Roll out 8 training laptops
Discussion
Hi,
So here's a quick question. I've been out of this for about a decade or so but I remember it being straightforward.
We've got about 8 fairly hefty laptops (16GB RAM, i7, 256GB SSD) that we use for training purposes. We would like to be able to reset these on a regular basis.
There's two routes I'm thinking:
I'm not expecting a solution to cost several hundreds and we have nice batch of 256GB SSD drives on hand.
My idea would be: some sort of software that allows me to clone the image of the machine, probably reboots and then starts some clone boot thingy (like I said, I did this countless times over a decade ago but that's a long time to not do it
). It would then clone to a 256GB SSD in a USB container.
I would then plug that USB drive in the next machine, it would boot from there and starts cloning to that machine, effectively resetting it.
I have no interest in any of the data on these machines.
My main goals: ease of use (not all trainers are computer experts, but a handful of steps are easy enough to follow) and speed (I'm thinking SSD to USB 3.0 SSD should do the trick?).
Can you guys point me in the right direction in terms of software (and maybe hardware but I think I've got that locked down)?
Also, is the cloning still bit by bit? So does it matter if it needs to do a 256GB disk that has 50GB of data or a 100GB disk with 50GB? In which case I would partition it just to speed up the process.
Thanks in advance for your help!
PS: The machines are windows-based.
So here's a quick question. I've been out of this for about a decade or so but I remember it being straightforward.
We've got about 8 fairly hefty laptops (16GB RAM, i7, 256GB SSD) that we use for training purposes. We would like to be able to reset these on a regular basis.
There's two routes I'm thinking:
- a built-in backup in the machine that could be restored at will (the laptops will be using >100GB on data, so easily enough space)
- a USB device we could plug in that resets the machine
I'm not expecting a solution to cost several hundreds and we have nice batch of 256GB SSD drives on hand.
My idea would be: some sort of software that allows me to clone the image of the machine, probably reboots and then starts some clone boot thingy (like I said, I did this countless times over a decade ago but that's a long time to not do it
). It would then clone to a 256GB SSD in a USB container.I would then plug that USB drive in the next machine, it would boot from there and starts cloning to that machine, effectively resetting it.
I have no interest in any of the data on these machines.
My main goals: ease of use (not all trainers are computer experts, but a handful of steps are easy enough to follow) and speed (I'm thinking SSD to USB 3.0 SSD should do the trick?).
Can you guys point me in the right direction in terms of software (and maybe hardware but I think I've got that locked down)?
Also, is the cloning still bit by bit? So does it matter if it needs to do a 256GB disk that has 50GB of data or a 100GB disk with 50GB? In which case I would partition it just to speed up the process.
Thanks in advance for your help!
PS: The machines are windows-based.
Deep Freeze will do all that.
I've used it before for 80+ loan laptops that are reset upon reboot.
https://www.faronics.com/en-uk/products/deep-freez...
I've used it before for 80+ loan laptops that are reset upon reboot.
https://www.faronics.com/en-uk/products/deep-freez...
You can do what you want with Macrium. You can sort of cheat by using the free edition on each PC or do it properly with the centrally administered SIte Manager version for £415.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
https://www.macrium.com/products/business/site-bac...
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
https://www.macrium.com/products/business/site-bac...
Mr Pointy said:
You can do what you want with Macrium. You can sort of cheat by using the free edition on each PC or do it properly with the centrally administered SIte Manager version for £415.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
https://www.macrium.com/products/business/site-bac...
Looks to be the ticket! Two Home License four packs @250 EUR seems great.https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
https://www.macrium.com/products/business/site-bac...
I'll try the free version in a week or two!
Thanks in advance.
Will the trainers be holding these laptops most of the time, or will they be returning to your admins ?
If there are only 8 machines a zero-cost option is to create a regular user account in Windows for training use, and when time comes for a reset just erase that user account (with files) and then create a new account for the next training sessions.
