W2000 at Saclay Joël Surget CEA/Saclay DAPNIA/SEI

Summary A pure W2000 domain Group policy Products Configuration Computer startup script User startup script MUI : Problems DFS : Problems Conclusions

A Pure W2000 Domain (1/2) A new domain 2 DCs, one domain DNS, one domain DFS Root, one file server Only W2000 clients Only English version (with French language pack if necessary)

A Pure W2000 Domain (2/2) Try to use the max. of W2000 functionalities No SMS No time to try it ! Cost User  local “Power Users” (no local administrators privileges) All based on the group policies

The Organization Unit OU = Green PC Default configuration No product, no startup script OU = Orange PC OU = Laptop OU = Desktop OU = Red PC OU = Laptop OU = Desktop

Default Configuration Audit policy and Event log policy IP : Primary DNS Suffix IE : Favorites Folder redirection: My documents  network location Laptop : “My documents” is “offline folders” Roaming profiles: Exclude some directories ( Local Settings, Temporary Internet Files …)

Products (1/2) Assigned or published with Group Policy Official MSI Office 2000 (  MST for laptops and desktops) Assigned to computer MS Publisher / Windows Draw (Published) MS Project 2000 (Published) Perl (Published)

Products (2/2) Handmade MSI (Windows Install LE) Assigned to the computer: GV, Acrobat Reader, HPGL Viewer … McAfee Published to the user Exceed 6.2 Emacs Netscape Root …

Computer Startup Script (1/6) Run before the user login But run after products installation With local administrators privileges With network access Domain Computers : Read on the network files (in the Authenticated Users group by default) Any script languages (VBS…)

Computer Startup Script (2/6) Can ask questions ! To do everything you can’t do with Group policies Hot fixes and Service Packs IP Configuration Registry keys Test …

Computer Startup Script (3/6) First boot after joining the domain (test a special registry key) SP1 (if necessary) French Language Pack Add “Domain Users” group in local “Power Users” group Modify IP configuration Create c:\temp directory Reboot (using WMI)

Computer Startup Script (4/6) Each reboot Hot fixes (if necessary) Bugs correction (if necessary)

Computer Startup Script (5/6) Several scripts in the same group policy (You can choose the order) Several group policies for the same computer : each script one by one You can also have shutdown script

Computer Startup Script (6/6) The products are installed before the scripts execution  Problem ? The SP1 is for example installed after the installation of the products: Can be a problem

User Startup Script Run with user privileges and environment Default user environment Map network disk J:  new home directory (backup, quotas) K:  scratch directory (no backup, no quotas) N:  old NT4 domain home directory

Group Policies : Problems The group policies are applied during the first reboot after the PC is a member of the domain Sometimes, it works fine Sometimes, you need to reboot one or two times before the application of the group policy Why ? Same if a Group Policy is modified

MUI : Multi Language Interface On an English version of W2000, the MUI changes the user interface language (95% of the menus, help …) Only one version of W2000 on an heterogeneous domain French, English … language for the interface The same for Office 2000

MUI: But … Microsoft Developers tend to forget this product: After SP1 installation, mix of French and English menu ( hot fix available now) After IE 5.5 installation, mix of French and English menu (no hot fix yet)

MUI: But … The default NT group names are modified Everyone  “Tout le monde” Administrators  Administrateurs Problem with script ( “cacls” for ex.) But the default user names are not modified (administrator, guest…)

Problem with DFS Offline folders and DFS Files are often de-synchronized Offline Folder, DFS and Security The synchronized files have not the good permissions DFS and Home directory Problem if the home directory and a network disk use the same DFS root

Conclusion (1/2) Each W2000 new feature is working fine separately But we have some problems using several new features together

Conclusion (2/2) People are quite happy with Nice NT and don’t want to change to W PCs now, 50 at the end of November Physicists are using Linux more and more Less and less physics on Windows