initial thoughts

[brian]

Hello,

We are a medium size company with around 50-60 windows computers, and been looking at Opsi in order to evaluate if it meets our needs any better then the current maze of products (such as unattended, wpkg, custom open source inventory program called lintory). In doing so I need to identify the good parts as well as the not so good parts. So far my observations are (no particular order):

* Many components appear in German, which I can't read. For example, this website defaults to German, I had to guess how to log in as I could not read the prompts for username/password. Also I noticed in the ISO distributed ISO file the default X keyboard map seems to be german layout, making it rather confusing, and the opsi packages, as referenced in the documentation at http://download.uib.de/opsi3.4/produkte/essential are in German.

* The Windows 7 support is of interest to us.
* Similarly, the license management is of interest to us. Later on we might end up trialling both of these. (maybe not right before Christmas...)
* We would be very interested in Linux client support. As the first step, even if this was limited to hardware inventory only (ideally without having to reboot the computer).

Some features we have implemented in our current inventory program, and find very useful, that do not seem to be possible (and some might be difficult to implement in opsi) include:

* The ability to search for computers by mac address.
* Ability to flag duplicated mac addresses.
* Multiple OS installed on one machine. e.g. several of our machines dual boot Windows XP and Windows 7. This might be difficult...
* Removable hard disks. Ok, this starts getting complicated one two of our computers where users can swap hard disks between two identical computers, and raises issues with software licenses. e.g. OEM windows licenses, does a software install count as a software install if the hard disk is removed, etc.
* Ability to specify where each computer is located and print map of which computers are physically located at what location in building.
* Ability to list what department owns the computers and search for all computers based on owner.
* Ability to list who uses what computers and search for computers based on user.
* Ability to track hardware, e.g. laptop power supplies, and answer questions like "Who had that power supply last?" and "what happened to that big expensive graphics card we purchased and was in this machine last year?"
* Ability to list computers that are not being used, with capabilities, e.g. help answer the question "I need X desktop computers, are any of these spare computers sufficient?"

Unfortunately I don't think OPSI supports any of these.

Open question: are multiple networks, each with different IP address range supported? So far I can't see any reason why this shouldn't work, still in early stages of testing however (still need to try and free up hardware to test it out on properly).

Still not sure of the unattended installation (do all Microsoft updates get installed? What about driver support in Windows XP?) however not been able to test this yet.

One of my major complaints with wpkg, it is time consuming trying to keep the central packages list up-to-date with the latest versions of Firefox, Adobe Reader, Flash, Java etc. It seems these products are constantly getting new security updates. Not only that, but some programs occasionally break badly when upgraded and require manual hacking on each computer to fix (eg. PDFcreator - install/upgrade/remove all failed). wpkg doesn't seem to allow testing a product upgrade before making it available company wide either. As a result, updates tend to lapse despite having wpkg to help.

I guess I just like being able to type in "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade" via ssh session to a Debian box and have everything happen automatically. Does opsi do anything to address these problems?

Would be interested in any comments on my feedback.

Thanks
Brian May

[d.oertel]

Hi brian,

Many components appear in German,

We working on this step by step

The focus of opsi is not inventory but putting the essentials of client management together.

So you will find some more inventory features at e.g. the OCS-Inventory project.

Unfortunately I don't think OPSI supports any of these.

Yes that is for the most points correct.
Opsi may track Hardware (but not laptop power supplys)

are multiple networks, each with different IP address range supported?

yes

Still not sure of the unattended installation (do all Microsoft updates get installed? What about driver support in Windows XP?) however not been able to test this yet.

opsi have a own method to make it easy to integrate drivers in the installation. (It is documented at the opsi-manual.)

One of my major complaints with wpkg, it is time consuming trying to keep the central packages list up-to-date with the latest versions of Firefox, Adobe Reader, Flash, Java etc.

We have subscriptions for these products as part of our commercial support. For Testing the product we recommend a test server.

I guess I just like being able to type in "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade" via ssh session to a Debian box and have everything happen automatically. Does opsi do anything to address these problems?

I'm not really sure if I understand what you mean.
The opsi Debian packages can be downloaded and installed by apt-get.
The opsi product packages may downloaded manually or by wget and should be installed by the opsi-package-manager.
A command like apt-get is in development.

regards

d.oertel

[brian]

So you will find some more inventory features at e.g. the OCS-Inventory project.

Does OCS-Inventory work together with OPSI? It would appear I have to maintain two independent systems that both keep track of similar information.

opsi have a own method to make it easy to integrate drivers in the installation. (It is documented at the opsi-manual.)

