Managing School Computers

There are now over 350 Laptops in use in the Connect School. Maintenance was always going to become an issue so we have a policy of "rebuild & return"
We use Google Apps as well as Moodle so documents should already be stored online - this allows us to rebuild without fear of loosing data.
Each time a new consignment of Laptops is rolled out a master disc is created by the suppliers which we use for rebuilding. This solution can only work for so long because of Windows Updates, new software requirements, antivirus updates etc.

What's really needed is an Operating System Build Server. This Computer would store Operating System images for each hardware iteration in use. Then systems which fail can be rebuilt from these images. But the problem of adding updates and new software remains.

We've made some progress lately in resolving this. Using an Open Source program called Clonezilla, a base system was copied to a 16 Gigabyte USB and then used to rebuild another system which was blue-screening - it failed to boot and stalled at the notorious BSOD or Blue Screen Of Death.

Clonezilla can also be used to "massively clone", that is to build 50 to 100 systems simultaneously over a network. Now that we have the Clonezilla Live working - one-to-one system cloning - we will next be looking at Clonezilla Server to build multiple cloned systems at once.

Clonezilla Live for one-to-one cloning works like this:

You will need: 1 up-to-date system, 1 damaged system, 2 usb keys.

To copy a "good" system:

1. You create a Clonezilla Live Bootable USB Drive.
2. You enable the Base System (Good) to boot off USB in the bios by hitting the relevant Function Key , usually F10 or F12, during startup.
   
3. Boot Base System from USB and follow onscreen instructions.
4. Insert another high capacity USB Drive (I used a 16 Gb USB stick)
5. Good system will be copied onto High Capacity USB and checked.
6. Power down system and remove USBs

To rebuild a "bad" system:

1. You enable the Damaged System (bad) to boot off USB in the bios by hitting the relevant Function Key , usually F10 or F12, during startup.
2. Boot Damaged System from USB and follow onscreen instructions.
3. Insert high capacity USB Drive containing good build when required.
   
4. Good system will be copied onto Bad System hard drive and checked
5. Power down system and remove USBs
6. Boot "bad" system and hey presto, system is restored!!

The procedure above took a total of 20 minutes, 15 to copy the good system and 5 to rebuild the bad system. It used to take 2 and a half hours to rebuild laptops and someone had to be present to ok the various options presented. Clonezilla is an excellent tool for unattended cloning.

Over the next few days one iteration of each Laptop Hardware type will be completely updated and an image created and stored in the manner described above. Then we plan to deploy a Clonezilla Server and test build multiple Laptops over a network.

I'll post on progress as it happens. In the meantime I highly recommend Clonezilla for managing Computers especially in a School Environment where resources are tight.