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Altiris Inc.s Deployment Solution 6.5 creates disk images, distributes applications, provides remote control and executes scripted jobs on a variety of operating system platforms for servers and client systems alike.
Click here to read the full review of Altiris Deployment Solution 6.5.
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Altiris Inc.s Deployment Solution 6.5 creates disk images, distributes applications, provides remote control and executes scripted jobs on a variety of operating system platforms for servers and client systems alike.
Deployment Solution 6.5, which started shipping in September, supports VMware Inc.s ESX Server server virtualization product. IT managers who are contemplating data center server consolidation should place Deployment Solution 6.5 at the top of their evaluation list.
During tests, eWEEK Labs used Deployment Solution 6.5 to quickly deploy ESX Server images to systems and then script the installation of operating systems to the virtual machines that we created on the ESX Server host.
Weve become old pros at installing ESX Server in a minimal amount of time, but Deployment Solution 6.5 basically halved installation time in our tests. Similarly, installing operating systems on the VMs took about a quarter of the time needed to accomplish the same task manually (although we are big fans of cloning VMs, which is even faster than using scripts from Deployment Solution 6.5).
We recommend that IT managers weight the labor savings mentioned above more heavily than the per-managed-node license costs. Even so, Deployment Solution 6.5 for Clients has a very reasonable price of $47 per node, while the server version is $173 per node. Altogether, shops that were using manual procedures to install and update operating systems, applications and even patches will likely see substantial operating cost reductions by implementing Deployment Solution 6.5.
Altiris Deployment Solution 6.5 basically leverages its Deployment Agent on Linux to get ESX images onto systems. The scripts to start, stop and suspend VMs on the ESX host are cool, but theyre not revolutionary. Although we are enthusiastic about the VMware support—more on that in a moment—we think Deployment Solution 6.5 isnt that far ahead of competitors, including LANDesk Software Inc.s Management Suite and Symantec Corp.s Ghost Solution Suite.
Altiris Deployment Solution 6.5 is the first operating system deployment tool weve seen that goes out of its way to accommodate specific ESX Server host and VM management. We think VMwares importance in enterprise computing will only increase for the foreseeable future, and we laud Altiris for making a very good first effort to provide functionality specifically for ESX Server.
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To the test
We installed deployment Solution 6.5 twice: first in stand-alone mode and then incorporating Altiris Notification Server (available separately). Notification Server facilitated the multiple Deployment Solution 6.5 servers we installed to test scalability.
In an interesting recursive twist, we tested the new ESX Server capabilities by first installing Deployment Solution 6.5 on a VM running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition that was hosted on a dual-processor system running ESX Server.
In one round of tests, we cloned new Windows Server 2003 servers on the ESX Server host. After installing the Altiris client, which is required on all managed nodes, we were able to run a variety of scripted jobs that were shipped with Deployment Solution 6.5. The sample jobs allowed us to start, stop and suspend both individual VMs and groups of them.
Deployment Solution 6.5 for Clients is similar in almost every regard to the server version. The same Windows- and Web-based consoles are available, and both products can be centrally controlled and generate reports in Notification Server.
New in this version of Deployment Solution is integration of Altiris Wise Package Studio, designed to support custom application packaging. For organizations that have significant numbers of custom applications that lack .msi format installation capabilities, the Wise Package Studio technology is a nice addition.
We used Wise Package Studio to create a custom installation of the latest version of WinZip International LLCs WinZip compression utility and then deployed WinZip to our Windows XP desktop systems.
We used Deployment Solution 6.5s new digital signature feature to ensure secure communication between the clients and the server. Although this might be overkill for most organizations, security-conscious enterprises will likely find the digital signature authentication to be a compelling reason to evaluate Deployment Solution 6.5.
When looking at Deployment Solution 6.5, or any other server and client deployment solution for that matter, it is essential for IT managers to identify exactly what functions the product must perform. This is because Deployment Solution 6.5 and all its competitors offer slightly different additional features. For example, Deployment Solution 6.5 offers remote control, and when used in conjunction with Notification Server and the appropriate support license, the product also performs patch management.
Given the relatively low license cost and potentially large time savings, Deployment Solution 6.5, with its bonuses such as remote control, will likely be a boon to strapped IT groups.
Next page: Evaluation Shortlist: Related Products.
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Evaluation Shortlist
LANDesk Softwares LANDesk Management Suite Provides closely matched features, so IT managers should angle to get the best price per seat possible (www.landesk.com)
Symantecs Ghost Solution This suite combines one of the best-known disk-imaging tools with a good set of additional deployment and management capabilities (www.symantec.com)
Labs Technical Director Cameron Sturdevant can be reached at cameron_sturdevant@ziffdavis.com.
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