Longhorn image-based deployment gets multicast support
Microsoft's tools for imaging are great and come at a great cost -- free. But, their one biggest limitation that usually drives people to 3rd party solutions is the limitation on the number of hosts you can image at once -- one.
According to Keith Combs' TechNet blog, there are a bunch of other new goodies as well to support the multicast feature.
Check out the "more info" for more info.
A short list of the new multicast-specific features:
- New MGMT tasks in the WDS MMC and WDSUTIL
- New WDS Client UI page indicating multicast transmission
- Real-time multicast client view + ability to remove clients from a transmission via WDS MGMT tools
- Real-time transmission progress / monitoring via WDS MGMT tools
- Installation logging and reporting via Crimson to the application logs (read: this is how you can get installation metrics / tracking!)
- Ability to install a “stand-alone” WDS multicast server complete with MGMT tools (command-line via WDSUTIL) and CMD-line client
For more info, check out Keith's blog: http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2007/02/08/multicast-imaging-support-coming-to-longhorn-server.aspx