The new Altiris eXpress Migration Toolkit, or AXMT, bundles Altiris' award-winning deployment or migration package with an inventory tool (you can download a free trial of AXMT from the Altiris Web site). This makes upgrading to Microsoft Windows 2000 a lot easier and, more important, quite a bit faster.
AXMT is licensed per node and is not based on consecutive usage. In other words, if you want to upgrade 50 PCs but only do 20 units at a time, you'll still need a 50-user license. AXMT is worth the high price if you need to upgrade a lot of PCs in a short period of time. Using traditional methods, by the time you make sure all the applications work, download any new drivers and configure the network, you've spent about two hours to upgrade a single PC from Windows 98 to Windows 2000. With AXMT, you can do several PCs at once without any user intervention. This cuts down on the cost of a consultant and lets your IT staff concentrate on other projects.
The product requires a hefty Windows 2000 server with at least 2 GB of free disk space -- this is necessary because the SQL server houses the database. Because the package price is based on individual clients, you will have to buy a new server for each remote server. The server must also be running Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) and have the Windows FTP server enabled. AXMT also relies on Microsoft SQL Server to keep a database of all the clients on the network. You can use the version of SQL Server that comes with the product or connect to an existing database if you have one.
The first step to performing the migration is determining if you have the correct hardware to support Windows 2000. This is where the AXMT inventory utility comes in. The utility comprises two pieces: a browser-based console for viewing the hardware components of the client PCs on the network, and a small utility that runs on the PCs and gathers the data. The inventory-gathering software can be run on each PC automatically using a logon script, or individual users can start it using a hyperlink to the program you send them via e-mail. I found the hyperlink to be the most efficient way to gather the data--the utility sends the information back to the database for viewing on the console. This utility can be used to run more specific reports in case you need to know, for example, how much RAM each PC has or at what speeds all the different CPUs are running. But the primary use of these specialized reports is to help administrators determine what needs to be upgraded before installing Windows 2000.
Traveling Tools
In addition to the inventory utility, AXMT includes PC cloning, a personality backup, and soft- ware configuration and migration-status reporting tools. I found it easy to install all the tools, and I especially liked the online documentation. Not only does the PDF user manual provide detailed steps on how to install the utilities, it is also a white paper that could help you decide what steps to perform and the best way to use the product for a migration.
The PC Cloning and Post-Cloning Network Configuration utility gave me the tools
I needed to create and deploy a Windows 2000 image. With AXMT's easy-to-use wizards and a central console, network managers can create and download images, usually without actually touching the PCs. AXMT makes performing these operations on multiple PCs simultaneously fast and easy. Without being present, I could clone several new PCs overnight to look like an existing sample PC.
A Windows 2000 migration is less than successful if businesses have to spend IT time setting personal preferences on individual computers, but users don't want to have to reconfigure all their personal settings each time there is a systemwide upgrade. The AXMT personality backup tool helps you avoid both scenarios.
I discovered its benefit when I installed the software on about 50 PCs in an accounting firm -- almost every user had a different screensaver, and different task bars and other personal settings.
I was able to use the personality backup utility to capture all those personal items -- wallpaper, icons, and application and network settings -- and save them in a self-executing file for application to the target PC. When Windows 2000 was installed, each PC got its personality back automatically.
The accounting firm I used for my test is a great example of how different users often require specialized software applications for their jobs. For example, auditors don't run the same applications as users that prepare quarterly income-tax returns. AXMT provides a simple wizard-driven method for providing these applications to the users who need them without creating separate images. This feature results in significant savings in time and disk storage.
Last but not least, when the migration tasks are finished, AXMT generates a detailed migration status report. Administrators receive full information on what has been done and what is left to accomplish. I prefer this method to the old standby of checking people off a list generated in Microsoft Word or Excel.
AXMT is a great tool for medium to large enterprises that need to deploy and migrate software to a lot of PCs. If you need to upgrade only five or six computers, you are probably better off doing it manually. But if you don't have the time and don't want to pay a consultant, AXMT may prove useful even for small companies.
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