Computer Hardware and Network Upgrade- 20 or so computers

[abracadabra1]

I was just recently approached by a friend of mine who is the head of a local mortgage company about doing a job for her- upgrading her 20 or so computers. In her office, she has about 20 or 30 computers (all p200 or slower, running win95) which are connected via a network and connected to the internet by a server and t1 or dsl connection.

The job would be pretty hefty (for me at least) and it would include hardware upgrades for all computers (including the server), as well as software and OS upgrades. Networking uggrades are also very possible but I haven't gotten a chance to check it out yet.

Doing the hardware uggrades will be the easiest part and I'm not concerned about them. However, the OS and networking upgrades will be pretty difficult. If she has computers running Win95 and wishes to upgrade those computers to Win2000, how exactly would I go about upgrading the OS once I put together the new computers? Installation of the OS obviously wouldn't be a problem, but what about getting the computers back to how they were with the files and software it was using? This part seems pretty difficult, any suggestions/ideas/comments??

Setup of the server would be another difficulty. I'd opt for Win2K Server but setting everything up is totally out of my league, for now at least. Any suggestions for literature pertaining to Server setup? Mind you, this doesn't have to be the most secure server, but it does have to be able to login multiple clients, act as a firewall (any suggestions for firewall? I believe they currently have wingate), share files on the network (e.g. quickbooks, mornet, word).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

thx

I have a couple of months before the job would need to be done, so I am trying to get ready for it as much as I can. If i'm not able to, then I'll just have to back out...but I would hate to when I have this great opportunity at hand.

 

[AKA]

The biggest problem will probably be getting their software to run in Win2000. It will probably be a safer bet to upgrade them to Win98. The OS upgrade and networking upgrade shouldnt be any problem. Its actually the hardware upgrades that are gonna be a problem with machines that old. All are obviously going to be AT cases, which means no realistic room for upgrade unless going to AMD 500 or something. As Intel upgrade path on AT cases only reach P233mmx.. they went ATX after that. Better off giving the important stations new computers and only upgrading the lower end stations.

Your gonna have to find out all the software they use and see if its supported by Win2K pro. Obviously security isnt paramount because they have Win95.. so the money they save upgrading to Win98 as opposed to getting Win2K can be used on some new systems.

Is their software supported by later OS's, is there an upgrade path for their software?

Does the software run locally or off of their server?

What kind of network do they have?

Your not going to be able to knock all that out at once. Do each machine individually so you have others to look at for settings. And record the settings on each machine locally.. example of settings to look for:

shared folders
shared printers
Protocols, IP addresses
Workgroup name.. are they logging into the server?
Computer names

Then you have to go into the software programs they use and record all those settings, make note of where they are saving their information to. Locally or on server?

There are alot of things you might have to do depending on their existing setup.

 

[macssuck]

Right now im replacing about 15 machines(166 or slower with 95or98) with new ones with win 2k pro and what I did was copy all of thier docs and e-mail up to the server and copy it onto the new machine its been pretty easy so far just make sure you search for all the dcomument types they use on there old machines even if they tell you its all in my docs(your lucky if they know where they are) because they WILL come whining saying you lost thier stuff.

 

[abracadabra1]

thx for the tips fellas.

A.K.A.
your post was outstanding. i'll be checking their setup soon and will post here again. if it's ok with you, I'll PM you when I do. Hopefully she has only a fairly difficult setup so I learn something, but am still able to do it.

 

[ScottMac]

Depending on they way they operate the network, you may be able to configure one master machine, then use something like Ghost to configure the rest of a group. The Enterprise version lets you set up multicast server, and create a boot disk for the machine to be updated. You boot the disk, it finds the multicast server, and sucks down the image...meanwhile, you've booted another machine, and another...and so on. It's about as painless as an upgrade can get.

There are also provisions to increment the IP address for each additional machine as it's imaged. If you've backed up the data from that machine to a server...Ghost the new image on, then suck the old data back from the server.

This would also be an excellent time to evaluate their IP addressing scheme and rearrange it if necessary to make future growth easier to deal with.

FWIW

Scott

 

[TBP]

build a linux firewall/gateway machine with one of her old computer;

you have to decide the architecture first, client-server or just peer-to-peer? Do you (or she) really need a server? If the server is only there for internet sharing then it is not necessary.


and the most important - upgrade the MONITORS, everyone in the office (except for the boss maybe) will like you.

 

[PELarson]

Basically what I am doing for the 7 Dell's with exactly the same hardware at the company I work for is..

1 - A copy of Drive Image Pro and 75 licenses.

2 - A copy of Sysprep

3 - Install a base image of the OS, install all current service packs, install all drivers, install any networking software. Setup any group policies you want.

4 - Image the PC.

5 - Start installing and testing the common applications, settings. Once they are all installed and work image the computer again. GO back to the original image or setup another image depending on the problems found. Have users use the PC.

6 - Work on configuring sysprep, you can make it as automated as you want. It may take several runs of sysprep to get everything set to your needs.

8 - Take a image of the computer after running sysprep.

