Are vPro right for me ?

[darez]

Hi all - I'm now of vPro technology and I'll sugget you to sorry me
if I'll write wrong think about vPro.

I'm a programmer, and I manage a network of 200 computer.
My problem is the installation of upgrade/patch on 200 computer.

The computer are used for 5-10 hours at days, and I can't work
because are in use from other people.

The question is:
what vPro can do for me ... ?

That I have understand is that vPro "install" a second OS, so If i install a patch
on "vPro" OS, that the PATCH will be applied at "real" OS.

How I can install a patch on remote pc without user interaction ?
I'm very newbie for vPro ...

darez

[Ylian_S_Intel]

Hi Darez and thanks for your interest in vPro.

A computer that is labeled to be "vPro" meetsa set ofrequirements that make it especialy suited for office use. Generally, "vPro" machines don't come with 2 OS, but I am sure some corporations do setup there computers this way.

What you need is a management software like: Altiris, Avocent,BMC Software, CA, Farstone, Kingsoft,HP OpenView, LANDesk, Medialand, Microsoft SMS, StarSoftComm,or SyAM. These software are made to manage lots of computers, monitor them and send patches, etc. You will have to look at each one and the features they offer.

Of course, when you have a "vPro" system. These software can manage your computer better than is the computer is not vPro.

Hope it helps,
Ylian

[darez]

Ylian - thanks for your reply.
I'm a software developer and I manage my software house.

In order to build a 'next-generation' of our management software, i would
to know If vPRO is a right tecnology for our company.

I need to know more, because i want to extend our software and enable it
for vPro tecnology. I don't want to use external software o third party software
like Microsoft SMS, and so on.

Can you point me to right direction to convert my software and get the
benefit of vPro tecnology ?

Basically - If I'll insert a second OS in different partition of Hdd of computer
that have vPro tecnology, i can log into 2th OS and manage the "first" OS. Right ?

VERY BEST SCENARIO
---------------------
1. From 10.00 AM at 19.00 AM the computer is busy from people
2. At 12.00 i receive a call "Hi, my computer don't work"
3. At 12.00 i'll log with Terminal Server into 2th OS
4. At same time that user WORK at computer, I'll work at same time
to install patch, move, copy files and so on ...

BEST SCENARIO
--------------------------
1. From 10.00 AM at 19.00 AM the computer is busy from people
2. At 12.00 i receive a call "Hi, my computer don't work"
3. I'll shotdown the computer and i'll enter in the 2th OS

Can i do one of two scenario ?

darez

[Ylian_S_Intel]

Hi Darez,

Thanks for your question. vPro does not install two OS and there is no "vPro OS". You can install two OS if you want, but vPro does not do that normally. What vPro allows you to do, thru IAMT (Intel Active Management Technology) is to find and fix problems regardless of the state of the computer. You can take control of the computer even if the OS is "blue screen".

About patches, vPro does not allow you to push patches to your OS. You will need software on your OS to download and install patches, but vPro does not do that.

Hope it helps,
Ylian

[fred29210]

Intel does advertise this feature in vPro. It calls it a Virtual Appliance. AMT does not provide this feature, but AMT is just one part of a vPro system. I don't believe any vendors actually have products available to take advantage of this feature yet, but OEM's like HP are setting aside a special partition on their hard disks for it.

This whitepaper gives some info about it from Intel on pages 11-14.

http://download.intel.com/apac/vpro/pdfs/vpro_wp.htm

[Ylian_S_Intel]

You your right, I did notice that the latest version of my vPro machine has a new "Vitrual Appliance" setting in the BIOS screen. I have not used it, but I am told it's for supporting a second OS. Looking around, I found this link about the Intel vPro virtual applicance.

Ylian