Friday, June 3, 2011

Soliciting help with lab windows updates

I'm still in the process of wrapping my brain around the transition from the many methods of windows updates to KACE patching.

As part of this process, I have created an excel spreadsheet and I placed it in \\do-tech\group$\TechIS\Information Services\Frequently Used Files folder. The name of the file is: CVUSD_Lab_Patching_Schedules.xlsx

I have begun filling the spreadsheet out, with the information I have.

I have notated it in such a way that it is pretty obvious when things are set just right for KACE to work correctly.
Here's a quick walk through of what the spreadsheet is about:

  • School Name: Obvious
  • Lab Description: Any description that could fit the lab function
  • Lab Prefix: This is the prefix of the lab machines. You will notice that some prefixes have sparators with brackets. This is if the lab naming convention has different nomenclatures. 
    • Notice in 101-lib, the dash is inside the bracket, that is because there are some machines in there which do not contain the dash between lib and text (corresponding to: 101-libtext02). 
    • This is very important to put in correctly, as it will be the criteria that I will use to build the queries in KACE to target these machines. 
    • This will be slightly less of an issue if the machines are within the DHCP reservation range
  • DF Main Schedule: Refers to the current DeepFreeze schedule where the machines go in maintenance mode. This will have to match the schedule that we set on KACE for patching. 
  • KACE Agent Installed: Stats whether the KACE agent is installed. In some cases you will see a Yes/P. this means that the KACE Agent is partially installed on those machines. The legend for weird parameters are in comments in the header of that column
  • KACE Patching Enabled: States whether the patching schedule is enabled on KACE for this particular lab
  • DF Installed: States whether Deefreeze is installed in this lab.
  • DF WU Enabled: States whether Windows Updates are being applied via deepfreeze
  • GPO WU Enabled: States whether Windows Updates are being applied via GPO
  • In DHCP Reservations: States whether the machines in questions have been added to the DHCP reservations. 
You will notice that the coloring of the columns will turn green once they are filled in the ideal value we're looking for. For instance, we do want the KACE agent to be installed, so that column will be green if it's set to yes. Conversely, we do not want the DeepFreeze Windows Updates to be enabled, so, a value of "YES" in the column will turn it to red.

We will be able to do it without the DHCP reservations, however, it would be much much easier if we do have those in place.

I know that a lot of you have much more information than I do regarding current deepfreeze schedules / DHCP reservations, and you are responsible for putting those in place or removing them.

Here is where I need help:
  • We need to get this spreadsheet filled in completely with all the labs in the district.
  • We need to make sure that the DHCP reservations are set on all the labs in the district. 
  • We need to make sure that DeepFreeze Windows updates are turned off, as well as GPO updates are turned off, in order to setup KACE patching. 
  • We need to make sure that  the KACE agent is installed on those labs. 
I ask that whoever is working on the particular labs, especially when you get to the point of turning off Windows Updates from DF and GPO, that you would coordinate with me, so that I can, in parallel, setup KACE patch schedules for those labs.

I know that this cannot be accomplished overnight, but I would like to get this started  as soon as possible, so that we can finish within an acceptable time frame...

Please note that this Excel sheet can be edited only one at a time, so please be patient if the file is open, so as to avoid any weird conflicts or corruption.



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