1. Support for Laptops at RAL John Gordon HEPNT, SLAC October 1999

2. October ‘99HEPNT Fall ‘99 What are the Problems? All Laptops are different –More configuration needed –Search for drivers All Home Computers are different SMS incompatible with home use –cannot distinguish between LAN and dialup use –downloads and uploads too much data for dialup

3. October ‘99HEPNT Fall ‘99 What are the Problems? Without SMS, –software gets out of date –software can become insecure –need physical access to update

4. October ‘99HEPNT Fall ‘99 What is our Solution? Initial install using boot floppy and netware server –like desktops Then install laptop device drivers Manually configure for mode of use Forget about it If user wants software updated, require physical access –expert user with admin rights can update software –but most don’t RAS dialup is good otherwise

5. October ‘99HEPNT Fall ‘99 Does it Work? No! SMS is our chosen method of software installation and update SMS communicates whenever machine appears on network –inventory can generate 10MB –installation packages can be much bigger Without SMS inventory no record of out-of-date or insecure machines

6. October ‘99HEPNT Fall ‘99 What Else Can We Do? Can we tailor SMS to only react when laptop is connected to LAN? Software has been packaged for unattended installation via SMS, can we use SMS packages to install manually?