Hardware logistics may be a simple issue for some, but for larger deployments the logistics of
handling the physical hardware can be a major undertaking. This section explores the ramifications
of deploying new hardware and guides you through the process of estimating and
planning the deployment of new hardware and the disposal of the hardware you are replacing.
Infrastructure Considerations
First, you must determine whether your infrastructure is equipped to handle the new or
additional computers you intend to deploy. If, during your rollout, you discover that your
infrastructure doesn’t have the power, cooling, or bandwidth capacity to support your
new computers, you will be faced with an additional costly infrastructure upgrade that
you didn’t see coming, or your deployment will fail. With proper planning, however, this
scenario can be avoided.
Power Infrastructure
Apple and Intel have made great strides toward minimizing the power requirements for
Macintosh computers. Nevertheless, the demand for higher-performance equipment is
driving power requirements for computers ever higher, and the additional peripherals
in your new system will also draw from your power infrastructure. Further, the electrical
systems of many older buildings were not designed for modern computing environments.
Even if you’re using infrastructure that supported your previous computing resources, you
should double-check the power requirements for your new hardware and make sure that
your infrastructure can handle the load.
Planning Usage Management
You can spend weeks perfecting your deployment system configuration, but without a
proper usage management plan all that work will be in vain. Unavoidably, users will attempt
to make changes to your deployed computers, or they may unintentionally install software
that can negatively affect your systems. To ensure the continued health of your deployed
computers, you should develop usage policies and a plan to enforce those policies.
Usage Policies
Computer usage policies vary from nonexistent to draconian. The level of detail and restriction
defined in a usage policy has more to do with the type and size of the organization than
with technical details. The larger the number of deployed systems, the more rules need to be
in place to keep problems under control. Thus, smaller organizations tend to have more liberal
usage policies, and larger organizations tend to require more control. Also, different types of
users often require different usage policies. For example, the policies for an open computer lab
will probably be much stricter than the policies for individual faculty and staff computers. As a
result, you will most likely have separate usage policies for different situations.
If your organization already has usage policies, you should take time to evaluate those policies
for your new deployment. As technology changes, new features are introduced that your previous
usage policies may not address. For instance, all new Macs come standard with wireless
networking and Bluetooth; will you allow all your users to have access to these new features?
There is no best plan for defining usage policies, but the following list presents main categories
that you will need to consider when creating or updating your computer usage policies:
- Computer access Policies should define acceptable use of computing resources,
including who has access to which computers.
- Software Policies should define which applications are required and allowed. Many
policies also restrict usage to only an approved list of applications.
- Peripherals Policies should define acceptable use of peripherals, including which
peripherals are allowed. Many organizations require strict policies when it comes to
the use of shared printers in order to minimize costs.
- Storage Policies should define acceptable use of storage, including storage permissions
and usage quotas. Your storage policies should also dictate where the users’ home folders
will reside. Storage security is also something that should be part of your usage policies.
- Network access Policies should define acceptable use of network access, including
which users and computers have access to your network resources and access to wireless
networks or secure networks via VPN connections. Policies should also define
regulations regarding how to deal with rogue network activity.
- Shared network resources Policies should define acceptable use of shared network
resources such as file servers, internal websites, and network printers. Many organizations
have strict policies regarding the use of communication systems in particular.
The point of creating comprehensive usage policies is to define enforceable rules that
must be followed by the computer users, so it’s vital that management agree on and support
them so they can be enforced.
Policy Distribution
It’s also important that the users be made aware of and agree to your usage policies, so
you must have a plan to distribute those policies to the users. Laws differ from region to
region, but having users agree to the usage policies may give management more power to
enforce those policies.
One option is to have users actually sign a paper contract before they are allowed to use
your computer equipment. Although this provides an easily enforceable document, it also
creates paperwork. Further, any time you change the usage policies, you will have to have
users sign new paper contracts.
A very popular trend in recent years is to have users agree to usage policies electronically.
For example, nearly every web-based service uses an electronic agreement system during
the sign-up process. The service provider can then easily update its usage policies at any
time, making the system redisplay the usage agreement for the user the next time the user
wants access to the service. There are many ways to implement this sort of scheme using
different authentication systems. Perhaps the most popular method when using Mac OS X
is to modify the login window using client management settings as described in the following
section, “Policy Enforcement.”
Policy Enforcement
Just because users have agreed to your usage policies doesn’t mean they will follow them.
Fortunately, Mac OS X includes several built-in technologies that allow you to enforce usage
policies at the system level. Planning and configuring these usage enforcement technologies
will be a major part of your system deployment. Mac OS X offers five primary technologies
that can be used to enforce usage policies: user account management, home folder management,
file system permissions, authorization management, and client management.
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