Opsi
 opsi Management Interface | |
| Developer(s) | uib gmbh, Mainz, Germany |
|---|---|
| Stable release | |
| Repository | |
| Operating system | Linux, Windows |
| Type | Network management System administration |
| License | GPL |
| Website | http://uib.de/www/opsi/index.html, http://www.opsi.org/ |
Opsi (open pc server integration) is a software distribution and management system for Windows Clients, based on Linux servers.
Features
The core features of opsi are:
- automatic operating system installation (OS Deployment)
- software distribution
- Patch-Management
- Inventory (Hardware and Software)
Developer and maintainer is the company uib gmbh in Mainz, Germany. The product is Open Source licensed under the GNU General Public License.
Supported client operating systems are Windows 2000, Server 2000, Windows XP, Server 2003. Support for Windows Vista and Server 2008 is available, but not released as open source yet. For the installation of a opsi-server there are packages available for the Linux distributions Debian, Ubuntu and Suse.
automatic operating system installation
Via management interface a client may selected for OS-Installation. If the client boots via PXE it loads a bootimage from the opsi-depotserver. This bootimage prepares the hard disk, copies the required installation files, drivers and the opsi client agent and starts finally an unattended OS-Installation. A OS-installation via image is also supported.
software distribution
For the automatic software distribution a client agent (the opsi-preloginloader) have to be installed on the client. This client agent starts at boot time, contacts the opsi configuration-server and starts if needed a script driven installion program (opsi-winst) which installs the required software on the client. While these installation process the login is usally blocked. To integrate a sofware to the sofware deployment system a script must be written. These script provides the information how this software has to be installed silent or unattended or via a call of tools like AutoIt or Autohotkey.
Patch-Management
The mechanism of the software deployment may be also user to distribute software patches and hotfixes.
Inventory (Hardware and Software)
The Inventory of Hard- and Software uses also the opsi client agent. The hardware information where collected via calls to WMI while the Software Informations are gathered from the registry. The inventory data are send bach to the opsi-configuration-server by web service.
opsi-server
The opsi server provides the following services:
- The configuration-server stores the configuration data for the clients and the software packages. For the data storage a file- or LDAP based storage my be choosed. For administration of theses data the configuration-server provides a graphical management interface via https as well as a command line interface.
- The depot-server stores software packages that may installed by the clients. To provide support for multiple locations, multiple depot-servers may be controlled by one configuration-server.
- A TFTP-Server provides the bootimages for the OS-Installations.
- A DHCP-Server may be integrated in the opsi-server
Management-Interface
For the management of opsi there is graphical user interface, which is available as application as well as Browser Applet. Management is also possible with a command line tool or via web service.
External links
