The concept of the "Common Files" folder is easy. This folder is set up exactly as a hard drive of a CCIC PC would be: with an "Applications" folder, a "Patron Folder," a system folder and a "Utilities" folder.

Likewise, all specified machine groups should also have a folder that can store files in their same relative position on a client PC. Machine group folders can also have an "Applications" folder, a "Patron Folder" a system folder and a "Utilities" folder. However, this is not the case as all of those folders in a machine group folder are not really necessary. The structure of the client PCs is not reproduced in the machine group folders as exactly as it is in the "Common Files" folder. This is because the machine group folders are designed to assure deliverance of only a specific few files to certain PCs. It is not necessary to have all of a client PC's software in a machine group folder since most of that is covered in the "Common Files" folder. When a PC starts and the "Common Restore" agent from MacAdministrator is invoked, software is checked and loaded if necessary from both the "Common Files" folder and also from any group folders that the individual client PC has been assigned to. Therefore, a PC that is a member of the "PCs with Scanners" group will check the files in "Common Files" first and load anything necessary from there and then check the files in the "PCs with Scanners" folder and load any of those files if necessary. There is no need to place the file "SimpleText" in the "Utilities" folder of the "PCs with Scanners" folder if it is already in the "Uiltities" folder of "Common Files". The only software in the "PCs with Scanners" folder should be applications and other files that have to be unique to the PCs with scanners.

A machine can belong to none, one or all of the machine groups that MacAdministrator keeps track of. To determine how a machine is affiliated, log into the MacAdmin server and select the "Machine Groups" command under the Windows menu. Double click on a machine group listing to see the names of all PCs affiliated with that group.

Anything that is in the "Common Files" folder should be on each CCIC PC and all of the file sizes should be the same. This is how MacAdmin maintains the same set of files on all of the client CCIC PCs. If the MacAdmin server notices that a PC does not have a file that is in the "Common Files" area, then it will copy that file to the appropriate location on the client PC, in accordance with the original file's location within the "Common Files" folder. The MacAdmin server will replace a file also if the file on the client PC is a different size than the file on the server. In addition, any file on the server that features the "Project 2" label (set off by an orangish colored icon) is loaded to each PC every time it is started up. The MacAdmin server will completely replace a folder that carried the "Personal" label. This means if a folder on a CCIC PC does not match the exact size and contents of the folder with the same name on the server, MacAdmin will replace it. This is a good way to assure that cettain crucia folders (such as the MSWord templates folder anf the Netscape cache folder) are not altered or do not grow with unwanted files.

The machine group files work in much the same way. Every folder dedicated to machine group can be set up with the same folder organization as a CCIC PC or the "Common Files" folder. However, the idea of the "Machine Groups" folder is to store software needed for a limited number or even a single PC. If a file is needed in all PCs, then it should go in the "Common Files" folder. PCs are assigned to a machine group within the MacAdministrator utility. For example, all of the PCs that have scanners attached belong to the group "PCs with Scanners." For every machine group designated in MacAdministrator, a folder should exist in the "Machine Groups" folder to store that group's unique files. A PC can belong to more than one group.

Here is a breakdown of the current machine groups as of January 1998:

• Common Files - The repository of the "base-image" (the group of files and applications that can be loaded to the smallest of the CCIC hard drives) and a few Macintosh system files that have been adjusted to the CCIC's needs. NOTE: this folder does not contain all of the basic system software. If a PC begins showing signs that a basic operational file is issing or corrupted, do not count on the MacAdministrator server to correct it is as most of the system software is not represented in the "Common Files" folder or in any of the machine groups folders. For system problems, consider reloading the Mac OS 8 operating system as instructed in the sheet entitled Instructions for Upgrading CCIC Macs to OS 8 or Completely Re-formatting a Macintosh PC.

• Standard PCs - This group is the catch-all group for any software that should be loaded to all PCs that don't have space limitations. The "base-image" is represented in the "Common Files" folder. Any software applications that can't fit on the smallest hard drives but is still in demand on the rest of the PCs should be sent to the "Standard PCs" folder as opposed to "Common Files." It is important that any PCs with hard drives too small to hold anything but the base image NOT be a member of the "Standard PCs" group.

• PCs with Scanners - contain all of the applications, preferences and system extensions necessary to operate the Macintosh PCs that have image scanners attached.

• PCs with Videodiscs - contain all of the applications, preferences and system extensions necessary to operate the Macintosh PCs that have videodisc players attached.

• PCs licensed for SPSS - contain the SPSS application and the SPSS preference folder, where all of the SPSS libraries are located. The file "SPSS Processor" is not located in the SPSS preference folder. The "SPSS Processor" file has to be initialized and maintained individually. A copy of each PC's "SPSS Processor" file is kept in the individual machine group folder for each PC (see next explanation).

• CCICM01 - CCICM34 ...etc. - are individual machine group files for any files that are unique to the PC and cannot be loaded globally. The Netscape preference file for "ccic user" is an example of a individually served file that will only work correctly on a single specific machine. Use these folders for any file that has to go to one single machine.