Automated tools cut upgrade time

Automated software distribution tools are cutting months off the Government Intervention Board's (IB's) Windows 2000 Client upgrade.

The Board, which administers the common agricultural policy, is to replace its current mix of Citrix and Windows NT desktops with Windows 2000 by the end of this year. It is using ON Technology's ON Command CCM software to manage the operating system rollout across 1500 PCs.

"Using the software means that we can roll out the upgrades from a central point. We can do unattended overnight instalments over the network," said IB group manager for infrastructure and customer services Steve Lodge, who claims it will save time and money.

"If we weren't using this, we'd have people installing the new operating system PC by PC. It would take about 20 weeks to upgrade all of our desktops, as opposed to just two weeks if we do it every night," he explained.

ON Command was installed after two weeks of consultancy, including a five-day training course for IB staff. Phase one of the project, starting in April this year, will upgrade the Board's 600 Citrix desktops to Windows NT, before rolling out Windows 2000 to all desktops.

The Board's network uses five Numa-Q Unix servers for its business applications and 20 Windows NT servers for web serving and Office desktops.

Upgrade of the NT servers to Windows 2000 will be left until 2002, said Lodge, to give the IB time to evaluate Active Directory.

The moves are preludes to plans for a three-year infrastructure upgrade.