Re-Imaging+CFF+Macbooks

= Re-Imaging CFF Macbooks and iMacs =

We began our networking and imaging portion of our internship on July 19th by working with the Mac specialist in our district. We have 3 elementary schools in our district, and all of their computers are iMacs (approximately 120 iMacs district wide). Also, there are 4 mobile carts of Macbooks in each elementary totaling (300 elementary Macbooks district wide). Our district has a total of 3 high schools as well. Each high school has 3 carts of Macbooks from the CFF initiative totaling 225 total district wide). All of the Macs across the districts are going to be re-imaged. The Mac specialist built an image for the student Macbbooks and the teachers' iMacs and placed the image on our global server that can be accessed anywhere in the district. The image that was built optimized the use of each machine according to grade and building level. I identified, set up, hardwired and connected the laptops that we re-imaged. The maintenance process required all machines from one cart to be hardwired to a multi-port switch. The re-imaging and implementation process required me to turn on each Mac individually and hold down the letter "N" to connect to the global server. We then used the software "Deploy Studio" which allows the user to access a global server and re-image a machine. The evaluation of the Deploy Studio software and it's components gave me a clear understanding of how it permits one image to be put out to multiple machines, from one location, through one network stored image. I clicked on the correctly built image (depending on if it was an iMac or Macbook), named the machine according to the PENNCREST tag # and began the re-imaging process. This process took approximately an hour and a half for each machine. Along the way, I had to apply basic trouble shooting strategies. In the first instance, the multi-port switch I used was faulty and all the hardwires had to be pulled and I used another switch. Also, the imaging of the machines was taking excessively long in some cases. This was due to extensive traffic on our local network. To troubleshoot this process, we started a cart of Macbooks before we left for the day so they could download the image overnight. When re-imaging the iMacs in the elementary schools, I had to walk around to each room to complete this process. Contrary to the the Macbook set up, I was able to set up a switch and with patch cables connect up to 24 Macbooks at each location to do a mass re-image. This process took approximately an hour to set up the switch, patch cables, and Macbooks in addition to the re-imaging download. On July 19th, I spent 7 and a half hours re-imaging 56 Macbooks and on July 20th, I spent another 7 and a half hours re-imaging about 60 iMacs in our elementary and central office locations.

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