We are deploying windows 7 to our entire enterprise. Aproximately 6000 computers. We are 1/3 done.
>There are two main build types they are: Shared and Dedicated
>>For each department/location we have two collections (shared and dedicated)
Our Model Office structure looks like this:
Model office-
shared-
-1st floor
-2nd floor
dedicated-
-1st floor
-2nd floor
>Advertising programs for all computers to model office collection. Shared/dedicated specific applications are advertised to the shared/dedicated collections respectively and any department/location specific stuff is advertised directly to the individual floor/department collections.
>>We use SCCM to deploy Printers, power settings, all applications
There are some issues with this:
A) Power settings must be by query not by collection association because once a computer is removed from the collection the power settings revert
B) there is no easy way to say computers should be removed from collections based on a schedule (that I know of) and we have about 120 collections so far.
C) App needs repackaged because of a bug. Same version. Package requires Reboot after install. All of the computers deployed with "broke" package are manually fixed therefore we don't want the new package to run on the devices already out in the field. We create a new package and collection for the new program. The only way we can currently integrate the new program would be to remove the old advertisement, add the new advertisement AFTER removing every computer for every collection. That way on a going forward basis the new package is run but all existing deploys are not affected.
This could all be made allot easier if:
- we did printer in AD, and printers were assigned via OU and not SCCM packages and collections
- we used AD for power settings
- we used MSI upgrade codes for packages
>My original idea behind model office was that after the win 7 project we would continue to use it. If you are deploying a computer to an area you could put the computer into one collection vs a dozen and that one collection would provide everything that computer would need for that departments tasks.
>At this point I have allot of senior people who are saying that model office is too complicated and should be disbanded. That it is not condusive to our application upgrade process and packaging process and makes it difficult to report on. I would like to instead of advertising directly to the model office collection use a query to say if it is in the model office collection it is also in the application collection. Assuming we keep the same collections over upgrades and revisions it would work well. However the query method isn't flowing from parent to child (allot like power settings). I don't know if this is specific to SCCM 2007 or not.
>Basically it is my fusteration that our non standard way of packaging and our inability to get the package right the first time is becoming our reason for disbanding a good structure that will have value as we continue to support this huge enviornment.
>What are other people doing in standard enviornments? (we have always been non standard, trying to change that)
>TL:DR My hope is that this can turn into a discussion about the best way to do this. But my initial question is, what can we do better? What seems out of place? What suggestions do you have to make this process better.
!!!!!!!!Thank you for your time and consideration in this!!!!!!!!!!!!!