Automating Machine Builds

They say the definition of insanity is repetition !

We are always looking to automate some of the technical tasks we perform but as any business should, we also automate some of the administrative tasks from invoicing, our social media posts and proactive monitoring. freeing up time to do what we do best. Support customers and deliver projects.

Deployment of ‘Workstations’ and ‘Servers’ is something we do frequently so it made sense to put in measures to automatically deploy these where possible. This means no longer do we need to manually build machines for our customers – our Lab environment does it for us. Ensuring that the machines are deployed with the latest software that our customers need and also to a base level that we expect.

– The only thing we have not mastered yet is teaching them to get themselves in and out of the box 📦

In order to achieve this we utilise Microsoft Deployment Tools {MDT} and Windows Deployment Services {WDS} So when a machine is connected to our development network and PXE booted it will achieve the following tasks all on its own. What is deployed is subject to any specific customer requirements or subscriptions

• ✅Deploy the latest build of Windows,
• ✅Install all required Windows Updates
• ✅Any specific Drivers can be deployed
• ✅Encrypt the Hard Drive if the hardware has a TPM Chip and supported O/S
• ✅Installs Meta Remote Monitoring and Management and if required this will auto deploy
  • Antivirus
  • Patch Management
  • End Point Threat Detection
• ✅Deploy Meta Backup.
• ✅Installation of asset tracking, remote wipe capabilities
• ✅Fundamental Apps such as Adobe DC, Chrome 7Zip are deployed
• ✅We can auto roll out any version of Microsoft Office Including O365.
• ✅lastly we can create bespoke customer specific images to deploy any customer specific software

Following this route only saves us time but it means that every machine reaches the customer in the same condition. We know security and the machine deployment is as it should. Quite oftern when we ship a device our customer can do what they need to – Open the box and then crack on with working. You know it has been built by us if it is sealed with our packing tape.

We have some exciting projects up and coming for the automated deployment of networking hardware as well as deploying machines utilising Autopilot for our customers that harness the power of Azure so watch this space !