Features
The Pivcon Management Platform is designed to be an extensible
provisioning and desktop management platform. It has
extensive capabilities as a platform for deploying solutions built
from other open source and commercial offerings. Please
review the features below to get a general feel of the turnkey
features.
Key Features:
- Fast, powerful, scalable PC provisioning system.
- Native VHD Boot Support for Windows 7 Enterprise/Ultimate, Windows 8 Professional and Windows 8.1 Professional! Deploy your images as Virtual Hard Disks (VHD) and boot them natively for full hardware performance and compatibility.
- Automatic end-user snapshots are used on each image boot to allow you to quickly throw away changes made by students and revert back to your stable image.
- Supports multiple simultaneous images. No need to overwrite your production image when testing a new image. Make sure the new image works and your users are happy before you delete the old image. Two or more images on the same computer makes this a breeze.
- PivotalPeering peer-to-peer distribution makes image deployment lightning fast and trouble-free, without the headaches that come with multicast.
- VDI benefits without the infrastructure requirements.
- Extensive remote node management and monitoring.
- Versatile custom scripting and image patching capabilities.
- VM Boot Support for Linux and other non-windows operating systems. Deploy Windows and Linux side-by-side.
Detailed Feature List:
Deployment Roles
- Electronic Computer Classrooms
- Smart Classrooms w/ Smart Boards and Significant External USB/AUdio/Visual Hardware
- Electronic Computer Learning Centers
- Computer Labs and Science/Technology Labs with Computers
- Web Browsing Stations (often requires no image)
- Thin Client Workstation (RDP) via RDesktop or VMWare View Open Client
- Thin Client Workstation (PCoIP) via VMWare View Client (Planned)
- Campus Kiosks (often requires no image)
- Digital Signage Networks (often requires no image)
- Faculty/Staff/Administrator Offices w/ Virtual Disk User Profiles
Supervisor
- Boot from Removable Media (CD/DVD/Thumb drive)
- Boot from Network
- Automatic Hard Drive Install
- Installs on Long Term Support Build of Ubuntu
- Centralized Supervisor Upgrades (utilizing peer-to-peer distribution)
- Supervisor Works Disconnected from the Network
- Self-healing Using Copy-on-Write Partition (high consistency)
- Super-fast Installation on Bare Metal Computers with Empty Hard Drives (less than 2 minutes)
- Supports 64 Bit Kernel (supports 32 and 64 bit client operating system deployments)
- Very Small Installation Size (< 800 MB)
Status
- Hardware Inventory Collection and Reporting
- Remote Image Deployment Status Web Reporting
- Local Image Deployment and Provisioning Status on Screen
- Local CPU, Disk, Network Utilization on Screen
- Advanced Graphical User Interface Based Status and Reporting
- Textual Log Files with Detailed Information about Configuration and Provisioning
Configuration and Management
- Assign Multiple Simultaneous Images (either Native VHD or Virtual Machines, in any mix) to a Single Computer
- Hierarchal Configuration Schema Allowing Inheritance of Settings from Parents
- Bulk Reassignment of Nodes from One Configuration to Another
- Automated Quick Registration (allow junior and part time staff to quickly register computers)
- Can be Pre-loaded by Computer Vendors Before Shipping in Less than 2 Minutes
- Node Sub-group Membership, with Ability to Assign Configuration and Actions to a Sub-group
- Purpose Built Secure Desktop Focused on Launching Images
- Password Controlled Images and Applications
- Web Based Graphical User Interface: Image Management on Primary Seeder
- Web Based Graphical User Interface: System Configuration
- Network Based Command Sender and Listener (can target any level of hierarchy or specific nodes)
- Debugging/Test Modes that Allow Support Professionals to See More Verbose Messaging
Distribution
- Peer-to-Peer Distribution (fast, minimal server requirements)
- Unicast Distribution (simple, more significant server requirements)
- Designate Clients as Dedicated Peer-to-Peer Seeders per Image
- Peer-to-Peer Clients can Start Downloading Image before Image is Completely Uploaded to Server
Virtual Disk Support
Shared by Windows Native VHD Boot and Virtual Machine Boot
- Uncompressed Image Distribution
- Optional Compressed Image Distribution (approx 2:1 compression)
- Automated Sysprep Provisioning
- Automated Post-provisioning Patching
- Differencing Disk Used Before Provisioning to Keep Master Image Stable
- Differencing Disk Used Before End-user Boot (resets state for each boot)
- Offline File System Patching (NTFS, EXT2, EXT3, FAT)
- Offline Windows Registry Changes
- Reprovision Without Re-downloading
For Images Booted in Native VHD Boot Mode Only
- Microsoft Windows 7/8/8.1 Native VHD Boot Support
- Automatic Boot Loader/BCD Configuration
- Support for Nested VHD Differencing Disks
- Automatically Hide NTFS Partition Holding VHDs From Windows
- Separate Native NTFS Pagefile Partition
For Images Booted in Virtual Machine Mode Only
- Background Provisioning (e.g. Windows sysprep)
- Background Peer-to-Peer Transfers
- Boot Multiple VM's Simultaneously
- Continued Seeding of All Images After Booting Virtual Machines
- USB Pass-Through
- Full screen VM or Windowed VM
Hypervisor Integration
- Integrates with Oracle VirtualBox
- Supports VHD and VDI Virtual Disks
Feature Sheet
Download:
Feature
Sheet