College Network

Hi!
I have been recently assigned the task of automating some maintenance tasks on my college LAN. The key tasks and conditions are:
* running windows updates (once / 2 days)
* running NAV scan (once/day)
* running MS Antispyware (once/day)
* running defrag (2 times/month)
* running windows clean up (once/week)
all tasks should run at night and should be automated sequentially (as in no two tasks should run together [think defrag and a/v running together]).. if a user is logged on; then it should pend until somebody logs out .. all the reports from various systems on the network should be collected on a single point..
amid all these requirements.. i was wondering; is there a way to do "optimal scheduling" for this..Seems to me like a huge task.

 

right now there are no "management softwares" as such; this is a purely on a students ownership based project, with financial support from management.
the configuration is: around 100+ systems (xp) on a network, through a linux box (DNS, squid).
the primary task right now is to get the optimal solution and then buy whatever is required to implement that solution.
it would be nice if you could give solutions on the next step to take forward.

 

well that linux server is there only just to get the network up and running. we can have a windows based server/setup installed, if that will give us the required solution.

 

With Windows 2003 and Active Directory you have more control over the machine community than you ever had. I would assume you could accomplish your task with a combination of AD policies and login scripts.

I would suggest a test bed with some Windows 2003 server evaluation software and one XP machine.

 

a very stupid newbie question.. but i keep hearing about active directory and WSUS and SMS all the time. could you give me some pointers on where i can find a good introductory material on this?

 

Please see this link for Microsoft's explanation of the WSUS service. I recommend that you also refer to the TechNet link at the right side, IIRC, there is a decent whitepaper on implementation there.

Please see this link for Microsoft's documentation of active Directory on the Windows 2003 OS.

 

thanks a ton guys. that link was really useful.
i describes all the features of the system really well.
i hope that it works really as well as it sounds
will try this system out!

 

My gf actually implemented WSUS, and according to her, it is buggy as hell. If possible, you may want to test it on a mock network before going live with it.