All I want for Xmas is 220 EEEEEEPc's!

Its easy to order 220 EEEpc's but the problem came with the deployment of these.

We decided to go for Windows XP over Linux, due to the fact that we can support Windows XP but have limited knowledge of Linux.
We also have the added benefit of being able to use our own anti-virus s/w and also Microsoft Office 2007.


Security these days is always the top issue when IT equipment is concerned.
The main issues we found were....

Straight out of the box the EEEpc installs as administrator, giving unlimited access to the Windows operating system. When you have potentially 200 students taking the EEEpc's home and installing all manor of software this can be a huge security risk.
If a student contracted a virus whilst at home then proceeded to plug the EEEpc into our network, this could have disastrous effects.

So with this in mind we decided to..
Password lock the bios
Rebuild the EEEpc's with our own custom image.

Imaging the EEEpc's was the next mission, ASUS uses a cut down version of Windows XP Home and the bootable drive is only 4GB.
We set out with 2 goals in mind.
1. adapt the existing XP Home to our needs or.
2. create a new build using XP professional.

A couple of tweaks we had to do above the ASUS build was to move the Programe Files folder and local user profile over to the larger 8gb drive. With the primary use of these being internet based we knew that over time the disks would become filled with temporary files and documents.

After a week of development we had 2 images to benchmark against each other. We tested the builds for speed of opening applications, boot up time and free hard disk space.
Both builds were amicable but in the end we decided to use the XP Professional build as it had more scope for additional software and file storage.

The next issue was to see how we to get this new image onto 220 EEEpc's!

We discovered that the bios supported network booting, so we could image the EEEpc's using our GHOST software.

With the technical side complete a production line was devised, it consisted of.
1. Unbox the EEEpc's.
2. Asset Tag and record serial number.
3. Change Bios settings and apply password.
4. Remove unwanted manuals and disks from the box.
5. Add a USB pen stick and custom user guide the box.
6. Ghost the C:\ drive.
7. Ghost the D:\ drive.
8. Reboot and test.
9. Rebox and store.

This process involved the whole infrastructure team.
We had myself, Ian and Chris unboxing and changing bios settings.
Nari was chief Ghoster and finisher.

The whole process was completed by the 5th of Jan, a fantastic project turnaround.