[itdiscuss] Mac Automations

[Phillips, Paul]

We all operate on ever-changing networks.  Printers may change or
drivers updated; new file shares may become available; new resources and
services are added or updated.  Microsoft makes the management of these
changes across a network fairly easy.  Through tools like Active
Directory, VBS, WMI, etc., a network administrator can control available
resources for a given Windows workstation.  Macs are seemingly not as
easy to manage on a large scale.

 

As an example, I recently upgraded all of our copiers.  Of course, the
drivers for these copiers had to be installed for each workstation.  On
my Windows workstations, this was easy.  I simply updated the drivers on
my print server, and the workstations all updated themselves.  On my
Macs, the story was not so painless.  I had to go to each workstation
individually and install the drivers manually.  Not that I have hundreds
of Mac workstations to update, but it was still a pain to coordinate
when I could access each workstation.

 

This is just one example of many changes that occur on any of our
networks over the course of a business year.  As more networks become
saturated with Macs, one of two things has to occur - either we find and
use tools that automate these kinds of changes on a Mac as easily as it
already is on a Windows workstation, or we increase our administrative
overhead by hiring more staff.  What tools do you use to push network
configuration changes out to your Mac users?  

 

 

Paul Phillips

IT Manager

 

(770) 458-9300 x305

pphillips at walkthru.org

 

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