JACAL / News: Recent posts

There are certain inherent problems with image duplicating for NT box
propagation. While having identical hardware helps immensely with avoiding
wierd and unusual problems, this is no guarantee. I've had identical
machines with very small chip revisions in devices as insignificant as
IOMega Zip drives cause BAD systemic problems when machines are duplicated
with copying programs such as Ghost.

A year two Taylor University network administrators, Aaron Brooks and Joel
Martin, created a linux boot disk system which can build any of our lab
in about an hour and a half. The build process is a true NT install complete
with 75+ applications which serve the CSS and Science divisions which we
service. Did I mention that these machines dual boot to linux too and that is
part of the build? The components are the following:... read more

Welcome to our project. We have been using this system internally at Taylor Univeristy for over a year now and it has made site administration much easier.

This project is NOT ready for public use. I repeat it is not yet ready for public use. It is hardcoded to our internal structure. We are working as we have time to move to a more universal method. We will be releasing parts of the project as time goes on. If you really have a strong interest in this project and can't wait then e-mail me (jabber) and I will send you what I can. Hopefully this project will become really useful.... read more

The JACAL Project is a suite of programs, scripts, guidelines, protocols, documentation, diskettes, etc. that assist in quick, network based loads/builds of machines. A single build diskette is placed in the target machine and the machine is rebooted. The diskette contains a small network based Linux installation that prompts for the machine name. Build options are then selected and the machine is built automatically from start to finish. Build options include setting up a multiboot system with Windows NT, Windows 9X, and/or Linux installed and fully configured for that particular machine's hardware and network configuration.... read more