Workstation

Course Instructor: Ms. Saroosh Jaffar

 THE PRACTICE OF SYSTEM AND NETWORK
ADMINISTRATION 2ND EDITION
 CHAPTER # 3
 Workstations
Workstations

 If you manage your desktop and laptop workstations correctly,

new employees will have everything they need on their first day,
including basic infrastructure, such as email. Existing employees
will find that updates happen seamlessly. New applications will
be deployed unremarkably. Repairs will happen in a timely
manner. Everything will “just work.”
Managing operating systems on
workstations
 Managing operating systems on workstations boils down to three
basic tasks:
 loading the system software and applications initially,
 updating the system software and applications,
 and configuring network parameters.
 We call these tasks the Big Three.
Definition

 We define a workstation as computer hardware dedicated to a

single customer’s work. Usually, this means a customer’s desktop
or laptop PC.
 In the modern environment, we also have remotely accessed PCs,
virtual machines, and dockable laptops, among others.
Evard’s life cycle of a machine
and its OS
 Evard’s life cycle of a machine
and its OS
 The diagram depicts five states: new, clean,
configured, unknown and off.
 New refers to a completely new machine.
 Clean refers to a machine on which the OS
has been installed but no localizations
performed.
 Configured means a correctly configured
and operational environment.
 Unknown is a computer that has been
misconfigured or has become out of date.
 Off refers to a machine that has been retired
and powered off.
The Basics

 Three critical issues are involved in maintaining workstation operating

systems:
 1. Loading the system software and applications initially
 2. Updating the system software and applications
 3. Configuring network parameters
Loading the OS

 A workstation has thousands of potential settings, sometimes in a

single application. A small misconfiguration can cause a big
failure.
 Every vendor has a different name for its systems for automated
OS loading:
 Solaris has JumpStart;
 Red Hat Linux has Kick Start;
 Microsoft Windows has Remote Installation Service
Automation

 Be Sure Your Automated System Is Truly Automated

 Partially Automated Installation
 Cloning and Other Methods
 Should You Trust the Vendor’s Installation?
 Installation Checklists
 Updating the System Software and Applications
Be Sure Your Automated System Is Truly Automated

 Setting up an automated installation system takes a lot of effort.

 However, in the end, the effort will pay off by saving you more
time than you spent initially.
 The most important aspect of automation is that it must be
completely automated.
Partially Automated Installation

 Partial automation is better than no automation at all. Until an

installation system is perfected, one must create stop-gap
measures.
Cloning and Other Methods

 Cloning hard disks means setting up

a host with the exact software
configuration that is desired for all
hosts that are going to be deployed.
 The hard disk of this host is then
cloned, or copied, to all new
computers as they are installed
Should You Trust the Vendor’s
Installation?
 Reloading the OS from scratch is better for several reasons. First,
you
 probably would have to deal with loading other applications and
localizations
 on top of a vendor-loaded OS before the machine would work at
your
 site
Installation Checklists

 Whether your OS installation is completely manual or fully

automated,
 You can improve consistency by using a written checklist to make
sure that technicians don’t skip any steps.
 Even if OS installation is completely automated, a good checklist
is still
 useful.
Updating the System Software
and Applications
 Software-update systems should be general enough to be able to
deploy new applications, to update applications, and to patch the
OS.
 Updates Are Different from Installations
 The host is in usable state
 The host is in an office.
 No physical access is required.
 The host is already in use.
 The host may not be in a “known state.”
 The host may be dual-boot
 3.1.2.2 One, Some, Many
3.1.3 Network Configuration

 The third component you need for a large workstation

environment is an automated way to update network
parameters, those tiny bits of information that are often related
to booting a computer and getting it onto the network.
 The information in them is highly customized for a particular
subnet or even for a particular host. This characteristic is in
contrast to a system such as application deployment, in which the
same application is deployed to all hosts in the same
configuration
 The most common system for automating this process is DHCP.
Some vendors have DHCP servers that can be set up in seconds;
other servers take considerably longer.
 3.1.3.1 Use Templates Rather Than Per-Host Configuration
 3.1.3.2 Know When to Use Dynamic Leases
 3.1.3.3 Using DHCP on Public Networks