KACE Product Support

Marshall University has recently installed a K1000 and K2000 system. We have used another systems management product in the past (Microsoft SMS and SCCM). I too am interested in hearing from other higher-ed clients particularly in the area of delegation of administrative rights in the KACE environment. We are reviewing how we can delegate admin rights using the 'organizations' in the K1000. Bu we would also like the ability to have central asset (hardware and software) reporting to assist with unified campus license agreements. Feel free to contact me off-line if you would prefer a one-on-one conversation.

Jon Cutler, MS, CISSP
Chief Information Security Officer
MU Office of Information Technology
jon-dot-cutler-at-marshall-dot-edu
(304) 696-3270

Is there anyone else out here in the AppDeploy forums that has a similar issue? Perhaps we are used to life in a Windows/Active Directory environment where in a Single Forest/Single Domain we can delegate client admin rights to clients in OU's. Am I missing any similar feature/functionality in K1000 to be able to have KACE clients in a single/default organization and be able to delegate permissions to manage these clients? I have tested creating additional organizations, but it's my understanding that this means we have to duplicate resources (managed distributions, scripts, software asset and license metering, etc.). If that is the only solution, we will have to make some hard or possibly unpopular choices in who can manage what with KACE.

I work for University that bought Kace 1200 about 3 months ago. We've got central It folks and facility IT support for specific departments. We looked at having separate organizations but it wasn't worth the pain of setup for each other IT department. What we did in the end was give key people in the departments admin access to Kace (We hide vulnerable kace settings for the actual server). For other users, we created specific roles such as helpdesk which can only view inventory data, asset managers which can input asset information and view reports only. It's seems to have worked so far for us without to many people stepping on each other. We also make sure that everyone was aware that we are monitoring the logs for any misuse.

I'd be interested in forming some sort of email group specific to higher education and the kace appliances.

I also work at a University that is implementing both the K1000 and K2000. Our primary drivers are to replace our spread sheets with real inventory management and to replace Ghost for imaging. We have started putting the Agent on public machines (labs and classrooms). Since we had no automated inventory tool, we are also working to approve policies regarding the KACE Agent to stem any "spy platform" arguments from our faculty and staff. We are hoping to NOT allow any exceptions.

We are small enough to have a single IT organization. Our IT Support Services is charged with inventory and administration of workstations. Our implementation will NOT be touching server installations as those are maintained separately by another arm of our IT organization. I am working on configuring permissions for our different functional usages: desktop support, help desk, asset management, etc. So any experiences, good or otherwise, would be beneficial!

Because of timing, we are just starting to look at imaging and scripted installations. We would also like to hear about how other Institutions are using KACE. I have submitted my request to attend the KACE Konference and I hope to see some sessions geared to Higher Education.