Maintenance

[jarednichols]

Hi All-

I'm in the process of getting Casper ready for primetime here. I've got just about everything nailed down, software updates, Self Service distribution etc. One question for everyone: what scripts/maintenance do you find yourself doing either frequently by hand or in an automated fashion? I need to have everything documented and I'm sure I'm missing something as this is my first Casper roll out.

Thanks!
--
Jared Nichols
ISD Infrastructure and Operations - Desktop Engineering
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
244 Wood St.
Lexington, MA 02420-9108
(781) 981-5500

[jstrauss]

Same question here... Any cache stuff? General cleanup?

[talkingmoose]

We have a shared computer environment, so login/logout is well-practiced
here.

I clear user caches and Quark jaws font caches at logout and run weekly
maintenance (repair permissions, clear user/system caches, etc.) with a
reboot at the end. I also have Symantec Antivirus check daily for updates
from our internal LiveUpdate server.

Just this little bit and I have little to no user support calls with regard
to Mac OS, application or font issues.

--

bill

William M. Smith, Technical Analyst
MCS IT
Merrill Communications, LLC
(651) 632-1492

[jarednichols]

Cool. Thus far, I have a weekly maintenance policy that:
Fixes permissions
Flushes user caches
* Flushes system caches.

Currently, there is no forced reboot with this policy. At the moment, we have a customer group that is determining exactly what they want for a standard desktop - this includes Mac and PC, what kind of maintenance windows will be ok, applications that are centrally supported/distributed etc etc. So, much of what I need is waiting for them. This will determine things such as software update frequency/mandatory-ness.

Question: Does flushing the user cache kill the font cache as well? Does doing so seem to solve the issue with Office 2008 complaining about corrupt fonts?

Thanks

j

[milesleacy]

I generally have a policy that runs once a week, "in the middle of the
night" (defining that term is up to you and your organization), and hits an
internal Apple Software Update Server and reboots regardless of whether an
update requires it or if anyone is logged in.
I have a launchd item that uses osascript to show a dialog box reminder of
the mandatory reboot. The message is something along the lines of

<exclamation point icon> Mandatory Reboot This Evening
All computers in our organization are subject to a mandatory reboot policy
to allow necessary maintenance and update tasks to run. This reboot keeps
our computers running smoothly. The reboot will occur at 11:55 PM this
evening. Please be sure you have saved all of your work and logged out by
then. Any documents left open at the time of the reboot may be damaged or
lost. If you have any questions, you may review the reboot policy at
http://intranet.ourcompany.com/it/policies/rebootpolicy.htm or contact the
help desk at extension xxx.

----------
Miles A. Leacy IV

? Certified System Administrator 10.4
? Certified Technical Coordinator 10.5
? Certified Trainer
Certified Casper Administrator
----------
voice: 1-347-277-7321
miles.leacy at themacadmin.com
www.themacadmin.com

[tlarkin]

I have some of the same

I have a policy that runs which makes sure certain accounts have the
right passwords, that any and all packages in certain folders have our
default permissions which we use to manage the clients. I also have a
policy that sets firmware password and mode, just in case someone
decides to take a part a machine to clear out the firmware. Of course I
have inventory updates I do not run every day. At first I did, and my
database just go so huge and chunky with all those receipts, so I
decided to just update it once to twice a week. The machines still
check in and their locations are updated but it doesn't do a full update
of applications and all of that. My database is 15gigs in size.

I keep usage logs and never delete them. That way I can see what user
logged into what machine on what date. This has been a very handy to
say the least.

---

Thomas Larkin
TIS Department
KCKPS USD500
tlarki at kckps.org
blackberry: 913-449-7589
office: 913-627-0351

[robb1068]

Same here on the weekly maintenance. I've also created some ongoing policies
that are available to the users in the Self Service application. Most of
them are simple rm scripts that the end user can launch.

Reset Suitcase X1 ­ deletes the Suitcase Server Fonts and Suitcase plist
files in the user's home folder.
Delete InDesign Cache ­ deletes the Adobe InDesign folder in the user's
home folder/Library/Caches/
* Delete the Microsoft Office font database - deletes the font database
file for either Office 2004 or 2008 in the user's Microsoft preferences
folder.

Robb Gibson
System Engineer - eMMS, Publishing Systems
OfficeMax : 263 Shuman Blvd. : Naperville, IL 60563
(630) 864-5242