Ann Arbor, MI — When Jeff Kopmanis had to set up Solaris computers, it was a cumbersome, time-consuming process. Kopmanis, who is the IT manager for the University of Michigan (UM)’s Department of Mathematics, typically spent a week or longer configuring and loading lab machines. Now, when he and his staff receive new iMac computers, they simply enter each machine into inventory, register the iMac with the department’s servers, then transport the machine to the lab and plug it in. By switching to iMac computers, Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server, Kopmanis says UM has given lengthy configuration and loading processes the boot — NetBoot, that is.
Kopmanis and the IT team are responsible for supporting all of the systems in the math department’s six computer labs, undergrad kiosks and advising rooms. To leverage the university’s infrastructure investments, they needed a platform that could support AFS (Andrew File System, a distributed file system that allows networked computers to use a common directory structure). Since AFS support worked well under Solaris, the math department mostly featured Sun workstations. But, says Kopmanis, the introduction of Mac OS X was enticing to the math department for several reasons.
Thanks to Mac OS X Server and NetBoot, we were able to unpack, inventory and set up each additional lab in only four hours.
— Jeff Kopmanis, IT Manager, University of Michigan, Department of Mathematics
“We saw the Mac as being able to offer current versions of all of the software we wanted to use, such as Microsoft Office, plus multimedia capabilities and web development,” Kopmanis says. “Obviously, we needed support for AFS, so we could continue to tie into the university’s infrastructure. We needed Kerberos authentication for our users and a powerful, reliable platform that could stand up to constant use. Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server answered all of those requirements and lowered our management costs.”