Updates won't be interfered with, and it'd only be necessary once in a blue moon to remove the deleted users directories from the windows directory as the directory would be empty after removing the user anyway so wouldn't take up any storage space.
It's something your trainers could be trained to do and given a step-by-step guide. It'd remove tasks for IT admins and as mentioned it's zero-cost.
But maybe it wouldn't meet all your requirements ?
If there are only 8 machines a zero-cost option is to create a regular user account in Windows for training use, and when time comes for a reset just erase that user account (with files) and then create a new account for the next training sessions.
Updates won't be interfered with, and it'd only be necessary once in a blue moon to remove the deleted users directories from the windows directory as the directory would be empty after removing the user anyway so wouldn't take up any storage space.
It's something your trainers could be trained to do and given a step-by-step guide. It'd remove tasks for IT admins and as mentioned it's zero-cost.
But maybe it wouldn't meet all your requirements ?
Corso Marche said:
Will the trainers be holding these laptops most of the time, or will they be returning to your admins ?
If there are only 8 machines a zero-cost option is to create a regular user account in Windows for training use, and when time comes for a reset just erase that user account (with files) and then create a new account for the next training sessions.
Updates won't be interfered with, and it'd only be necessary once in a blue moon to remove the deleted users directories from the windows directory as the directory would be empty after removing the user anyway so wouldn't take up any storage space.
It's something your trainers could be trained to do and given a step-by-step guide. It'd remove tasks for IT admins and as mentioned it's zero-cost.
But maybe it wouldn't meet all your requirements ?
We're a 6-head operation, so not really an IT department and the trainers are the admins If there are only 8 machines a zero-cost option is to create a regular user account in Windows for training use, and when time comes for a reset just erase that user account (with files) and then create a new account for the next training sessions.
Updates won't be interfered with, and it'd only be necessary once in a blue moon to remove the deleted users directories from the windows directory as the directory would be empty after removing the user anyway so wouldn't take up any storage space.
It's something your trainers could be trained to do and given a step-by-step guide. It'd remove tasks for IT admins and as mentioned it's zero-cost.
But maybe it wouldn't meet all your requirements ?
.But, the training is mainly around the software, and some trainings include installing it. For a number of the actions Admin priveleges are required anyway so wouldn't be a viable option because of that.
I do still like the idea of having another partition with the clone that could be reset on reboot/with the click of a button.
The Windows update issue is worth considering though. If you take an image & then Windows updates you'll lose those updates when you restore. It's one reason for looking at the Business level offering with central management as you can easily take new images after an update. You can do this with the home level software but you need to do it on each machine individually.
Some Sony Vaios had a button on them that would reinstall Windows from a recovery partition. It took a day to get all the updates again, as we found out.
Some Sony Vaios had a button on them that would reinstall Windows from a recovery partition. It took a day to get all the updates again, as we found out.
ZesPak said:
....the training is mainly around the software, and some trainings include installing it. For a number of the actions Admin priveleges are required anyway so wouldn't be a viable option because of that.
I do still like the idea of having another partition with the clone that could be reset on reboot/with the click of a button.
You can always have two admin accounts. The trainer's use one password protected admin account, the trainees use a second disposable admin account. 😉I do still like the idea of having another partition with the clone that could be reset on reboot/with the click of a button.
Again, no updates or essential installations get lost.
djfaulkner said:
What OS are the laptops running?
Could you use something like Hyper-V?
I was on a Windows server course last year and we just used the Virtual Machines and then restored them at the end of each day.
They are running win 10.Could you use something like Hyper-V?
I was on a Windows server course last year and we just used the Virtual Machines and then restored them at the end of each day.
The problem with Hyper V is that, while these are well overspecced machines, the software is GPU and RAM intensive. The high spec of the machine makes the whole training a lot faster and smoother and Hyper V provides a not insignificant amount of overhead.
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