Win 2000 RIS???

[Teamaker]

Advice please

Whenever i read MS documents on installing Win 2000 on a network they always go off on a tangent about using RIS to install my 1000+ clients, as we do not have a massive network (200 stations) i would like some suggestions on what the best way is.

How do other companies go about mass rollouts from win98 to 2000?
Any opinions.

Disk images? or is RIS the best way to go

I would appreciate any insight. Thanks.

 

[GlenJohnson]

Whenever i read MS documents on installing Win 2000 on a network

Those documents are written becaus MS WANTS you to upgrade all machines. We're using mostly W98se with no problems. True, MS is going to stop supporting it in a while, but personally, I don't see a need to do a mass upgrade. Just my 2 cents worth. Glen A. Johnson
Johnson Computer Consulting
MCP W2K
glen@johnsoncomputers.us

Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884
"Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything,
we ought to know a little about everything."
Blaise Pascal

 

[haveman]

If you have a lot of the same workstations (hardware) then i advice using GHOST (it is faster to roll-out).

When not, use RIS. Building the ris image for your network (including adding APPS etc.) is very time consuming (when you want to do it right the first time).

Take your time for this, build, test (as a user, not admin), build again, test with couple of users, roll-out...

Regards, Ferdinand

 

[Teamaker]

Thanks for the reply guys.

 

[rrsub]

Definitely use ghost just because of the other software installs. RIS only works with PXE nics anyway.

If you use MS software packages, be sure to use transform files to make customization easier.