Windows 7 deployment at CERN Michal Budzowski, Michal Kwiatek, Andreas Wagner Operating Systems and Information Services Group IT Department, CERN HEPiX Spring’10

Motivation Windows 7 pilot project was started at CERN in December 2009 On 31st March 2010 Windows 7 support was officially started So we want to share: Experience from the pilot phase Our subsequent deployment plans HEPiX Spring’10

Windows 7 at CERN time line Beta RC RTM Official Release Jan 09 May 09 Aug 09 Oct 09 Dec 09 Mar 10 Evaluation & Testing Pilot Service Shortly show what happened at Cern when Beta, RC and RTM were released. – evaluating, testing, adjusting our infrastructure and starting prepare Windows 7 distribution for Cern. Time line is not scaled. Pilot – started supporting Windows 7 on selected, new hardware available from Cern store. Service – making Windows 7 available on all Cern hardware satisfying minimal hardware requirements. RC - Release Candidate RTM – Release To Manufacturer HEPiX Spring’10

Current Windows 7 status Already over 430 Windows 7 installations Default OS for new desktop machines: 32-bit version of Windows 7 Very few support cases to helpdesk CERN Windows 7 distribution tested on all HW models for which Vista was previously available (currently 11 different models of laptops and 7 models of desktops – available at CERN from 2006 up to now) Windows 7 available for installation on all hardware (which satisfies min HW reqs) We decided to make windows 7 available for installation even on the hardware we didn’t test e.g. that available from Cern store. 32 bit version preferred because of printing problems Description of Cern store HEPiX Spring’10

Trends HEPiX Spring’10

CERN facts and figures 6000 managed Windows PCs (mostly XP) Microsoft Extended Support for Windows XP stops in April 2014 Importance of starting the migration to Windows 7 early (big effort) 3 months of Windows 7 availability resulted in more installations than we saw during 4 years of Vista availability HEPiX Spring’10

Windows 7, Engineering and Controls A large number of engineering applications are supported at CERN: AutoCAD, Inventor, ANSYS, Mathcad, Matlab, Mathematica, Cadence, Altium, etc. All  these applications were tested by IT-PES group and are now available for Windows 7 (32 & 64 bit). The only engineering product which is not yet supported by the supplier on Windows 7  is Catia/SmarTeam ( should be available in Q3 2010 ). PVSS is still not available for Windows 7 HEPiX Spring’10

Hardware requirements For Windows 7 32-bit: (*) Equal or less than for Vista Microsoft CERN Recommendations (*)*) Memory 1 GB 2 GB (**) Disk Size 16 GB 60 GB (***) CPU 1 GHz 2 GHz (**) 1 GB memory is enough if Windows 7 is configured without the AERO user interface (***) 60 GB disk space for typical set of CERN supported applications HEPiX Spring’10

Hardware requirements For Windows 7 64-bit: Microsoft CERN Recommendations Memory 2 GB 4 GB (*) Disk Size 20 GB 60 GB CPU 1 GHz 2 GHz The default version for new windows machines is 32-bit version so if there is a need for a 64 bit it is usually because of the need for configuration with higher amount of memory. (*) Main motivation of installing a 64-bit OS is to support higher memory configurations HEPiX Spring’10

Evolution of old hardware Analysis of the life time of the hardware, where Windows 7 is not supported We have a legacy hardware on which we can install only Windows XP. This hardware should be replaced at the latest before April 2014. HEPiX Spring’10

Evolution of old hardware HEPiX Spring’10

Windows 7 image customization Making CMF icon always visible in notification area Password-protected screen saver Removed links to local hard-disk folders from Windows 7 libraries „Recently changed” search added to search folder International settings set to CERN default (English(UK), Switzerland, US, Euro) 4 first changes done to the user profile, then sysprep machine with CopyToProfile option – copies your changes to the default profile, then open image and copied “Default profile to the image”. In c:\tmp\mount\Windows\Setup\Scripts\SetupComplete.cmd we call control intl.cpl,,/f:"c:\CERN-Install\regional-custom.xml where xml file stores the internationalization settings. HEPiX Spring’10

Windows 7 image customization Default user profile Sysprep with copyToProfile option Windows 7 with: Cmf icon visible Password-protected screen saver Removed links from libraries Added “Recently changed’ search XML Cern Regional settings Windows Automated Installation Kit 4 first changes done to the user profile, then sysprep machine with CopyToProfile option – copies your changes to the default profile, then open image and copied “Default profile to the image”. In c:\tmp\mount\Windows\Setup\Scripts\SetupComplete.cmd we call control intl.cpl,,/f:"c:\CERN-Install\regional-custom.xml where xml file stores the internationalization settings. Windows 7 image HEPiX Spring’10

CERN Roadmap 2009Q4 Validate core office applications on Windows 7 Validate most recent CERN standard PC models Windows 7 installable over the network 2010Q1 Validate remaining applications Update documentation and training offers Start Window 7 service (32- and 64-bit) No new Windows Vista installations 2010Q2 Windows 7 as default Windows version for new installations at CERN on supported hardware 2010Q3 Phase out Windows Vista at CERN 2010Q4 Define roadmap for ending support of XP at CERN In April 2009 Microsoft moved XP from Mainstream Support to Extended Support, which means that there is no Hotfixes for XP anymore, and security updates are still available. This will definitively stop in after April 2014.

Summary Windows 7 deployment proceeds according to plan The user feedback is very positive We get prepared to define roadmap for ending support of XP at CERN HEPiX Spring’10