[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > What I've investigated yet: ANI uses DHCP to pass basic options, > > unattended doesn't. But I guess that's not all.
Actually, you can use DHCP option 233 to pass configuration data to Unattended. This is mentioned very briefly in the FAQ (http://unattended.sourceforge.net/faq.html#linux). It is a simple string of options, like this: z_user=DOM\myuser z_pass=sekrit z_path=//server/install > yes, that definetly needs to be explained somewhere, now that c't > did an article about Unattended, we're getting also a lot more > traffic from supposedly more people with your question and we will > put the answer in a FAQ list. Our lists have received a flood of subscriptions from .de this week (Willkommen!). Has anybody actually tried both systems in production? I think that would provide the most useful comparison. > - ANI supports user defined DHCP options to pass basic options (that > results in a maintenance-free bootmedia) and DHCP-Userclasses, > usefull to serve different client- or domain-types even in the same > subnet. What do you mean by DHCP Userclasses? Our boot disk sends "Unattended" as the DHCP user class option (DHCP code 77, defined by http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3004.html), which allows the DHCP server to distinguish our boot disk's leases from other leases. > - The linux-bootmedia can be PXE, CD-Rom or floppy disk. We put a > lot of effort into getting samba and linux so small that it fits a > floppy disk. Unattended has NO floppy disk support, because they use > a "normal sized" linux as base. We need floppy disk support because > of older hardware not having CD-Rom (deliberetly) and no > PXE-capable-NIc. I have a plan for supporting floppy boot, although it would require multiple floppies. I am not sure I will ever implement it, though. The set of machines which lack support for CD-ROM, network, and USB boot is small and shrinking. And older hardware tends to work OK with our DOS boot disk. > - ANI installs a so called hidden Maintenance- (with > Windows installation files) and an installation media partition on the HD > drive. Unattended has not. These partition allows us to trigger > reinstallation of windows without access to the net and to do > mass-reinstallation/upgrades of computers without having to download all > files for each computer again, but instead only the few changed files > are downloaded (important to reduce traffic). These partitions even > allow us to reinstall/upgrade the OS remotely and centralised with > scripts over night, as long as the computer's NIC supports Wake-On-Lan. > Unattended needs the presence of a person at the computer to reinstall > the OS. Some of our users have made fully unattended installations work. But you are correct that we do not contemplate it "out of the box". > - ANI provides integration abitlities of existing user and user group > concepts (unattended?). I do not know what this means. Could you elaborate? > - ANI has a nice UI in case of errors, warnings :-) Um, uh, we print a diagnostic and "Abort/Retry/Ignore" :-). > - ANI considers some security aspects, wich are desirable especially in > big networks: > -- We have encrypted passwords for the account to mount the install share > and join the domain with the computer. The password is NEVER stored on > the client side, either in encrypted or decrypted form. Unattended > stores the password on the client side. True, but we delete it when we are done. I have never understood encrypting a password such that it can be decrypted automatically. If the machine can decrypt it, so can the user; isn't that just giving a false sense of security? Either you make a technician type the password when it is needed, or the password is available anonymously over the network. In "real security" terms, there is nothing in between. > -- We have the abbillity to lock CD-Rom and floppy disk access and > other devices depending on the group the loged on user is part > of. Unattended has not. Can you elaborate? Are you talking about after the machine is installed? I have not used ANI, so I am not sure what features (if any) Unattended has which ANI lacks. Since you managed to fit everything on a single floppy, I would suspect our hardware support is broader, especially for mass-storage controllers (S-ATA/SCSI/RAID). And I suspect we have better support for customized partitioning schemes. But really, the biggest difference is in philosophy. In some ways, Unattended is more like a framework for creating a deployment system than an actual deployment system. Our default configuration is extremely basic. But the potential is endless, since you can provide custom Perl code which runs before the installation even starts. So you could choose an OU based on the machine name, or you could set the host name by looking up its Dell service tag in a MySQL database. All it takes is the right code, and our community is experimenting with and sharing all sorts of ideas. ANI is a deployment system. It is less flexible but much, much more polished. Actually, "flexible" vs. "polished" is a decent summary of the differences. - Pat ------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net email is sponsored by Shop4tech.com-Lowest price on Blank Media 100pk Sonic DVD-R 4x for only $29 -100pk Sonic DVD+R for only $33 Save 50% off Retail on Ink & Toner - Free Shipping and Free Gift. http://www.shop4tech.com/z/Inkjet_Cartridges/9_108_r285 _______________________________________________ unattended-info mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/unattended-info
