How to Manage 1,000 Mac’s and Not Go Crazy

Brandon Hopkins is the newest writer to join the MacTips team. Everyone give him a warm welcome.

If you’re like me and you manage more than your personal Mac on a regular basis, you’ve probably heard of Mike Bombich’s wonderful time saving program NetRestore. I won’t go into how to use the software, that is for a future date, but for more info you can check out Bombich.com. For now I’m going to show you how you can use NetRestore and not go crazy.

I have the unique responsibility of managing 1,000 Macs. 80% are desktop machines as old as a 400 MHz iMac to brand new Intel iMac’s. 20% are laptops from old school iBook’s to brand new MacBook Pro’s and everything in between. Aside from a variety of types of machines and processors, I also run 10.3.9, 10.4.11, and 10.5.2. With these different machines and operating systems comes the unique challenge of managing about 20 different configurations. That is where NetRestore comes in.

NetRestore allows me to go to a client computer and fix whatever problem they’re having by just holding down the “N” key, which starts the NetRestore process. From there I just choose the configuration I want to install, 10.3.9 iBook G4 for example, and click “Restore”. The computer pulls a new image from the server and installs in. When it’s finished it restarts and you have a brand new OS.

Here is where the time saving features really come in handy. With NetRestore you first create your “perfect” image which you’ll pull down from the server to your client machines. After that image is created and NetRestore is installed, you don’t have to troubleshoot anything!

Yes, go back and read that line again, you don’t have to trouble shoot anything. If you have a problem, you hold down the “N” key and start the NetRestore process. The new image is expanded to the hard drive and a “fresh” installation is on that machine.

So anytime a client has a problem you just NetRestore. Want to install the latest update? Create a new image with the update and NetRestore.

If you don’t have time to walk around to each machine, check back tomorrow and I’ll show you an easy way to NetRestore from the comfort of your bed. That’s right, sit at home in bed and continue working!