Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!EXTRO.UCC.SU.OZ.AU!gtw
From: gtw@EXTRO.UCC.SU.OZ.AU (G Taylor-Wood)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Re: How much system file homogeneity is necessary?
Message-ID: <9008300836.AA03617@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU>
Date: 30 Aug 90 08:36:42 GMT
References: <3009@uakari.primate.wisc.edu>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 45

In a previous posting Paul DuBois asks:
	 
	 (1) To what degree is it still true that Macintoshes on a LocalTalk
             network must be running the same version of the System file, 
             LaserPrep, etc.? I presume that, e.g., System 6 is incompatible 
             with System 5 and the usual woes will occur.  What about various 
             releases of System 6, e.g., 6.0.1 vs.  6.0.2?
	 
	 (2) What about cases where more than one LT network is involved, 
             e.g., two nets connected over a bridge, or two nets that reach each
             other through an intervening ethernet via tunneling?  What degree 
             of system homogeneity is necessary then?
	
I have always believed that the only area of incompatibility is LaserWriter 
drivers, If different machines use different Laserprep's than the laserWriter 
will be reset each time a print job arrives with a different Laserprep to the 
previous job. Other than that it dosn't make any difference what versions of the
system different machines on the network are using.

	 (3) When the system is updated, what approaches might one take to 
             avoid running around to each Macintosh on the net, updating each 
             one individually?

I have been looking at the Installer by Apple, the latest version can use a 
fileserver mounted over a network as a source for updates. You will still face 
the difficulty of getting users to run the installer but at least you can load 
updates to all your standard software in one easy hit. The only problem is
that the scripting language looks fairly nasty, does anybody have any experience
doing this sort of thing ?.

If you have a set of machines in a lab which all have a set of standard software
on tham than there a a couple of programs which make the local hard disk a 
mirror of some master hard disk.


If anybody has any other solutions I would like to hear about them.

regards
  Gilbert.

----
Gilbert Taylor-Wood                          gtw@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU
Faculty of Arts Programmer
The University of Sydney
NSW 2006                                     Ph (02) 692 4713