New User Evaluating Product and Questions about Deployment

Usage and Config Platform
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(imported topic written by krabilld91)

I work for a school district and we are evaluating the Trendmicro ESP System for possible use. I have been evaluating the trial version that has been setup for us and I have several questions about the deployment of the BES Agent and administration of the ESP system.

First, we have many different models of PCs, and many many different images in our district. The images are also maintained by several different technicians. I am concerned about how other go about getting the BES Agent on new images for future use when the PCs are imaged. I did read this:

http://support.bigfix.com/cgi-bin/kbdirect.pl?id=127

However, based on reading this, if the techs don’t do this step just before creating a new image, supposedly worst case is I end up with a Grayed out BigFix Client? If that is the worst case that will happen if we don’t do the above before creating images and nothing else will mess up, I can live with that. Especially since any base image PC will have a generic name and could easily be identified and deleted.

Also, sometimes techs don’t always get PCs renamed and there are multiple PCs with the same name. What happens in the ESP Console when two PCs with the same name try to contact it?

Also, we are considering purchasing the CPM module and probably a few other modules. I am assuming it is ok to get all of the modules on a PC before making a base image right? Is there anyway to install these modules, other then from the ESP Console? In other words are then any manual installs for any of these modules? If not, then that means myself or whoever is managing the ESP Console, would have to be contacted by a tech and told they are making a new image and to make sure we push down all the modules BEFORE they gather their image. That could be a potential problem with the number of images, PCs, and techs we have.

Finally, what happens when a PC is imaged? If it was already in the ESP Console and gets reimaged, does the new imaged PC find that old object and just sync up with it? Being a school system, we image PCs fairly often, and I was curious what happens to the PCs in the ESP Console after imaging.

I have been reading a lot and testing various parts of the ESP System. So far I am fairly impressed. However, it seems like there is so much it can do that maintaining and administering it may become a full time job. We have about 15,000 PCs and we don’t really have someone who can administer and monitor this system full time. I am curious to hear from others as to how much time it takes to administer this system. Do most of you only have one person administer and maintain the system or do you have several who work on it?

Thanks for everyones time and look forward to any information and experiences others may be able to provide.

Dennis

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(imported comment written by Supanono91)

If you make an image, some registry keys has to set as blank.

You can also include inside the image a script telling to run the installation of the bes client at the first boot.

EDIT : here is the KB http://support.bigfix.com/cgi-bin/kbdirect.pl?id=127

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(imported comment written by BenKus)

Hello (and welcome to the forum),

Answers:

  • If you forget to follow the instructions in the KB article during imaging, it should be just fine… Just delete the one extra computer it makes and everything else should be fine.

  • BigFix doesn’t care if two computers have the same name… (with the exception that if you decide to run the duplicate computer remover, “computer name” is the default field to detect duplicates http://support.bigfix.com/bes/install/downloadutility.html#bescomputerremove … but even if you do this, the system will recover automatically the next time the computer reports).

  • The BigFix Agent will automatically sync all Fixlet sites with no additional work… all you need to do make sure the BigFix Agent is on the image and then the agent (and the actions you create in the console) will take care of the rest (minimal effort).

  • Reimaged computers are treated as if you grabbed a new computer and put an image on it… It will appear as another computer in the system (and you can remove the old system manually or with that tool that I sent)… We purposefully don’t sync them up right not since we consider a re-imaged computer to be more like a “new computer” and less like a “changed computer” so we think the agent’s history would be misleading.

  • For the “amount of time required to admin BigFix” question, generally it depends a lot on what you want to do with the system and which solutions you decide to use… But after initial install and setup (which should be fairly easy), I would take a guess that a 1/4 person would be all that it takes for BigFix admin/maintenance… but since it varies so much by company and how people use the system, hopefully others can chip in their thoughts…

Ben