Server-based maintenance approach for computer classroom workstations

This paper presents a server-based approach to maintaining software integrity for all computer classroom workstations. The approach takes several advantages: (1) applicable to the FAT (file allocation table) and NTFS file systems, (2) renovating all workstations to workable state, (3) quickly adding or removing software systems to or from all workstations for teachers conducting new courses, and (4) automatically changing computer name and IP (Internet Protocol) address to an appointed one. The basic concept of the server-based maintenance approach is to install whole software systems, including operating system and applications, on a normal workstation, to make one image copy of the workstation's hard disk and store it onto network server, and to restore the image file from the server to the remaining workstations. In order to change computer name and IP automatically, this paper presents a searching heuristic for finding their locations in the image file. The heuristic is modified from Boyer-Moore (BM) algorithm and can improve the BM algorithm's performance over 9%.