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WfM requires that at least one information management framework be in use on a managed PC. Some BIOSes, such as a Gateway system that we tested, have limited DMI support, such as logging DMI events, but full agents require the OS to be loaded. SNMP, DMI and CIM agents aren't implemented on PC BIOSes, so this level of WfM support becomes more a question of which agents have been preloaded on top of the shipping OS.

Pay To Play
A new standard always raises the question of whether you have to buy everything again. Definitely maybe. WfM's a no-brainer if you're deploying new equipment--after all, it won't really cost you any more to get WfM workstations if you're buying brand-name PCs and not garage-spawned clones. But how do you start to test and deploy WfM with "legacy" equipment?

The only WfM categories where upgradability is in question are the two lower layers: preboot and power management. It takes more to upgrade these BIOS-and-motherboard-related components than a software update. The upper layers of WfM--information management and support agents--are easier; simply use software that supports DMI, CIM or SNMP and trouble-ticketing agents that support SES/SIS (Solution Exchange Standard and Service Incident Exchange Standard).

Unless your workstation infrastructure is more than a few years old, APM or ACPI is likely supported by your system BIOSes. WOL is tricky, because it requires a power jumper between the NIC and the motherboard, which is difficult to fix with a flash BIOS update. If you want WOL and don't have the system board connector, you'll have to shell out for new systems.

Even without WOL, booting a workstation from the network can be useful. Fortunately, NICs that support PXE, such as 3Com's 3905B, tend to support "legacy" network boot, so you can boot using standard TFTP or RPL, and bypass PXE altogether. Although you can't upgrade a NIC to WOL, NICs that don't support PXE capability can be upgraded with boot PROMs. (See "URLs for PXE NICs and PXE Management Console Support," below.)

Here's a lesson learned from deployment of diskless workstations: The challenge with manageable equipment is not technological, but social. Though WfM doesn't dispense with the PC near and dear to users' hearts, some features will disturb privacy-oriented users.

Just as disk duplication was a hard sell to users who considered their hard drives inviolate, so is off-hours access and reconfiguration--in any form. Certificate-based BIS can help quash user security fears, and naturally, once a PC is awake with a loaded OS, authentication can be done against a secure directory. Still, you'll want to carefully consider your corporate culture before surprising your users with PXE and WOL.

Jonathan Feldman is technical systems manager for the Chatham County Government in Savannah, Ga. Send your comments on this article to him at jf@feldman.org.