Anyone use Apple Remote Desktop

Messiah Khan · 27 Mar 2010 at 08:42

Anyone use Apple Remote Desktop, especially version 3, and specifically to administer a large-ish (say 20+) Mac network? Over summer I will be setting up a new facility at work with 40-50 Mac Pros and will hopefully be looking after them via Apple Remote Desktop 3. How well does it work? Are there better third party options out there?

All of our users are pulled from Active Directory. Is it easy to say replace a certain file for all existing users on all machines? Also is it easy to map a certain network drive for all users?

And finally, does anyone run it in combination with Deep Freeze to lock down settings? If so, how easy is it to unlock Deep Freeze when pushing out new files, then re enable Deep Freeze?

JohnRoss · 27 Mar 2010 at 10:12

I was trying too use synergy for linking my windows too mac and could not get it set up

gonna try formatting both machines then going for it again

synergy was the top result i found on google for sharing keyboard and mouse over multiple platforms however i found it really hard too setup and could not negotiate a link between the two pcs

PardonTheWait · 27 Mar 2010 at 10:33

We use it at work, it's a retail shop with about 9 Macs in it. I've found it very good, and we've got a script on it set up to delete Photo Booth from all the machines, for example, which we use in school holidays

Our machines are deep frozen as well and the whole thing works pretty well imo.

It's very user friendly and does everything we want it to. Our network's nowhere near as large or as complex as yours though.

MikeHiow · 27 Mar 2010 at 10:36

I found Synergy quite easy to get going, although I don't believe that is what the OP is looking for. Synergy will allow you to share a keyboard and mouse over two physical computers and screens, I think the OP is looking for a full on remote screen.

Messiah Khan · 27 Mar 2010 at 11:01

Thanks for the replies guys.

PardonTheWait said:
Our machines are deep frozen as well and the whole thing works pretty well imo.

That's good to know. How do you go about unlocking deepfreeze for remote installations/uninstallations/file copies etc? Have you got it set as script to unlock, then lock it again? Or can you set deepfreeze to automatically allow everything from a certain use (ie the admin)?

MikeHiow said:
I found Synergy quite easy to get going, although I don't believe that is what the OP is looking for. Synergy will allow you to share a keyboard and mouse over two physical computers and screens, I think the OP is looking for a full on remote screen.

Yeah, it's not really the remote screen stuff I'm interested in, more the admin side of things to install programs remotely to multiple machines, updating plugins remotely etc.

dannyraul · 27 Mar 2010 at 11:27

Deep Freeze comes with an admin console that will allow you to unfreeze/freeze machine groups all at once. You can then use ARD to deploy packages to each Mac or deploy Unix commands/scripts. You might also want to look at McAfee or similar Antivirus/Malware solution that you can remotely manage.

ARD is the only tool you need to manage Mac's, ideally you want to use this in combination with a Mac Server running SL Server integrating with your MS DC's and AD.

To be honest, Deep Freezing a Mac is a bit OTT, I look after a Mac lab and I just use scripts that run on login and logout to prepare the lab for use. Deep Freeze slows down machine performance a great deal - I use it under Windows as well.

JonB · 27 Mar 2010 at 11:28

Remote Desktop is based upon VNC. I don't believe it's as powerful as Microsoft's remote desktop, not even close, but it does allow you to take control of a desktop. Not sure if you can take control if there isn't a user logged in, however.

EDIT: Of course, the above post implies you can do a lot more with it than I realise.

Messiah Khan · 27 Mar 2010 at 11:47

dannyraul said:
Deep Freeze comes with an admin console that will allow you to unfreeze/freeze machine groups all at once. You can then use ARD to deploy packages to each Mac or deploy Unix commands/scripts. You might also want to look at McAfee or similar Antivirus/Malware solution that you can remotely manage.

ARD is the only tool you need to manage Mac's, ideally you want to use this in combination with a Mac Server running SL Server integrating with your MS DC's and AD.

To be honest, Deep Freezing a Mac is a bit OTT, I look after a Mac lab and I just use scripts that run on login and logout to prepare the lab for use. Deep Freeze slows down machine performance a great deal - I use it under Windows as well.

Thanks, that the answer I was hoping for. I'll let the central IT dept look after things like the virus scanners. But as I am the one who will be looking after the mac lab day to day I want to make sure that thinks I need to do are easy and possible.

We will probably be using a Mac Server, as well as a dedicated SAN for the room, all connected with fibre. The room is going to be used for HD video editing, photography & graphics, so we need a lot of fast storage.

Deep Freeze may be overkill, but it would solve a lot of my problems. I need a lot of program preferences to be set a certain way (ie, photoshop colour options etc), so being able to create the image the way it should be then lock it down would be great. Currently the images I created last summer have been all messed up as students have changed settings, accidentally deleted shortcuts etc. Out of interest what sort of scripts do you run on login/logout?

PardonTheWait · 27 Mar 2010 at 11:51

Messiah Khan said:
Thanks for the replies guys.

That's good to know. How do you go about unlocking deepfreeze for remote installations/uninstallations/file copies etc? Have you got it set as script to unlock, then lock it again? Or can you set deepfreeze to automatically allow everything from a certain use (ie the admin)?

Yeah, it's not really the remote screen stuff I'm interested in, more the admin side of things to install programs remotely to multiple machines, updating plugins remotely etc.

Personally I do things like that manually on a machine if it wants it because a) they're all in one room and b) I don't know how to do it on ARD, someone else at work is more technical than I so he handles most of it. I mostly just use ARD for ****ing with oiks in the shop

All I know is that our techy bloke loves it and he's set it up to do various things like install and uninstall apps and so on on multiple machines - the machines are deep frozen so I can only assume he knows how to work around that.

We use Deep Freeze because it's a retail environment and it means that we or customers can do whatever they want to the machines without causing any trouble. After a demo or a training session, regardless of what we've done, a quick reset is all you need to have it back to the standard image.