Thursday, March 05, 2009

Upgrades of desktops and laptops hitting Belvoir this year

The Directorate of Information Management has been directed to upgrade all desktops and government-issued laptops on post to the Army Golden Master 8.X and upgrade the operating system from Microsoft XP to Microsoft Vista, according to a notice issued by the directorate.

The upgrade is estimated to affect approximately 11,000 garrison and Army tenant customers on post and is to be completed by Dec. 31.

DOIM has developed an installation image for AGM 8.0 and is currently testing it on its own desktops and laptops.

Representatives said upgrading from XP to Vista requires re-imaging and that they’re able to upgrade the computers through a “push” remotely through the network,
which will be done at night to minimize the impact on the customer.

However, representatives said for the upgrade to be completed, computers must be left on at night. The agency plans on copying files to their servers before placing them back on individual computers.

If the computer is turned off during the night, the system will try to upgrade the first time it is turned on.

For customers who work at night, or those who have an alternate schedule than the normal day shift, they should inform their project manager at least one week in advance before their scheduled upgrade.

Representatives said any customer using a virtual private network on a laptop or notebook computer and are on temporary duty during the migration, will also require rebooting.

DOIM said each organization will be contacted by a project manager to be the single point of contact for the upgrade and that a schedule would be posted on http://garrison.belvoir.army.mil/Migrate09. 

Following upgrades to the garrison command, all Army tenant organizations will follow the transition.

All problems associated with the Vista upgrade need to be submitted through the FB-DOIM Help Desk at 703-704-1644 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).