9 - Apply the image to the PC's. After the mini-setup has run, add any individual programs etal. to the PC.

This will get more involved with different configurations.

Have fun!

 

[bignick]

I just did a similiar job (12 computers and 1 server). I told my client to go and order the PC's themselves from one vendor (dell, gateway or a local vendor), based on a configuration I gave them (PIII 800, 128meg ram, 10gb HD, 17" monitor, etc.). They went with a local vendor for the PC's and Dell for the server(PIII 866, 256 megs of ram, tape drive, UPS, etc.). I had them get the server first and I set it up. I ran it in parallel with the existing server (just a modified PC). After about a week, when they were happy I took the old server offline. It's running windows 2000 server. Their internet connection is DSL, being shared by a 4 port dsl router. The pc's came from dell with win2k and norton antivirus on them. Before I put their new pc's out, I made everyone use the server for all storage needs, which is what they should have been doing with the other server. Installed all the apps they needed on the pc's and it took me about a 1.5 weeks to migrate them over. Everything's been running fine for the past 2 months. Make sure to test their software with win2k before going to it. I found one package they had that needed to be upgraded to the newest version to function correctly. In all the project took about a month from ordering equipment, to putting it in place.

 

[abracadabra1]

thx for the replies bud.
I think i'll be configuring the 20 computers myself rather than having a vendor do it so that I can make some money off of parts as well.

I really liked PELarson's route w/ the drive imaging. Could you expand a little more on the software? Or is it fairly rudimentary?

thx again.

still welcoming suggetions and experiences

 

[CTR]

<< I think i'll be configuring the 20 computers myself rather than having a vendor do it so that I can make some money off of parts as well. >>



Congratulations, you are now married to this network.:Q

Seriously, when something goes wrong with a Dell, the customer can call Dell. If you build a PC and it breaks, the customer will hold you responsible. Even if you can pass the cost of replacement or warranty work over to the manufacturer, you have to spend your personal time doing it. You already have a contract written up for this, right? Do that first and get the customer to agree to it before you start working. And have the customer sign something once the work is complete so you know when you're done. Also get something in writing from the customer stating that all future repairs and upgrades are beyond the scope of the current contract, and will be billed at the time such work is performed. With the proper boundaries, this type of network support can be financially rewarding and not too much work.

 

[abracadabra1]

hey there CTR

I changed my mind today about building all 20 computers. I'll probably get them from a vendor like Dell because of the time involved in building them and also because of the things you mentioned.

 

[abracadabra1]

hey there PELarson

I'm just wondering how I get an image from the initial imaged comp to other cloned comps. Am I able to apply an image in DOS w/ the software included in DiskImage on the PC that is to be cloned? How does it work?

Only a brief explanation is necessary. I just need to get an idea of how it would work and think about any problems I may run into.

I think I would upload the image from the 'imaged' computer to the server. How do I get that image on the other computers though? Do I need to install DiskImage in Win2000 and apply the image from there? Sort of like Partition Magic?

thx again

 

[abracadabra1]

Also, do you have any experience with Migration Manager from Powerquest? Is it problematic or would it too also help transitioning from Win95 to Win2000 with as little problems as possible?

thx

 

[PELarson]

<< hey there PELarson

I'm just wondering how I get an image from the initial imaged comp to other cloned comps. Am I able to apply an image in DOS w/ the software included in DiskImage on the PC that is to be cloned? How does it work?

Only a brief explanation is necessary. I just need to get an idea of how it would work and think about any problems I may run into.

I think I would upload the image from the 'imaged' computer to the server. How do I get that image on the other computers though? Do I need to install DiskImage in Win2000 and apply the image from there? Sort of like Partition Magic?

thx again >>



Yes, you have a good handle on the basics. Drive Image Pro and Ghost have programs that will create a set of bootable disks that can connect to your server.

 

[PELarson]

<< I really liked PELarson's route w/ the drive imaging. Could you expand a little more on the software? Or is it fairly rudimentary? >>



The imaging software is very easy to use. Drive Image or Ghost are excellent imaging programs, either will do the job. You can download evaluation versions of both and sysprep can be obtained from Microsoft.

 

[abracadabra1]

thx a lot bud.
bought drive image pro 4 yesterday but wasn't able to find migration manager.

going to fiddle around with it and check how it works.

 

[abracadabra1]

how well does the powercast server in drive image pro work?
does the network get really clogged when you're sending to 10 computers at once?

does the pqprep proggie included w/ drive image pro do the job of installing and configuring sysprep so that it's not needed?

thx

 

[PELarson]

<< how well does the powercast server in drive image pro work?
does the network get really clogged when you're sending to 10 computers at once?

does the pqprep proggie included w/ drive image pro do the job of installing and configuring sysprep so that it's not needed?

thx >>



Sorry, no idea about the powercast server. I haven't used pqprep, but I know Norton recommends using sysprep for Windows 2000 over its own version.

 

[abracadabra1]

thx again

 

[abracadabra1]

the setup's going to be changed so that the server isn't upgraded.
only the client machines.

will the server have trouble w/ the new win2000 clients? or will migration manager handle that rather well??

thx