms setups would be a bestseller but I don't know of any existing...

Argh, that's what I feared, Google didn't target anything, nobody responded to my one post, I'm excited to dwelve in this area. Yes, I agree should be a manual specifically for classroom setups. Cause I think there are probably common things everybody has to deal with. Thanks anyways, and for responding!