In the next month we will be extremely busy receiving all the teacher laptops. The staff all has scheduled times that work with their summer calendars to drop off their laptops. This allows them to keep them over the summer to use. Here are some pictures of the process we are going through preparing each teacher's laptop for the next year. A name decal and inventory sticker will be going on every laptop, this just happens to be one of the white MacBooks.
How it's done...
Some of you might know the process, but for those who don't I will explain briefly. You might be wondering, 'how do they install software on all those laptops?' Well, it is a process called imaging. This consists of several complicated pieces of network, software, and server setups. But, I'll give you the just of it. Basically we take one machine, install all the software on it we want to have on every machine in the building and make what we call a base image. This 'base' has the software we have licensed for the entire district. Then, we build on that 'base' for special image needs. For example, the middle and elementary school students will have Photoshop Elements on their lab. This is installed on a special Middle School or Elementary School Lab image, but saves us time by not completely building the entire image over again because we build off the base. These images are then deployed to the computers using special software, it wipes the machines and clones them to be exactly like the image or master machine. It makes our job much simpler, but can cause complications at the same time.
Some of you might know the process, but for those who don't I will explain briefly. You might be wondering, 'how do they install software on all those laptops?' Well, it is a process called imaging. This consists of several complicated pieces of network, software, and server setups. But, I'll give you the just of it. Basically we take one machine, install all the software on it we want to have on every machine in the building and make what we call a base image. This 'base' has the software we have licensed for the entire district. Then, we build on that 'base' for special image needs. For example, the middle and elementary school students will have Photoshop Elements on their lab. This is installed on a special Middle School or Elementary School Lab image, but saves us time by not completely building the entire image over again because we build off the base. These images are then deployed to the computers using special software, it wipes the machines and clones them to be exactly like the image or master machine. It makes our job much simpler, but can cause complications at the same time.
For example, today I had the base image ready to go. Tested all the software, made sure all the updates were ran, and a host of other things that you have to remember before making the image. Well, Apple released an update at about 1pm, so I had to stop and update it before finalizing the image.
We just like to have our images be as up-to-date as possible. Of course, by the time the year starts there will be more.
Of course, installing all of this software and setting up the base image takes time too. You have to make sure everything is in working order. After all, this will be on hundreds of computers. Here is a picture of the installation of Adobe Design Premium CS5.
Of course, installing all of this software and setting up the base image takes time too. You have to make sure everything is in working order. After all, this will be on hundreds of computers. Here is a picture of the installation of Adobe Design Premium CS5.
The base image has been in the workings for the last week or so. It's best not to rush when making one, that way you can be sure to include everything and think of all the little settings that need to be changed for things to work correctly.
