How to deploy FreeBSD desktops ?

[Vulpes Velox]

On Mon, 27 Dec 2004 09:11:34 -0700
Jon Drews <jon.drews at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi:
> 
>  Can anyone give me advice on how I should go about deploying and
> maintaining FreeBSD desktops, in a company setting? I know how to do
> it for my own FreeBSD desktop but how would I manage 30 to 50
> simultaneous installs?  Also what would be an effective way to track
> ports so that I don't inadvertently portupgrade to an unstable 
> version of software? Would I set aside one computer for tracking
> ports? That is, suppose I have Gnome 2.6.2 in use but I want to
> evaluate 2.8.0. How should I test it? Superficially, it would seem a
> simple thing but how can  I be sure that my use of 2.8.0 replicates
> what be normal usage, throughout the company?
>  Any pointers or advice would be appreciated.

Well if all the drives are in trays, more expensive but a lot nicer,
then just use dd on one machine with lots of trays in it. Or create a
boot disk the mounts a nfs share and then dd the image from from over
nfs.

I would have a testing system and a build system.
The build system is just for building packages and then a testing
system to do more testing on before moving them out. Man ports for
more info on this.

For tracking, I suggest subscribing to all related lists. Also check
out cvsup. Soime useful tools are also portmanager and portupgrade.
Check out freshports.org too.