[Casper] time bomb accounts - exchange program

[Clinton Blackmore]

Greetings.

This only peripherally addresses your question, and goes against what  
you said about re-assigning computers, but I thought you'd find it  
interesting as a different approach.

The idea was synthesized from two facts: 1) the techs didn't like  
wasting time transferring a users data to a loaner and then back to  
their original machine when it returned from repair, and 2) someone  
said, "we are big enough that we could insure ourselves."  [We  
purchased around 800 new computers to replace/supplement older ones  
last summer.]

We still billed an insurance fee on each computer, but instead of  
purchasing Apple Care for our computers, we decided to put the money  
into buying additional units (and attempted to standardize on just a  
couple of models)*, and have instituted what we call the exchange  
program.  When a unit comes in that is malfunctioning, the user is  
given an identical unit.  We transfer data when we can (or use mobile/ 
network accounts), but have told users that they are responsible for  
backing up their own data.

Then, the original unit can go for repair (or warranty work if it  
qualifies.)  When it comes back, it is re-imaged and placed onto the  
exchange pile.  We do not have to hunt down the user and get a loaner  
back.


We really need to formalize a policy for removing computers from  
workgroup manager and marking them as in for repairs in Casper, and,  
if you do an exchange program yourself, you need to keep the exchange  
units out or sight and out of mind, or risk politicians sabotaging  
your program by saying, "Why do we have twenty MacBooks just sitting  
here, when they could form a new lab?"


We are only six or seven months into our exchange program, but it  
seems to be working fairly well.

Cheers,
Clinton Blackmore


* We also took back the older computers we were replacing, and  
redistributed some while keeping spares ready for exchange purposes.   
[Well, except for the oldest ones, which we discarded.]


On 20-Feb-09, at 9:00 AM, Thomas Larkin wrote:

> So, the last two years of our 1:1 has been fun.  There is one  
> problem that I have though that takes up a lot of my time and there  
> is no good solution.  That is when I give out a spare laptop to a  
> user while theirs is in for repair.  These laptops are inventoried  
> for the purpose of being loaners.  So, to rather constantly be  
> updating my inventory and constantly reassigning users to specific  
> machines we give out spares.
>
> Next school year I plan on naming every spare with a unique naming  
> convention and then making a smart group of these spare machines.  I  
> want to make it so that every 30 days a policy runs that disables  
> all local user accounts, thus forcing the user to come see me for  
> support thus allowing me to get their spare back form them and into  
> my inventory.
>
> I have had students refuse to give me back spares because they don't  
> want to give up their 5 gigs of songs they ripped to them.  I also  
> am going to have active search and destroy policies that limit the  
> files being saved on spares.
>
> Basically, I want spare machines to not be as fun as their actual  
> machine so they have lots of incentive to bring me back the spare.   
> I figure I could just loop all user accounts and change their  
> passwords to something ridiculous (random 30 character string) and  
> then force a reboot.  They won't be able to log in and they will  
> come see me immediately if they can't log in.
>
> I think this is pretty simple to do, but I would like any feed back  
> from anyone on the list who has done something like this before.
>
> Thanks in advance, and have a good weekend.
>
> ___________________________
> Thomas Larkin
> TIS Department
> KCKPS USD500
> tlarki at kckps.org
> blackberry:  913-449-7589
> office:  913-627-0351
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Casper mailing list
> Casper at list.jamfsoftware.com
> http://list.jamfsoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/casper


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