Hi Everyone,
If you've got an idea that you've got for ImageInvoker, please drop a comment here. Anything from annoying typos and inconsistencies, to new functionality.
At the moment I've got listed these items to work on,
Kind Regards, Ian./
I've got an idea. How about we get the GSS 3.0 team to build this into GSS like it should have been done to DS 6.9 5 years ago.
At this point I'd be happy to have a password protected PXE option like SCCM, Kace, etc.
You know what...that should have occurred to me but yes you are right. Its not a big deal as we have created seperate PEs for handeling this and that works jus fine!...Keep up the awesome work! :)
I have given this some thought, the inteligent loading, but can't see a way to implement this without changing the design. You see, ImageInvoker is designed to load up before the agent starts and requests the job queue. This means I have no way of telling (that I can see) whether automation was booted because of a pending job schedule, or because it was manual.
I can't move the ImageInvoker execution to after the agent load, as the agent might at that point tell the machine to reboot etc before ImageInvoker loads. Does that make sense, or have a missed something bleedin' obvious??!? ;-)
Hey Ian, just thought of something else just now...again limited use case on this one but here goes. I think it would be beneficial to to provide an option that could allow for "intelligent loading" of ImageInvoker. The option would give the admin the ability to enable or disable the indefinite timeout from the console interface without having to manipulate the WinPE scripts or even regenerate the WinPE at all. The idea is that ....when someone manually boots to WinPE the timeout would automatically be set to indefinite if there is no job(s) scheduled against said machine. If the machine was scheduled from the console it provides the standard timeout. You could probably even make it so that the based on how the WinPE was requested the ImageInvoker menu would be disabled entirely. The idea would be on the fly enable/disable/timeout manipulation without having to regenerate the PE. I hope that makes sense...again no worries if its just not feasible or just makes the whole thing way too complicated. As always, thanks again for all your hard work!
"Intelligent Loading" Examples:
Manual Boot to WinPE = Indefinite Timeout Job Scheduled = Standard Timeout or Disabled Entirely
No problem at all Ian, I fully understand. Just make sure that if you do get time to work on a 7.x version, you let us poor 7.x admins know :)
Hi Chris,
The 7.x product line has been in such flux that I've never had the confidence that I could implement this robustly. Maintaining a dual 6.9/7.x ImageInvoker engine is also likely to be a full time proposition which is something I just don't have time for (I have a day job and all!).
In summary... although I too see this as being a natural progression for ImageInvoker I just haven't found the time to do the research and prototyping required.
Hi Ian,
Any plans for support for SMP 7.5? It sounds like something we would find very useful but we run a 7.5 only ship here. Feeling a bit jealous of the DS6.9 boys. I know we could potentially run DS6.9 as well but all of our teams, support and infrastructure are geared around 7.5 and I hate to think of some of the reactions if I introduced DS6.9 as well....
Wow, thanks for saying that it means a lot....honestly I just threw that together very quickly to try and give you some ideas. Thanks and have a great day!
Very nice facelift Joel! I am impressed. It's rather nice and I want it *now*.
Will see what I can do ;-)
Hey Ian,
Here are a few more enhancements I think would be well received.
- Modern User Interface.
- Ability to delete duplicate records from the scheduling menu. (perhaps password protected)
- Display previously scheduled jobs on name override screen.
- Multiple authentication methods (Hash+Active Directory simultaneously)
- Present identified jobs from the Configuration Utility screen.
- Ability to customize logo
Here is a quick mock up to show UI enhancements, please forgive the choice of logo. I have a english bulldog and considering Oxford does not have a formal mascot that I know of... I though it just made sense. Thanks Ian for all you hard work. I can't wait to see the new enhancements. :)
Would be nice to have some kind of naming convention enforced for the computername. Optionally enforce this per menu-item differently for the type of workstation. e.g. WSLnnnnn is for a type 'WorkStation Laptop' with a number between 00001 and 99999.
The above features would be awesome! I don't know if its worth mentioning, but one thing that I do via script is to check for the existance of registry hives on the target system, mount and extract the previous machine name. This allows for any Altiris server in our enviornment to be aware of the workstations previous name even if it has never had a record on that particular Altiris server. This is probably a very limited use case but we have folks that love not having to guess what the name of the workstation was and this allows for more consistency in our directory. There are issues to consider with implementing a feature such as this, but has worked well for us. Looking forward to the updates and thanks again Ian for all your hard work.