Cooperative Mode Computers

Cooperative Mode computers allow you to bring existing Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98, Windows NT, or Windows 2000 Professional desktops under CCM control. Defining existing computers as Cooperative Mode computers allows a fast rollout of CCM. It provides a mechanism for using CCM’s native installation and configuration approach to implement specific projects, such as upgrading a group of computers from Microsoft Office 97 to Microsoft Office 2000, without first completely reconfiguring the computers. When a computer is integrated into CCM in Cooperative Mode, it is not necessary to configure its hard drive or reinstall its operating system or application software. You can perform these steps at a later time, when you are ready to integrate the computer as a fully Consistent Mode computer.

With Cooperative Mode Computers, you inform CCM of the operating system and applications that are already installed on the computer. The process is the same as installing the software onto the computer. This information is entered into the computer configuration file (config.ctl) that CCM uses.

With Cooperative Mode, CCM tracks all software installation and configuration jobs that are performed under CCM control. This means that CCM can reinstall and configure the software at any point in the future should the software become misconfigured or corrupted.

While both pre-operating system tasks and software installation packages can be executed on Cooperative Mode computers, Cooperative Mode does not provide the full control you can exercise over Consistent Mode computers. For example, if a Cooperative Mode computer’s hard drive configuration is not stored in the CCM database, CCM cannot advise you that you have scheduled a software installation job for a partition that does not have sufficient free space.

You can complete the migration from Cooperative Mode to a fully Consistent computer by resetting the computer. This reformats the computer’s hard drive and reinstalls the operating system and all application software that is listed in the computer's database record.

Cooperative Mode Computers are subject to the following limitations and recommendations:

A CCM-compatible boot PROM should be installed on each Cooperative Mode Computer on which you anticipate running pre-OS tasks such as a BIOS flash. If the computer does not have a CCM compatible NIC with an installed CCM boot PROM, use a CCM boot diskette.
The setup files for the PC’s operating system must be copied to its hard disk, since some software configuration packages, for example printer action packages, access these files.
When initially adding the computer to the CCM environment, CCM must be informed that this is a Cooperative Mode Computer.