I am not able to get this to work. On one computer I type in:

fergus:/opt/pcbin/install/winxppro# ./show_drivers.py dell002

PCI-Devices
[Intel Corporation, 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge]
Using build-in windows driver
[Intel Corporation, Mobile 915GM/PM Express PCI Express Root Port]
/opt/pcbin/install/winxppro/drivers/drivers/D/C/I1
[ATI Technologies Inc, M22 [Mobility Radeon X300]]
/opt/pcbin/install/winxppro/drivers/drivers/D/G/A
[Intel Corporation, 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1]
Using build-in windows driver
[Broadcom Corporation, NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express]
/opt/pcbin/install/winxppro/drivers/drivers/D/L/B1
[Intel Corporation, 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1]
Using build-in windows driver
[Intel Corporation, 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2]
Using build-in windows driver
[Intel Corporation, 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3]
Using build-in windows driver
[Intel Corporation, 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4]
Using build-in windows driver
[Intel Corporation, 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller]
Using build-in windows driver
[Intel Corporation, 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller]
Using build-in windows driver
[Texas Instruments, PCI6515 SmartCard Controller]
No driver - device directory '/opt/pcbin/install/winxppro/drivers/pciids/104C/8038' not found
[Intel Corporation, PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network Connection]
/opt/pcbin/install/winxppro/drivers/drivers/D/W/I5
[Intel Corporation, 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge]
Using build-in windows driver
[Texas Instruments, PCI6515 Cardbus Controller]
No driver - device directory '/opt/pcbin/install/winxppro/drivers/pciids/104C/8036' not found
[Intel Corporation, 82801FBM (ICH6M) SATA Controller]
Using build-in windows driver
[Intel Corporation, 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller]
/opt/pcbin/install/winxppro/drivers/drivers/D/S/R1
[Intel Corporation, 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Modem Controller]
No driver - device directory '/opt/pcbin/install/winxppro/drivers/pciids/8086/266D' not found
[Intel Corporation, Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller]
/opt/pcbin/install/winxppro/drivers/drivers/D/C/I1

USB-Devices
[Linux Foundation, UHCI Host Controller]
No driver - vendor directory '/opt/pcbin/install/winxppro/drivers/usbids/1D6B' not found
[Linux Foundation, UHCI Host Controller]
No driver - vendor directory '/opt/pcbin/install/winxppro/drivers/usbids/1D6B' not found
[Linux Foundation, EHCI Host Controller]
No driver - vendor directory '/opt/pcbin/install/winxppro/drivers/usbids/1D6B' not found
[Linux Foundation, UHCI Host Controller]
No driver - vendor directory '/opt/pcbin/install/winxppro/drivers/usbids/1D6B' not found
[Linux Foundation, UHCI Host Controller]
No driver - vendor directory '/opt/pcbin/install/winxppro/drivers/usbids/1D6B' not found

Which appears to be good, except for some drivers (which I don't care about right now). However at least some (maybe all) of these drivers are not installed, e.g. networking isn't there, and I suspect the display drivers aren't installed.

Is there a step I missed?

One of my major complaints with wpkg, it is time consuming trying to keep the central packages list up-to-date with the latest versions of Firefox, Adobe Reader, Flash, Java etc.

We have subscriptions for these products as part of our commercial support. For Testing the product we recommend a test server.

Oh, Ok. Sounds like a good reason to get the subscription then. After testing of course

Is there a list of packages you support under the commercial support?

I guess I just like being able to type in "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade" via ssh session to a Debian box and have everything happen automatically. Does opsi do anything to address these problems?

I'm not really sure if I understand what you mean.
The opsi Debian packages can be downloaded and installed by apt-get.
The opsi product packages may downloaded manually or by wget and should be installed by the opsi-package-manager.
A command like apt-get is in development.

Good question. Not sure what I meant now either. I guess I want to ensure the opsi product packages are kept up-to-date, and as such you answered my question.

Thanks

Brian May

[d.oertel]

Hi,

Does OCS-Inventory work together with OPSI?

The projects are in contact and discussing about information interchange standards.
At the other side, both projects have long history and very different roots
(opsi= software and OS deployment; ocs= inventory) so it is not easy to put these things together.
So in fact we are partly 'friendly competitors' .

Driver integration:

I am not able to get this to work.

Your listing looks like you are using the driverpacks.net.
This is a good idea but is often not enough.
So for example your network card is a broadcom:

Code: Alles auswählen

[Broadcom Corporation, NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express]
/opt/pcbin/install/winxppro/drivers/drivers/D/L/B1

The driver is a (i supose) a orginal Broadcom driver. These chips are often customized by the manufacturers so that the original drivers doesn't work any more. Therefore put the driver of your laptop manufacturer to the preferred directory and run create_driver_links.py again.

Is there a list of packages you support under the commercial support?

Have look at:
http://uib.de/en/opsi%20support/index.html
Attention: This Informations are outdated and will be updated in the next 2 weeks.

regards

d.oertel