Support FAQs

What is the installation process like?

• In general, installation takes less than 30 minutes. However, all purchases of the Casper Suite include a 3 to 5 day on site training and installation. During this time, we not only do the basic setup, but begin to customize the installation for your environment including inventory, package creation, policy creation, and imaging.

Can you image remotely?

• Using a NetBoot server or Restore partition set up with Casper as a login item, we can remotely re-image Macs (i.e. completely erase the boot drive and image) and automate the process.

Can the Casper Suite be used to migrate an OS while preserving user data?

• We use a number of scenarios for re-imaging machines, which include using home directory backup and restoration, separate user data partitions, or network/portable home directories.

What type of control does the Casper Suite offer regarding which users receive the prescribed action?

• All tasks performed by the Casper Suite, including imaging, can be scoped to buildings, departments, individual computers, dynamic "Smart" groups based on inventory criteria, user groups pulled from an LDAP server, and local users. Buildings and departments are user defined offering you flexibility and customization for your environment.

Describe the process for deploying an image from a user's perspective.

• Imaging with any utility requires booting a machine from a volume other than the volume being imaged, so the user cannot access the machine during this time. Depending on hardware, network, and load of packages, the timing can vary. A standard load (5-20 GB compressed) can take between 10 minutes (Intel machines and Gigabit network) to 45 minutes (G4 on 100 Base T).

Can the product identify software that has been installed by the user, produce a listing of such software, and migrate it as well?

• Software change reports can be generated showing what has been installed since imaging or last report. Those applications can be added to the standard configuration, or added on for each user at the time of imaging. They can also be flagged as restricted software and remotely removed by the administrator.

How does your product handle printers?

• We can capture existing settings in OS X's Print Setup Utility or System Preferences to deploy them and, if necessary, package custom print drivers.

Are silent updates possible?

• All updates can be automated, hidden via the policy framework, and run at the time and frequency of your choice, interfering with the user only if the update itself requires a restart.

Do the installs occur in the background? What quantity of system resources is used during the installation? Is the installation transparent to the user?

• What affects this the most is the size of the package. For large packages deployed to many machines, you will notice network traffic. The packages are pulled by clients over AFP or SMB, so traffic will be similar to any file sharing usage. Other resources used will be CPU and drive on the client as the software is written to the drive. A common practice for larger software is deployment via a policy during off hours.

Using the Casper Suite, can settings in existing software be modified?

• Our package creation tool, Composer, has the ability to package and push out user level preferences to existing home directories on a machine, as well as the user template so new users can pick up desired settings. Once the package is ready it can be deployed using a policy.

Can the Casper Suite suppress automatic updates?

• We can suppress automated updates for third party applications, or the Mac OS. Preferences for not allowing automatic updates can be built into software packages as well as the OS. Casper can also set machines to look at an internal software update server instead of Apple to manage OS updates.

How are machines that are not updated tracked and then updated?

• Logs can be viewed through the server web interface to show which computers need what updates. Smart Groups can be created for these computers so updates can be applied.

Does the Casper Suite allow for remote access to my users?

• CasperVNC tunnels connections through SSH. The VNC server is launched on demand when trying to control or observe a remote client, then closed when the administrator quits the application. This ensures that only authorized administrators can access machines during an active session and eliminates concerns about passive reception from intrusion. Every connection and all remote control, including VNC, are logged centrally in a database.

What monitoring functions are possible?

• There are a number of email notifications that can be set, such as blacklist violation, policy error, smart computer group change (for example, a machine's drive has exceeded 90% capacity), JSS restart, etc.

How does the Casper Suite deploy images and updates to remote locations?

• The JSS, or parent server, can utilize any AFP or SMB file shares as child servers. This requires that packages be pulled once across the WAN and then distributed on the LAN. NetBoot and Software Update Servers can also be set up at remote locations and used by Casper for remote machines.

How are console access permissions determined and what level of access can be given to members of our staff?

• Using the Casper Suite, you can grant the appropriate level of access in order to provide administrators functionality appropriate to their role, while logging the actions of each individual administrator. Users can be added, or deleted, to the system as needed either by creating them locally, or from LDAP compliant directory services.

Will this product work across subnets?

• Yes.

Can bandwidth be limited by the product?

• No. Our recommendation is to do this via network hardware or server software.

What is the network protocol (TCP/IP, UDP desired)?

• TCP, ports 22, 9006, and 8443 are required.

What is the total cost of ownership for this product?

• The total cost of the initial purchase includes a per seat cost, 18% annual maintenance, and a three to five day training and installation cost. Subsequent year costs include only the 18% annual maintenance plus the cost of any seats that were added throughout the year. the Casper Suite can run on any OS X server and it does not need to be a dedicated server. Hardware requirements are determined by the particulars of your network.