Customer case
DEPLOYING HEAVY SOFTWARE ON AN AGING PARK THANKS to WAPT
EDUCATION – COLLEGE VICTOR HUGO DE NARBONNE
How to deploy heavy software on an aging fleet with WAPT? We explain everything from the case of Joel LATIEULE, IT manager at Collège Victor Hugo de Narbonne: infractructure, issues, needs, use and gains with WAPT.
Presentation
Founded in 1887 in Narbonne (dpt 11), the college has 750 students and 120 staff members. The school has 22 classes, but also 10 special education classes and a Unité Locale d’Inclusion Scolaire. There are also classes dedicated to music and programs for students with high intellectual potential as well as a boarding school that can accommodate 32 students.
175 administered stations
1 location
1 sysadmin
College infrastructure
The middle school has 3 separate physical networks as well as 3 separate domains that do not operate in VLANs. The only junction point is a gateway managed by the rectorate.
The Administrative domain is composed of 15 stations and can reach the other two domains. The pedagogical domain consists of 160 workstations and can reach the DMZ. The DMZ hosts the pronote server and can be reached from the outside.
3 domaines distincts
42 deployed softwares
Problems encountered:
Difficulty of deployment and lack of real feedback
The school was experiencing difficulties deploying heavy software (such as Libre Office). Deployment was done by GPO at computer startup and was becoming problematic on aging workstations. Yet the workstations had to be ready by 8:00 a.m.
Users (both students and teachers) were getting impatient and restarting the computer in the middle of deployment, which caused installation errors that required intervention.
The lack of real feedback was the biggest drawback of this solution. The system administrator had to regularly check that everything was up and running.
Testimony
If I don’t get feedback from users it’s because it’s working properly.
Why use WAPT?
For Victor Hugo Middle School, the strength of WAPT lies in the community mobilized around the software as well as the many packages that already exist and can be used without spending time creating them. In addition, many organizations in the same sector or of equivalent size are already using WAPT. The fact that the company is French was also a plus for the college.
The limits
Schools have a very limited budget, so the middle school opted for the Community version, without support or training. The school depends on the department of Aude and it is difficult to obtain additional funding.
Test phase
- 2 months of testing
- Testing in the teachers’ lounge
- 4 workstations with daily use by 80 users
Testimony
When I gave it a try, I directly saw the appeal.
What WAPT has brought to Collège Victor Hugo
It took a month to get feedback from all the teachers and properly define everyone’s software needs. This action facilitated the rapid implementation of WAPT.
Victor Hugo College benefits from the feedback that is made directly in the console to manage its fleet. WAPT allows to know if a package is correctly installed. Thus the adminsys can be sure that he does not need to go back to the stations.
WAPT also perfectly meets the college’s desire to deploy executable files without recompiling them in MSI and without using PsTools.
Estimated gains using WAPT
According to the system administrator, for an equivalent action, WAPT saves 50% in time. He even notes a very significant time saving when it comes to deploying a simple “.exe”. WAPT facilitates control and scripting for each particular case.
WAPT eliminates the need to use OCS or GLPI for software, system and hardware inventory (via WMI feedback), and for remote control with RDP or Veyron. Consolet enables software to be quickly located on workstations, reducing the number of network requests.
We can therefore say that Joël LATIEULE and his team are now equipped to deploy heavy software on an ageing park thanks to WAPT.
Estimated gains using WAPT
Video feedback
Some of our clients agreed to talk about their experience in pictures. Find them in the dedicated Youtube playlist: