Mac OS X Deployment

By: Mikio Moriyasu - Revised: 2006-08-03 devin


Introduction

These pages document the University of Utah's Student Computing Labs deployment of Mac OS X. They are meant to illustrate how we plan to transition from our current Mac OS 9.x environment to Mac OS X in a tentatively scheduled six to eight month period. We will periodically update them as we successfully complete each part of the overall plan.

Please be aware that the information contained in these pages details only what is happening in the labs and offices supported by the Student Computing Labs division. They do not represent what may be going on at the University of Utah as a whole or in specific departments & groups at the University of Utah.

For additional information regarding the locations where our deployment plan is in effect please click here.

Table Of Contents
  • Why Mac OS X
    • Information about the benefits, technologies, services, and support for OS X.

  • Deployment Overview
    • An overview of the primary issues related to OS X deployment and maintenance.

  • Deployment Specifics
    • This section provides an overview of the tools and methods used by Student Computing Labs to deploy and configure Mac OS X in the facilities it supports.

  • Deployment Phases
    • The widespread deployment of Mac OS X throughout labs we support will be done in five distinct phases, covered here.

  • Deployment Journal
    • This journal documents the issues and concerns that patrons, administrative staff, consultant staff, and support staff have encountered in the four main groups of machines supported by Student Computing Labs during its deployment of and transition to Mac OS X. It will be periodically updated to note when an existing issue has been resolved or to highlight new issues that have come up during deployment.

  • Special Projects
    • This section documents University of Utah projects or classes that have utilized OS X applications in facilities supported by Student Computing Labs. For each project, Student Computing Labs staff has adapted some or all of the techniques learned and developed during its OS X deployment in order to fulfill the specific user requirements.

  • Deployment Sites
    • Information about the Student Computing Labs Mac OS X deployment sites.